First Cinematic With My Mini

[nhgill960]

Hello everyone,

I have been a mini pilot since January, and I have really enjoyed the experience. This was my first DJI drone, and the Mini has been a great platform to learn some basic aerial cinematography on. I recently was able to get some pretty nice shots in North Carolina and Tennessee, and decided to edit them together. I have the free version of Davinci Resolve 16, and am a total novice to the program. The reason why I am posting this is to hopefully get some feedback and constructive criticism on my first edit so that I can hopefully get better at aerial cinematography. If ya'll have any tips on how to edit better, how to get smoother and more pro-looking shots, etc. I would really appreciate it.

Thanks Guys!

(P.S. I had some difficulty with trying to directly upload this file but I figured out how to do it as a link)

--Noah

First Drone Edit Frame Rate Fixed.mov

 

[nhgill960]

(P.P.S I did some basic color grading on these clips also, and I have no idea whether it looks good or like crap, so any and all feedback would be appreciated. Thanks again guys!)

 

[CrazyFastFlying]

Hey man, nice work!(From a novice aerial photographers perspective, I just got my Mavic Mini last week) I was going to ask you if you had any tips on how to get such smooth shots?

Also, how did you upload the video? Was it google drive?

Jeremy

 

[nhgill960]

Hey man, same for you! I checked out your photos on your new pilot post and those were some great sunset shots. So for the smooth shots part. I used to edit directly on the dji fly app and found that I would have terribly choppy video. I got really confused and did some research but eventually found out that if you want to edit directly in the app or on iMovie, you have to download the clips onto your phone from the mini in the Fly app. This can take up some storage but after you edit them together, just delete the clips and keep the final edit. That is for if you are doing this on your phone. For PC editing, I am a novice as well. However, I’m pretty sure you just have to make sure that the frame rate on your video is the same as on the timeline on the editing software. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and if anyone on here has with experience on this please correct me. I have found that the cinematic standard frame rate in the US is 24 fps. I also have seen that you are supposed to make sure that your shutter speed is double your frame rate. (Go to DroneFilmGuide’s YT channel to get TONS of useful info). On the mini you can adjust shutter speed, but if you move it to 1/50 you get a blown out image. I hope I answered your question. My question to anyone with experience is this: should I get ND filters for my Mini so I can correctly set my camera settings? Sorry CrazyFastFlying for getting off topic? I tried to just go to my video file straight off my PC, but it wouldn’t load. I had sent it to a friend on gmail and that had changed it into a drive link. So if you want to use the drive link to upload, you have to put the file on drive and then right click it and then select create shared link. After that you should be good to go! Sorry for rambling?

—Noah

 

[vindibona1]

For PC editing, I am a novice as well. However, I’m pretty sure you just have to make sure that the frame rate on your video is the same as on the timeline on the editing software. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and if anyone on here has with experience on this please correct me. I have found that the cinematic standard frame rate in the US is 24 fps. I also have seen that you are supposed to make sure that your shutter speed is double your frame rate. (Go to DroneFilmGuide’s YT channel to get TONS of useful info). On the mini you can adjust shutter speed, but if you move it to 1/50 you get a blown out image. I hope I answered your question. My question to anyone with experience is this: should I get ND filters for my Mini so I can correctly set my camera settings? Sorry CrazyFastFlying for getting off topic? I tried to just go to my video file straight off my PC, but it wouldn’t load. I had sent it to a friend on gmail and that had changed it into a drive link. So if you want to use the drive link to upload, you have to put the file on drive and then right click it and then select create shared link. After that you should be good to go! Sorry for rambling?

—Noah

Pretty nice Noah. Pretty gutsy flying over stuff that would make a drone crash unrecoverable :0. DaVinci Resolve is the s**t. It's almost mind blowing to believe that it's free! I had less trouble getting a handle on it than some of the "simpler" programs. The transitions were so clean that I didn't even notice them and after watching once had to ask myself what transitions you were using. As I rewatched I noticed that you used mostly "jump cuts", but they didn't seem like jump cuts because they were so smooth. What transitions did you use exactly?

I think that projects like this accelerate the learning. Like you, a month ago I didn't know which end of a camera to plug into the editing machine, and today I'm studying use of LUTs, shooting in D-Log or R709, when two weeks ago I'd never even heard of those terms. A friend of mine uses a term to describe the level of learning as "drinking from a fire hose".

As far as filters go, I think they will be helpful. I am expecting my first set of ND filters tomorrow. As far at 24fps or 30fps, there is a debate. I've been shooting 30fps afraid that if I had to so any slo-mo the 24fps would be more jerky. I don't know. But they say the golden ratio of exposure is shutter= 2x frame rate @ F4.0 or so. I don't think you get that low an EV without ND filters until almost dusk. You'd think that DJI would program their drones down to an ISO of 50.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[lannes]

Youtube is the easiest to upload video for this forum and you'll be able to use a higher resolution

 

[nhgill960]

Vindibona,

I have no idea what a jump cut is?. I’m assuming it’s just a straight cut with no effects between two clips? I just put the the clips next to each other on the timeline and let Davinci work it’s magic. You are totally right about Resolve. I still can’t believe it’s free! Also, what ND filters are you getting? I did some looking around for some the other day and really didn’t want to spend 60-100 dollars on sunglasses for my drone. If that’s what it takes to get the best footage I’m all for it, but I wanted to know if you had found some for cheaper. With my flying it’s definitely risky but I’ve gotten comfortable with my mini and and pretty confident I won’t lose it(I really hope I don’t!) I’ve always made sure that if I’m going to do anything crazy that the wind is below 5 mph gust because I’ve looked at this forum for a while and everyday I see a “flyaway help” or “my mini flew away” page. I don’t want to have to be on those pages! Thanks for the feedback and checking out my video.

Iannes,

Thank you for your input. I will attempt to upload from YouTube in the future.

 

[reh4686]

Hello everyone,

I have been a mini pilot since January, and I have really enjoyed the experience. This was my first DJI drone, and the Mini has been a great platform to learn some basic aerial cinematography on. I recently was able to get some pretty nice shots in North Carolina and Tennessee, and decided to edit them together. I have the free version of Davinci Resolve 16, and am a total novice to the program. The reason why I am posting this is to hopefully get some feedback and constructive criticism on my first edit so that I can hopefully get better at aerial cinematography. If ya'll have any tips on how to edit better, how to get smoother and more pro-looking shots, etc. I would really appreciate it.

Thanks Guys!

(P.S. I had some difficulty with trying to directly upload this file but I figured out how to do it as a link)

--Noah

First Drone Edit Frame Rate Fixed.mov

Wow! I like it... Never knew Tenn and NC had such scenery. Keep up the nice work!

 

[TreeHugger]

Hello everyone,

I have been a mini pilot since January, and I have really enjoyed the experience. This was my first DJI drone, and the Mini has been a great platform to learn some basic aerial cinematography on. I recently was able to get some pretty nice shots in North Carolina and Tennessee, and decided to edit them together. I have the free version of Davinci Resolve 16, and am a total novice to the program. The reason why I am posting this is to hopefully get some feedback and constructive criticism on my first edit so that I can hopefully get better at aerial cinematography. If ya'll have any tips on how to edit better, how to get smoother and more pro-looking shots, etc. I would really appreciate it.

Thanks Guys!

(P.S. I had some difficulty with trying to directly upload this file but I figured out how to do it as a link)

--Noah

First Drone Edit Frame Rate Fixed.mov

Very nice! My only critique was that the "lighting" was a bit "low". The edits are almost certainly better than what I could have done

And - welcome to the forum! Many, many good resources here.

 

[Pablo]

This is a great video, well done. Agree with getting setup with a Youtube channel and putting them on there instead in future.

 

[CrazyFastFlying]

Hey man, same for you! I checked out your photos on your new pilot post and those were some great sunset shots. So for the smooth shots part. I used to edit directly on the dji fly app and found that I would have terribly choppy video. I got really confused and did some research but eventually found out that if you want to edit directly in the app or on iMovie, you have to download the clips onto your phone from the mini in the Fly app. This can take up some storage but after you edit them together, just delete the clips and keep the final edit. That is for if you are doing this on your phone. For PC editing, I am a novice as well. However, I’m pretty sure you just have to make sure that the frame rate on your video is the same as on the timeline on the editing software. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and if anyone on here has with experience on this please correct me. I have found that the cinematic standard frame rate in the US is 24 fps. I also have seen that you are supposed to make sure that your shutter speed is double your frame rate. (Go to DroneFilmGuide’s YT channel to get TONS of useful info). On the mini you can adjust shutter speed, but if you move it to 1/50 you get a blown out image. I hope I answered your question. My question to anyone with experience is this: should I get ND filters for my Mini so I can correctly set my camera settings? Sorry CrazyFastFlying for getting off topic? I tried to just go to my video file straight off my PC, but it wouldn’t load. I had sent it to a friend on gmail and that had changed it into a drive link. So if you want to use the drive link to upload, you have to put the file on drive and then right click it and then select create shared link. After that you should be good to go! Sorry for rambling?

—Noah

Thanks for all the info Noah! Also thank you for complementing my photos!

Is there any advantage to using Davinci Resolve 16 instead of iMovie? I use a MacBook Air if that makes a difference.

 

[baristabob]

Really amazed at the smoothness of the shots. I agree some of the shots looked dark. Would not be my choice for music, but that is just a personal choice. But really jealous of those smooth gimbal moves. I need to keep practicing. You captured the clouds "smoke" very well. DaVinci is incredible and I learn something new each edit session. I have found great background music on Envato. Just follow their ask when using the free stuff. Did you use a LUT or manually color grade?

 

[nhgill960]

Thank you guys for all of the advice! I appreciate the input. CFF, I edit on a windows PC and am not familiar with Mac. I’ve heard that iMovie on Mac is really good. Davinci Resolve just gives you a lot more tools to use from what I can tell. Bob, I agree with the music but I didn’t want to spend forever picking it. Thanks for the compliments. Next time I will make the colors brighter, and I manually color graded.

 

[Jet skier]

Hello everyone,

I have been a mini pilot since January, and I have really enjoyed the experience. This was my first DJI drone, and the Mini has been a great platform to learn some basic aerial cinematography on. I recently was able to get some pretty nice shots in North Carolina and Tennessee, and decided to edit them together. I have the free version of Davinci Resolve 16, and am a total novice to the program. The reason why I am posting this is to hopefully get some feedback and constructive criticism on my first edit so that I can hopefully get better at aerial cinematography. If ya'll have any tips on how to edit better, how to get smoother and more pro-looking shots, etc. I would really appreciate it.

Thanks Guys!

(P.S. I had some difficulty with trying to directly upload this file but I figured out how to do it as a link)

--Noah

First Drone Edit Frame Rate Fixed.mov

That’s a great video I see you’ve learned the tilt up technique which is a great maneuver along with other multi motion maneuvers

 

[Jet skier]

Thanks for all the info Noah! Also thank you for complementing my photos!

Is there any advantage to using Davinci Resolve 16 instead of iMovie? I use a MacBook Air if that makes a difference.

Are use Final Cut Pro and love it I actually found it a little easier than I movie but it is not free $300 for life. Another good YouTuber to learn drone filming techniques is sky high films very interesting guy I’ve learned a lot from him

 

[Paleomanjim]

Great video, smooth and well edited. I liked it a lot. Thanks for sharing.

 

[nhgill960]

Thank you guys so much for your comments! I will definitely try to make sure my shots are lighter and I will take all of y’alls advice. I appreciate the comments and feedback and thank you guys for this forum!