Air 2 California "Paradise"

[Cosimoto]

Featuring the citrus groves of the Ojai Valley, the beaches and vistas of Ventura and Carpinteria including the 101 Freeway (aka The Ventura Highway), the hills surrounding the Ojai Valley, and the Ojai Meadows Preserve.

Shot over July and August of 2021.

Music: "Paradise" by Coldplay

 

[PixelMagic]

Inspirational! Beautifully shot and edited.

 

[Prop Wash]

Very nice look around! The coast is a great place.

 

[Cosimoto]

Very nice look around! The coast is a great place.

It really is. Feel lucky to live here.

Next stop: Big Sur.

 

[Cosimoto]

Inspirational! Beautifully shot and edited.

Thanks!

 

[Merrill277]

Very nice! How do you like Vimeo?

 

[hiflyer201]

Like like like!

 

[DougMcC]

Well done. Great use of “golden hour” lighting. Beautiful area. (Ventura Highway is the 101-the 10 dead ends in Santa Monica far to the south-small difference) loved watching this. Thanks

 

[Cosimoto]

Well done. Great use of “golden hour” lighting. Beautiful area. (Ventura Highway is the 101-the 10 dead ends in Santa Monica far to the south-small difference) loved watching this. Thanks

Thanks! And I made a typo (now fixed) in my original post: the freeway seen in this video is indeed the 101 at the north end of Ventura, CA. The freeway shots with the fog is the 101 a couple of miles north of Ventura, CA.

 

[Cosimoto]

Very nice! How do you like Vimeo?

I like Vimeo. It's not free, but it has a lot more flexibility than YouTube, and it doesn't take videos down for using copyrighted music (probably because it's not free).

 

[macfawlty]

Wonderful variety of scenes. I like how you mixed in some hyperlapses.

I'd recommend you reduce your yaw speed and increase smoothness. Slight course corrections are even more noticeable when speed ramping @3:34. Your gentle turns would be a lot more smooth (you almost never need to turn fast while filming). The one critical thing that's missing is gimbal tilts. It creates a lot of drama with little effort and provides cut points between clips. Change your advanced gimbal settings as well by slowing speed and increasing smoothness. Be careful speeding up clips with natural movement (surf). It tends to look unnatural. Switch to Sport mode or fly straight and speed ramp in post. The beautiful scenes and great editing made for an outstanding video.

 

[Cosimoto]

Wonderful variety of scenes. I like how you mixed in some hyperlapses.

I'd recommend you reduce your yaw speed and increase smoothness. Slight course corrections are even more noticeable when speed ramping @3:34. Your gentle turns would be a lot more smooth (you almost never need to turn fast while filming). The one critical thing that's missing is gimbal tilts. It creates a lot of drama with little effort and provides cut points between clips. Change your advanced gimbal settings as well by slowing speed and increasing smoothness. Be careful speeding up clips with natural movement (surf). It tends to look unnatural. Switch to Sport mode or fly straight and speed ramp in post. The beautiful scenes and great editing made for an outstanding video.

Thanks for watching and for the very helpful tips!

My problem is that I generally pick the music after I shoot the video (or at least most of it), so I am cutting existing footage to the music, not the other way around. That means I often have to change the speed of the footage to make it fit the tempo of the music. I agree 100% that those course corrections and speed adjustments are distracting (on the course corrections, I do use a ton of post-stabilization processing, but as you can see, that only goes so far).

For example, that long tracking shot with the full moon on Ventura Beach -- I wanted to cover as much distance as I could and end the shot on the rise up at the end. Could only do that by speeding it up. Same with the shots of the Carpinteria cliffs: I had to make the shots match the drama of the music and the only way (that I know of) to do that was to pump up the speed of the shot. I guess I could have flown the drone faster when I shot it, but again, I didn't know what music I was going to use when I shot it, so there was no way for me to have known that. I guess I need to plan these things out better!

By the way, there is no hyperlapse in this video -- that's just running the footage at 3x or 4x the speed it was shot at. Again, I do this to make the cuts organic to the soundtrack and create as much movement, energy, and distance in the shot as possible. The downside is (as you point out) it amplifies small movements or course corrections.

 

[RkyMtnHigh]

Featuring the citrus groves of the Ojai Valley, the beaches and vistas of Ventura and Carpinteria including the 101 Freeway (aka The Ventura Highway), California, the hills surrounding the Ojai Valley, and the Ojai Meadows Preserve.

Shot over July and August of 2021.

Music: "Paradise" by Coldplay

Great video! Loved the music choice also. Most of the time I fell like I'm in the minority, but I love California. I've been there many, many times and it's a very beautiful part of the country.

 

[Cosimoto]

Great video! Loved the music choice also. Most of the time I fell like I'm in the minority, but I love California. I've been there many, many times and it's a very beautiful part of the country.

Thanks!

We having a saying here: anyone can live in California, but there is a cover charge.

 

[Dale D]

Featuring the citrus groves of the Ojai Valley, the beaches and vistas of Ventura and Carpinteria including the 101 Freeway (aka The Ventura Highway), the hills surrounding the Ojai Valley, and the Ojai Meadows Preserve.

Shot over July and August of 2021.

Music: "Paradise" by Coldplay

A very fine piece of film-that was!!!! California really is a gorgeous place- I will bite my tongue on the politics. The Ojai area is particularly beautiful with all of those vineyards and open spaces, and the gorgeous coast road and daily western sunsets (are there any other kind?). You are lucky to have that scenery to film, but you really do have to live in California for it. My daughter lives in L.A. and we make frequent visits to see her and our son in law and grandson. We have just about covered all of the good sites. You live in a very fertile place to fly.

Dale
Miami

 

[macfawlty]

Thanks for watching and for the very helpful tips!

My problem is that I generally pick the music after I shoot the video (or at least most of it), so I am cutting existing footage to the music, not the other way around. That means I often have to change the speed of the footage to make it fit the tempo of the music. I agree 100% that those course corrections and speed adjustments are distracting (on the course corrections, I do use a ton of post-stabilization processing, but as you can see, that only goes so far).

For example, that long tracking shot with the full moon on Ventura Beach -- I wanted to cover as much distance as I could and end the shot on the rise up at the end. Could only do that by speeding it up. Same with the shots of the Carpinteria cliffs: I had to make the shots match the drama of the music and the only way (that I know of) to do that was to pump up the speed of the shot. I guess I could have flown the drone faster when I shot it, but again, I didn't know what music I was going to use when I shot it, so there was no way for me to have known that. I guess I need to plan these things out better!

By the way, there is no hyperlapse in this video -- that's just running the footage at 3x or 4x the speed it was shot at. Again, I do this to make the cuts organic to the soundtrack and create as much movement, energy, and distance in the shot as possible. The downside is (as you point out) it amplifies small movements or course corrections.

I see. I don’t think any videographer selects music before filming, but they do time their cuts to the music. I film a lot of long clips even though cuts typically last 2 to 4 beats. You move from point A to B in an edit with either speed ramp or cutting a long clip into pieces and inserting them throughout the edit.
I do a lot of flying and filming, but I don’t do a lot of full edits. Perhaps because I abhor stock music. Also, after sitting at a computer all day, flying is my escape.
You have a good eye for scenes and time of day, but all of your shots are traveling forward and your turns aren‘t sweeping arcs but course corrections, which eliminates your ability to speed ramp. Change your yaw and gimbal settings and practice gentle arc turns that compliment land forms and features. Fly backwards. Tilt gimbal straight down and fly slow or hover over the breaking surf with elevation change. Slow sliding shots. Use POI and Spotlight, which allows you to travel forward and back and change elevation while the flight mode maintains axis. Use the gimbal to dramatic effect. Also Use tilt up and down and turnaways as cut points and mix them up for variety in your edits.
I‘ve found that speed ramping clips with natural movement works better than a uniform speed change. Surf needs to be natural or slow-mo. A straight down shot of a beach break I could watch for hours. It always works.
Take full advantage of your amazing locales as many pilots aren’t as lucky to live near such wonderful scenery.

 

[Dale D]

I like Vimeo. It's not free, but it has a lot more flexibility than YouTube, and it doesn't take videos down for using copyrighted music (probably because it's not free).

There IS a free version of Vimeo but it limits the amount of data you can upload per month. I had it for several years before joining the lowest level, which think is 20GB per month,

 

[Cosimoto]

I see. I don’t think any videographer selects music before filming, but they do time their cuts to the music. I film a lot of long clips even though cuts typically last 2 to 4 beats. You move from point A to B in an edit with either speed ramp or cutting a long clip into pieces and inserting them throughout the edit.
I do a lot of flying and filming, but I don’t do a lot of full edits. Perhaps because I abhor stock music. Also, after sitting at a computer all day, flying is my escape.
You have a good eye for scenes and time of day, but all of your shots are traveling forward and your turns aren‘t sweeping arcs but course corrections, which eliminates your ability to speed ramp. Change your yaw and gimbal settings and practice gentle arc turns that compliment land forms and features. Fly backwards. Tilt gimbal straight down and fly slow or hover over the breaking surf with elevation change. Slow sliding shots. Use POI and Spotlight, which allows you to travel forward and back and change elevation while the flight mode maintains axis. Use the gimbal to dramatic effect. Also Use tilt up and down and turnaways as cut points and mix them up for variety in your edits.
I‘ve found that speed ramping clips with natural movement works better than a uniform speed change. Surf needs to be natural or slow-mo. A straight down shot of a beach break I could watch for hours. It always works.
Take full advantage of your amazing locales as many pilots aren’t as lucky to live near such wonderful scenery.

Thanks, I very appreciate the thoughtful notes and I will definitely keep them in mind when I make the next one.

 

[Cosimoto]

There IS a free version of Vimeo but it limits the amount of data you can upload per month. I had it for several years before joining the lowest level, which think is 20GB per month,

There is a free version, but the feature set is very limited and not very useful. You get what you pay for.

 

[Cosimoto]

I see. I don’t think any videographer selects music before filming, but they do time their cuts to the music. I film a lot of long clips even though cuts typically last 2 to 4 beats. You move from point A to B in an edit with either speed ramp or cutting a long clip into pieces and inserting them throughout the edit.
I do a lot of flying and filming, but I don’t do a lot of full edits. Perhaps because I abhor stock music. Also, after sitting at a computer all day, flying is my escape.
You have a good eye for scenes and time of day, but all of your shots are traveling forward and your turns aren‘t sweeping arcs but course corrections, which eliminates your ability to speed ramp. Change your yaw and gimbal settings and practice gentle arc turns that compliment land forms and features. Fly backwards. Tilt gimbal straight down and fly slow or hover over the breaking surf with elevation change. Slow sliding shots. Use POI and Spotlight, which allows you to travel forward and back and change elevation while the flight mode maintains axis. Use the gimbal to dramatic effect. Also Use tilt up and down and turnaways as cut points and mix them up for variety in your edits.
I‘ve found that speed ramping clips with natural movement works better than a uniform speed change. Surf needs to be natural or slow-mo. A straight down shot of a beach break I could watch for hours. It always works.
Take full advantage of your amazing locales as many pilots aren’t as lucky to live near such wonderful scenery.

I've made some changes to the original video, including adding a few new shots and re-conceptualizing some existing shots based on your notes. The new version is in the player at the top of this post or you can see it here: