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Air 2s Battleship Park Wilmington, NC.

Big Bro

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This video is a compilation of shots taken across the river from Wilmington, NC at the Battleship park. This my first attempt at putting together a video from my drone footage, so go easy on me. I know there's lots of room for improvement, but just getting Davinci Resolve to edit and process 4k footage without me pulling my hair out was a big step forward. Let me know what you think.

 
Well done for your first video. Yes, editing and figuring out programs is a hobby of it's own. Good drone and camera work. The music is upbeat and thus shorter sequences would fit better. Thanks for posting and looking forward to more postings.
 
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This video is a compilation of shots taken across the river from Wilmington, NC at the Battleship park. This my first attempt at putting together a video from my drone footage, so go easy on me. I know there's lots of room for improvement, but just getting Davinci Resolve to edit and process 4k footage without me pulling my hair out was a big step forward. Let me know what you think.

Well, I can go easy on you easy enough and say "great job.". But then you would not have learned anything from this forum.

But if you want to know what I really think.....

I will stipulate that you are just learning the editing program. That does not excuse the lack of a STORY in your film. What I observed was either 3 or 4 separate take offs and landings. You went, up, then you went down. You went up, then you went down. Etc. Rather, why not go up, explore a subject, make some turns, then go on to another subject.

No Need to land the drone to start a new subject. Rather- edit out the landing part until the very end, and then, only one landing to tell your audience the film is going to end soon. Then, take the segments of the actual flights and edit them together with one of the pre-set transitions in your editing program. Yes, just drag in that cross/dissolve to the timeline where the two segments meet. Do that for all of your scenes, and try to make the scenes tell a story by changing the chronology (go up the river, long shot, intermediate shot, short shot, etc.), and then down the river the same. When you get to around 3:00 minutes, show the slowl landing of the drone, and fade to black or a closing title.

Dale
 
Well, I can go easy on you easy enough and say "great job.". But then you would not have learned anything from this forum.

But if you want to know what I really think.....

I will stipulate that you are just learning the editing program. That does not excuse the lack of a STORY in your film. What I observed was either 3 or 4 separate take offs and landings. You went, up, then you went down. You went up, then you went down. Etc. Rather, why not go up, explore a subject, make some turns, then go on to another subject.

No Need to land the drone to start a new subject. Rather- edit out the landing part until the very end, and then, only one landing to tell your audience the film is going to end soon. Then, take the segments of the actual flights and edit them together with one of the pre-set transitions in your editing program. Yes, just drag in that cross/dissolve to the timeline where the two segments meet. Do that for all of your scenes, and try to make the scenes tell a story by changing the chronology (go up the river, long shot, intermediate shot, short shot, etc.), and then down the river the same. When you get to around 3:00 minutes, show the slowl landing of the drone, and fade to black or a closing title.

Dale
Dale, I really appreciate your taking the time to give me some feed back. I will certainly take your advice into consideration. I would really like to, and will be going back to that park to improve the story. I'd love to get a 360 panoramic view of the battleship, but at this point I don't have the confidence in my flying skills to pull that off.

I've only had the drone a few weeks and this was my first venture out of the soccer field. Flying next to the water really had my backside puckered if you know what I mean. On top of that, the area is directly in the flight path for landing on runway 06 which was the active RW that day. I was going up and down in between arriving flights as the controller kept warning me of approaching aircraft. While I was well below the altitude of the traffic, it was still quite unnerving.

Do you have any advice on how to get over the fear of losing the drone. I come here every day and read stories of crashes and fly a ways and it certainly makes me paranoid.

Thanks again for your input!
Chuck
 
Dale, I really appreciate your taking the time to give me some feed back. I will certainly take your advice into consideration. I would really like to, and will be going back to that park to improve the story. I'd love to get a 360 panoramic view of the battleship, but at this point I don't have the confidence in my flying skills to pull that off.

I've only had the drone a few weeks and this was my first venture out of the soccer field. Flying next to the water really had my backside puckered if you know what I mean. On top of that, the area is directly in the flight path for landing on runway 06 which was the active RW that day. I was going up and down in between arriving flights as the controller kept warning me of approaching aircraft. While I was well below the altitude of the traffic, it was still quite unnerving.

Do you have any advice on how to get over the fear of losing the drone. I come here every day and read stories of crashes and fly a ways and it certainly makes me paranoid.

Thanks again for your input!
Chuck
Chuck:

In between commercials of the Bills/Patriots game I'll try to answer these;

Firstly, After having 3 drones over 3 years(Jan.18,2018 my first drone flight), (Mavic Air 1 red, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic Mini 2) I never get over my fear of flying and losing). I try to minimize it be trying to keep the drone in sight at all times(VLOS). There are times when I lose the sight, then either use the RTH (return to Home) and/or turn the little red arrow towards me and come back until I can spot it. My heart is always in my mouth, and don't let anyone here tell you otherwise. And I also gamble once in a while, and totally depend on RTH and purposely go out of sight of the drone. So far I have been lucky that my RTH gets the drone back to me. For now, just keep that sucker in view.

Secondly, you are asking for both a panorama and a circular view. I think you could get both, but not together.

First thing I would do is the easier one, which is the panorama. I do my panoramas manually. ( I never use the automated one in the drone). I use the Mavic 2 Pro. I cannot tell you anything about the Mavic Air 2. I have written extensively about panoramas here. I put the drone up and get the subject in frame. I have already turned on the grid. I take three (3) pictures. The first picture I put the battleship on the left 1/3rd of the grid and shoot a picture. The 2nd shot, I overlap 30% and take the 2nd picture with the battleship in the center of the grid. The third picture, I move the battleship to the right side of the grid and overlap 30%.

All three pictures would have 30% overlap.

I bring these three images (RAW) into software. (Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom). If you need a video for the remaining processing steps, see attached for videos by Colin Smith.

For Circumnavigating around a point of view like a battleship, either practice doing circles in your nearby park, or try the automated intelligent flight modes (I have circle in my drone). Watch You Tube videos on Intelligent flight modes for your drone model if available. Practice small circles near you first, Then progress to larger circles near you. Then graduate yourself to large circles of you point of interest. Practice all the time.

Hope these tips help you!

Dale

Go to Google and find these links.

Panorama-Colin Smith.png
 
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This didn't just look like your first video, honestly it looked like your first couple of flights. I say this as putting myself in your shoes. It looked like you were worried about flying the drone over the water, which I understand completely. However as stated by Dale. the up and down once then again and again is not drawing me in. I saw the ship and was hoping that you were going in for a close up and was let down. Overall each video is a learning process to make the next one better. You are on your way. If nothing else fly it along the water and not over the water until you become more comfortable with it.
 
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I certainly understand your concerns about losing control of the drone. I remember those concerns dominating my first flights and they still remain on my mind every time I fly.

I'll offer a few tips that I imagine will keep you safe from at least 80% of the horror story situations about lost drones that you read about here. Perhaps other folks here can offer edits and additions.
  • Be certain that your drone battery is is fully charged and that your controller and phone or tablet are charged to 75% or more.
  • Confirm your settings for RTH altitude, max altitude, and max range.
  • Don't leave the launch/home site until you have a solid GPS fix with a dozen or more satellites. If you have trouble getting a good GPS lock, climb to 10-15 feet and hover until you have it. Don't continue until you hear the voice message saying "The home point has been updated. Please check it on the map."
  • Check the home point on the map. And be sure that the compass heading shown is accurate.
  • Don't blithely fly downwind without understanding the wind speed and how difficult it might be to return upwind.
  • Know how to manually pilot the drone back without having to rely on the RTH feature.
  • Pay attention to the warning messages given by the Fly app and act on them appropriately.
  • Monitor you battery level continually. Head for home in plenty of time to land with at least 20-25% battery.
  • Stay away from the automated flight/photo modes until you've tried them in a wide-open place and gotten familiar with how they work and how to interrupt them.
I suspect that a fully charged battery, good GPS lock, and a proper home point will preclude at least half of the problems reported here.

Fly safe. Have fun. Share a good story with us.
 
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@Big Bro Believe me, I would bet that everyone's first outing with a drone and creating a video can be overwhelming. You are off to a great start for your first one. All the suggestions here are from experienced pilots whom most likely felt that same way as you, I know I did. You get that sinking feeling if you lose sight of the drone and feelings of panic are common I'm sure. The good news is the more you fly you WILL get more comfortable. It just takes time. As Dale suggested, watching "how to" videos on YouTube are excellent ways to get to know more about your drone and what it can do. Same with video editing techniques. Confidence comes over time certainly but there is always something more to learn, even experienced fliers learn something new. Stick with it, you are on your way. Looking forward to seeing more from you in the futre.
 
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