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2nd Video with a bit more flight time under my belt. Would love some feedback.

GBMPhoto

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Been flying a bit more and trying out some manoeuvres, especially circling around a point of interest, and flying over subjects with camera pointing down 90 degrees. I feel I am making progress and getting braver, although still struggle a bit with lining things up and judging distance from drone to POI when up high, especially when approaching a POI head-on - e.g. when circling something to get a closer view.

Anyway, would love some feedback on my 2nd video, especially with regards to cut scenes, music timing, etc. One thing I notice with my photographic eye is that there seems to be quite a bit of distortion on verticals/horizontals so I'm not as happy with the the perspective of buildings, etc. Any tips on getting that right would be much appreciated!

Hope you enjoy the video :)

 
WOW - Enchanting video, music was awesome, got me interested in the building, I think there was only 1 Shot that you could have gotten that you missed at the end. The Drop down should have been In Front the of CROSS , that would have been your Grail shot. But really well done, I look forward to seeing more, it was that good.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Capture the Storm and land on the Water.
 
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WOW - Enchanting video, music was awesome, got me interested in the building, I think there was only 1 Shot that you could have gotten that you missed at the end. The Drop down should have been In Front the of CROSS , that would have been your Grail shot. But really well done, I look forward to seeing more, it was that good.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Capture the Storm and land on the Water.
Thanks for the encouragement :)

Yes, agree wholeheartedly about the cross! When I was editing it I kicked myself that I hadn't thought of that, and have made a note to go back and get some footage that I can slot in for a V2 :)
 
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A great effort for only #2! Beautifully panned up starting shot. Good soundtrack choice. Perhaps a tad long. Try to keep your videos to 2.5 - 3 minutes. The reality is that not many will view much more, unless it’s simply amazing footage. Sad but true. Your 90 degree clip could have been a little quicker I thought as well. Overall a fantastic effort for only your second vid! 👍🏻
 
Something I am struggling with is the attention span appropriate clip length of 2 to 12 seconds. Makes sequencing and shot planning challenging. All of your moves looked well executed per my perception. I was quite satisfied with the entire video but I'm old and have a longer attention span.
 
Okay, just watched it, you can easily trim away maybe 20+ seconds of what you have, to tighten up the whole video. As for the end, just reverse the footage and you have your shot. I saw no movement of people walking or cars driving in the background, therefore, simply reversing the footage will give you the shot you needed and fade to black on the cross at the top.

Replay all the scenes to yourself and keep a note pad. Ask yourself to be critical, after watching the whole video 4 times in a row. Ask yourself, when have I had enough of watching each sequence? That way you can trim many of the longer scenes you have showing, to keep the viewer's interest.

When doing that though, ask yourself which part was more important and which was less important, the start or the end of each scene. That way you have a good idea at which end to trim the sequence.

There was another part that was agonizingly slow and long, as well. So, look at some of those scenes and make a choice to speed it up. Otherwise, some nice flying and filming combos.
 
I think we need to keep in mind that although it might have been 20 seconds shorter , that most of us are shooting video that we alone watch more than anyone else so I make room for that as well in longer videos such as my own. lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the water
 
I think we need to keep in mind that although it might have been 20 seconds shorter , that most of us are shooting video that we alone watch more than anyone else so I make room for that as well in longer videos such as my own. lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the water
That is a very good point. Some videos I shoot just for me and clip length doesn't matter. I want to see everything I captured. If I'm shooting for a documentary, I cut pretty short just to provide establishing, transition, or subject B roll. I don't get into the YouBoob "chase the vogue" competition so I have no idea what to do with that. Maybe everything vertical with a max 1.5 second clip? To me they look like hyper spaz freak shows but to each his own.
 
Opening scene.. Trim off the end a bit, it is too long with nothing new being revealed.
Scene 2.. You can easily trim 2/3 of that scene, again, nothing new being revealed after a few seconds. I would suggest trimming off the back end when it goes into shadow.
3.. Agonizingly slow, you could speed this up at least 3 times faster, maybe even 4.
4.. Trim off the start, some of the trees, start where is gets closer to the structure.
5.. Perfect as is.
6.. Cut out completely, it is not telling us anything and top is too far away the whole time.
7.. Far too slow, you could probably speed it up x 2 and possibly trim the start and end part as well.
8.. Trim away part of the start, maybe to halfway up the green roof.
9.. Far too long, I'd say trim off the start, almost until you are side on to that tower.
10.. Now here is the change! I think you need to take scene 10 and reverse it so that you are climbing up to it, then make this scene 9. and take scene 9. and make that your ending scene 10. as you fly around it and then fade to black off that. I believe that will leave a more impactful ending to your film. With that said, you will still need to trim it slightly.

Of course cutting out what I have said will, in my opinion, give you a much better film, you still have the music duration to contend with. To drag things out a bit, I would suggest adding a little longer black at the start and show the title at this point, in the black, plus trim off a bit of the start of the music, so you bring up the sound as the music has already stated.

You can cut out almost half of that start of the piano intro, before the violins come in and open from your black and title, to the scene of the grass as you fly forward. Where your current film has the title ending on the tower, that is the point that you should be fading from start of the black and title into the grass as you fly along.

To see where else you can extend the whole film, after the editing I suggested, see if you have any additional footage that you might be able to throw in, a few seconds at a time to add fill to balance out the duration of the music.

If you don't, you can always fade to black at the end and then add in some info about the church you just filmed, such as its history, date it was built and anything else that may drag things out at the end, to take the film to the end of the music.

To add length, you could always go back and shoot some slow panning interior video, to add the fill shots that you might need to replace the bits you trimmed off this original video. However, make each interior shot no more than 2 seconds each, maybe 1.75 secs each to keep interest. You decide where to show/insert the interior shots in your video. Then I think you will have improved this whole thing, to make it video 2.1 Mark III Turbo. Hope I did not go over the top here, but definitely swap around scenes 9 and 10.
 
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I think we need to keep in mind that although it might have been 20 seconds shorter , that most of us are shooting video that we alone watch more than anyone else so I make room for that as well in longer videos such as my own. lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the water
I do too. However, since he is showing it here and asking for critique, I feel it's okay to offer suggestions, yet in no way belittle his very good efforts.
 
Thanks all for the great replies and encouragement so far! Fortunately I've got a lot of respect for constructive criticism from my photography days, so all replies taken with that view :)
 
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Opening scene.. Trim off the end a bit, it is too long with nothing new being revealed.
Scene 2.. You can easily trim 2/3 of that scene, again, nothing new being revealed after a few seconds. I would suggest trimming off the back end when it goes into shadow.
3.. Agonizingly slow, you could speed this up at least 3 times faster, maybe even 4.
4.. Trim off the start, some of the trees, start where is gets closer to the structure.
5.. Perfect as is.
6.. Cut out completely, it is not telling us anything and top is too far away the whole time.
7.. Far too slow, you could probably speed it up x 2 and possibly trim the start and end part as well.
8.. Trim away part of the start, maybe to halfway up the green roof.
9.. Far too long, I'd say trim off the start, almost until you are side on to that tower.
10.. Now here is the change! I think you need to take scene 10 and reverse it so that you are climbing up to it, then make this scene 9. and take scene 9. and make that your ending scene 10. as you fly around it and then fade to black off that. I believe that will leave a more impactful ending to your film. With that said, you will still need to trim it slightly.

Of course cutting out what I have said will, in my opinion, give you a much better film, you still have the music duration to contend with. To drag things out a bit, I would suggest adding a little longer black at the start and show the title at this point, in the black, plus trim off a bit of the start of the music, so you bring up the sound as the music has already stated.

You can cut out almost half of that start of the piano intro, before the violins come in and open from your black and title, to the scene of the grass as you fly forward. Where your current film has the title ending on the tower, that is the point that you should be fading from start of the black and title into the grass as you fly along.

To see where else you can extend the whole film, after the editing I suggested, see if you have any additional footage that you might be able to throw in, a few seconds at a time to add fill to balance out the duration of the music.

If you don't, you can always fade to black at the end and then add in some info about the church you just filmed, such as its history, date it was built and anything else that may drag things out at the end, to take the film to the end of the music.

To add length, you could always go back and shoot some slow panning interior video, to add the fill shots that you might need to replace the bits you trimmed off this original video. However, make each interior shot no more than 2 seconds each, maybe 1.75 secs each to keep interest. You decide where to show/insert the interior shots in your video. Then I think you will have improved this whole thing, to make it video 2.1 Mark III Turbo. Hope I did not go over the top here, but definitely swap around scenes 9 and 10.
Thank you so much for the detailed crit and suggestions. I will give it all a go! I did have a chuckle at the agonisingly slow pan, now that I watch it back with all the comments in mind :D

One of my problems is I really wanted to use this piece of music for the video, and then didn't have enough variation in the footage that I could use to have shorter scenes. Serves me right for choosing such a long audio track! I could always go back and look for more interesting scenes, so will keep that in mind.
 
As many have said, it needs to be speeded up a bit. I generally wait until I have pared down the video to the bare bones for choosing the music. If there is a particular part of the music you like, you can also cut the rest of it out or fade in or fade out. I thing some interior shots would have made it much more interesting. But that having been said, the silky smoothness of the video was first rated. Well done.Thanks for posting it.
 
You will never make everyone happy, I hope negative comments doesn't discourage you.
If that was no. 2, I can't wait for no. 10.
Well done sir, well done.
This has nothing to do with making people happy or unhappy. The OP asked for a critique and has been receiving such. No one is running him down or insulting him. There are no negative comments given either. I fail to see how you are able to read into what has been posted as negative comments.
 
Thank you so much for the detailed crit and suggestions. I will give it all a go! I did have a chuckle at the agonisingly slow pan, now that I watch it back with all the comments in mind :D

One of my problems is I really wanted to use this piece of music for the video, and then didn't have enough variation in the footage that I could use to have shorter scenes. Serves me right for choosing such a long audio track! I could always go back and look for more interesting scenes, so will keep that in mind.
Many of those who watch will, I'm sure, wonder what that place looks like inside. I knew you wanted to use that music and of course we are all then challenged in such cases, as to how to lengthen what footage we have or what great stuff we must cull in order to get the video to match the music length.

That is why I suggested going back and doing a little interior filming. Or, if you can't get inside, maybe do a little from the ground filming of various bits of the church from the outside and the grounds around it. Some close ups of the window detail or stained-glass work, tomb stones possibly. Nothing says we can't use ground base footage in such a video. Have a think on which might work for your needs. I look forward to the revamped video release.

There is always something you can film or take a still shot of, to add fill to a video of a place, just be creative.
 
As many have said, it needs to be speeded up a bit. I generally wait until I have pared down the video to the bare bones for choosing the music. If there is a particular part of the music you like, you can also cut the rest of it out or fade in or fade out. I thing some interior shots would have made it much more interesting. But that having been said, the silky smoothness of the video was first rated. Well done.Thanks for posting it.
I work in two ways. Sometimes I hear music and then begin to image the scenes that would work perfectly with that music, and other times I have the stills or video and then go search for the music that might best fit it. Sometimes from my collection of music and sometimes I go on Your tube and look through their stuff and listen for the right music or research a particular musician, for the right piece.
 
Been flying a bit more and trying out some manoeuvres, especially circling around a point of interest, and flying over subjects with camera pointing down 90 degrees. I feel I am making progress and getting braver, although still struggle a bit with lining things up and judging distance from drone to POI when up high, especially when approaching a POI head-on - e.g. when circling something to get a closer view.

Anyway, would love some feedback on my 2nd video, especially with regards to cut scenes, music timing, etc. One thing I notice with my photographic eye is that there seems to be quite a bit of distortion on verticals/horizontals so I'm not as happy with the the perspective of buildings, etc. Any tips on getting that right would be much appreciated!

Hope you enjoy the video :)

Bravo, bravo nice soundtrack videos all good work 10 out of 10 stairs
 
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Well done, and like you said you can only get better!
I definitely see a mavic 3 pro in my future, will make POI and panning shots take on a whole new dimension with the background compression.
 
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Well done! Good flying and photography.

My comment is that the feel of the video is a relaxing, slow pace. That works, but the sharp transitions distract from the mood. I'd be inclined to put in a crossfade between clips.
 
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