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A "Personal" Video, Feedback Desired

CC Rider

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I contemplated about whether or not to post this video to share here, then decided why not. Others, too, may find another use for their Mavic after seeing this, I thought.

This is not your average video. It's a bit more personal than most. Please be patient with me as I give you some backstory as to why I made this video. Admittedly, this is a rather long post but there is a point behind it.

To make a long story short, I am the 57-year old Father of a 13-year old and another child who is 15, both of them Daddy's little girls. Yes, I started a family rather late in life but that's just how things unfolded for me.

We are Native Americans. Therefore, I have the responsibility most natives feel of not only raising my girls fully in the modern day world and ensuring they are current with all it has to offer (like super-cool drones!), but I also have to instill in them love, respect, knowledge and access to their ancient Native American Indian culture, its cosmology and our native spiritual belief system, so they are in tune with those far-reaching aspects of their lives, too. Quite the balancing act in the age in which we are living when the past is too often deemed unimportant and all eyes are focused on the future and newness. For us surviving American Indians here in the USA, our ancient pre-colonial, pre-contact pasts were us at our best during a time in which we flourished instead of being vanquished.

So I had that in my head while flying one day. Added to this situation, I've been through an inordinate amount of serious health-related issues for a man my age that force me to consider my longevity. Born with arthritis, pain is a daily friend to me. I had my first hip replacement the same year my first daughter was born in 2002 when I was only 43, way too young for such a procedure. Move the clock forward to 2009 and I had the other hip replaced when I was 50. Less than 9 months after that, in 2010 I was back in the repair shop to have emergency back surgery due to my back being broken in 3 places and the general disintegration of the lower third of my spine, with all of my lumbar vertabrae seriously disaffected. I awoke to severe pain and having to endure several long months of recovery in a wheelchair, as well as realizing that the back surgery merely replaced one set of pain and physical limitations with a whole different set, but which were just as debilitating.

Then, only 2 years later in 2012 when I was literally just fully getting back on my feet again, things really went crazy.

I was one of the "lucky" 10% of the 2,000 people here in the USA each year who survive what is called an aortic dissection rupture, usually an automatic death sentence for most people stricken by this condition. The mortality rate is 90%. Basically, what happens is the aorta - the largest artery in your body which directs constant blood flow to your head, extremities, organs, etc., - develops a tear in it allowing blood to flow where it shouldn't be going, causing the aorta to enlarge until it bursts. Once that happens, it's a very fast rush to the hospital to save your life with most folks simply not making it because you are literally bleeding to death internally with every passing minute.

That day I died 3 times in the medivac helicopter while being flown to a hospital that could handle my very serious life-threatening condition. During the 18-hour surgery that followed to save my life, my blood was cooled down to below 83F to spare cellular death of my brain and organs as they worked on me, while my body, at least, was being kept alive with machines pumping blood and oxygen through a very lifeless me. I died 2 more times that day on the operating table during the surgery and awoke several hours later to a completely different reality. Life, as I knew it, was instantly over for me. In many respects I became an old man at only 53 years old in one day.

Four months later, while still in deep recovery from this very intense, invasive surgery, I was rushed back into the hospital one day with serious heart problems brought about by my aortic rupture. This time it was my aortic valve in my heart itself that had gone bad, requiring immediate open-heart surgery. The docs discovered my heart valve had been seriously damaged by the aortic trauma I had gone through earlier and was failing fast, posing yet another threat to my life. Despite everyone's misgivings about me going through another invasive surgical procedure so close to my first just 4 months earlier, they had to go for it to save my life. So they froze me again, cut me open and cracked open my ribs again (which were just beginning to heal), and operated about 17 more hours to replace my heart valve with an animal valve, as well as do some clean up work while they were inside of me. That day I died 2 more times and suffered a stroke while on the table that took away 20% of my vision permanently.

To put it mildly, I am not exactly the picture of good health or the poster boy for great longevity. And I'm fine with all of that, I've made peace with it. I try to maximize every day I have and keep hoping modern medicine will catch up to me and my unique set of problems one day, and I move on. After all, life is for the living. However, these circumstances highlight my problem of ensuring I pass on to my beloved daughters what I want them to know, regardless of my longevity. Enter my Mavic Pro onto the scene.

I decided to use my Mavic to compose special videos for my children for them to have and be able to view into the future, especially when I am gone. The Mavic is a fantastic photo/video tool and with its features one is only limited by their imagination as to how to apply its potential uses

This video is the first such one I have shot so far, and I wanted some feedback from other people before I proceed. The soundtrack for the video is one I recorded 4 years ago while recovering from my surgery. The song and video is called "Walking Like Job," from the tortured character who was sorely tested, a feeling I could really empathize with at the time I wrote and composed the tune. I was homebound by medical necessity, going stir crazy fast, and finally found some distraction and relief in pursuing music. I invested in some top-notch synthesizers that gave me unlimited sound creation and musical possibilities and so I went for it, for good or for ill.

So here it is. Please note I am NOT claiming to be the world's greatest singer or musician. Nor am I the best drone pilot or videographer neither. I'm just a fellow trying to accomplish something while working in a bubble and who could use another point of view for some feedback.

So sorry for the book I have written here. If you've read this far, thanks. Here's the video via Dropbox link:

Dropbox - Walking Like Job.mpg

Hope you enjoy it. Again, any feedback is welcome.

P.S. I shot this footage very early in the morning on our sacred family lands after a light snowfall I needed for the video I had in mind, knowing it was going to warm up fast that next day and the snow would melt if I waited. Shot in the dawn's low light in a very wooded area, I played with the white balance, exposure and color in post production to warm up my white balance, which was way too cool, and to bring out the colors that were muted. Alright. 'Nuff said.
 
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First of all that's a heavy story but your positivity is inspiring, sounds like you've been through a lot. Regards the video towards the end when there was even more snow it looked overexposed, have you got ND filters? It was hard to read the song lyrics too (white on white), I don't know what program you used to add them but if you can add a dark "glow" or shadow they'd be easier to read. Also, it may be personal preference but I would leave the lyrics at the bottom of the screen, I find they distract from what you're watching. The mpg was pretty low quality, I presume that this was just to upload quickly? If not you need to save/export at a much higher quality. All that said I can guarantee you your daughter's aren't going to care about exposure levels, that's a touching video for them.
 
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Thank you so much for your input, This is exactly what I needed to hear and was hoping for.

No, I do not yet have a set of ND filters for my Mavic but I am waiting for a set to arrive. The set I wanted was on back order until recently. I originally thought to go subtle with the word crawl but if it isn't legible then I definitely need to correct that. I'll try some of the text effects you mentioned, as well as playing with the placement of the text for less visual distraction. This is where getting another point of view comes in very handy, as the mind can sometimes play tricks on you thinking you've achieved what you envisioned but in reality doesn't translate the same way to others.

And I am having some problem with my final MPG resolution that I am still plugging away at. The original footage is spot on sharp, looks great on screen and through my edit production mode, too. But once I upload it to Dropbox it seems to fall apart. Can't figure out yet what I'm doing wrong, but I do know my originals are intact and very workable. I'm using Power Director 15 for my video editing - unsure how that rates among software, but it's what I ended up getting - and it's companion programs for post production work. I know it's not DaVinci Resolve, but as far as I know it should give me the clean results everyone strives for.

I really appreciate you taking the time to comment and make suggestions on this project of mine, and for your comments about how my daughters will take it. That meant a lot to me.
 
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Great spirit, great strenght, its all that matters. [emoji50][emoji106]
 
Thank you very much for that. I can't tell you how much your thoughts and comments mean to me. Makes me feel like I'm on the right path at least. I really appreciate your time watching and reading it all. Peace.
 
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Here I am 3 years later responding to your video. I hope you are around and still a member to be able to read this. Great idea to make this for your girls, I will be doing the same for my children too. You think you came to the family table late? I'm 71 and been married for 13 years (first one - and only one) and I have a 6 year old son and 8 year old daughter. Try that one for size, it means I shall have to live to about 106 now so they can have me long enough in their lives to be fair to them. They keep me young and active, though thankfully I still look like I'm in my late 50s.

Your daughter will appreciate taking that walk with you far more if you change out the scenes. Instead of turning around and waving, cut to some footage of your drone flying backwards and you walking towards it. Then you can give a more subtle wave to your girls. Also change out some footage with the drone following you from the side and in both the front of your face and the side, get in much much closers, say about waist up so they can see your face better. When shooting from the side always shoot from your right so that in the finished video, you are walking from left to right, this is important for western people. The reason is that we read from left to right and our brains are formulated for seeing things that way. eastern people read right to left and therefore things are oriented that way for them from photos to video.

When you see a portrait, there is something in the brain that is pleased when the head is facing towards the right side of the photo, if you are of the western world. Try it, look at two photos of someone, one with them facing right and one facing left. You will find the right facing more comfortable to view. Good luck and hang in there.
 
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