First Video Editing – Critiquing Requested

[RickinWaST]

M2P is my first drone. The past two months have been busy learning how to fly the drone, moving on to “cinematic” shooting techniques, and how to edit video. I actually purchased the M2P for landscape photography, which is my background, but immediately became interested in video.

Shooting: Focused on basic landscape photography techniques - DOF, Focal Points, Change of View, Lines, & Colors. Overall, I still need attention to shooting & flying smoothly.

Editing in FCPX: Learning to edit video has been fun! Still need some fine-tuning using the “Blade” and other advance features. Attaching the “right” music to clips was challenging.

Workflow: (1) Exposure level & setting white balance via eye dropper. {Inside a clip look for “white” or “black” or “mid-tone”}. (2) Adjust highlights, shadows, mid-tones, & saturation, using “Scopes” and “Color Wheels”. (3) Adjusting Temperature. (4) Apply Custom Color Luts.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[old man mavic]

the only comment i am going to make is the height you were flying at, with members of the public present,unless of course they were all under your control

 

[brett8883]

M2P is my first drone. The past two months have been busy learning how to fly the drone, moving on to “cinematic” shooting techniques, and how to edit video. I actually purchased the M2P for landscape photography, which is my background, but immediately became interested in video.

Shooting: Focused on basic landscape photography techniques - DOF, Focal Points, Change of View, Lines, & Colors. Overall, I still need attention to shooting & flying smoothly.

Editing in FCPX: Learning to edit video has been fun! Still need some fine-tuning using the “Blade” and other advance features. Attaching the “right” music to clips was challenging.

Workflow: (1) Exposure level & setting white balance via eye dropper. {Inside a clip look for “white” or “black” or “mid-tone”}. (2) Adjust highlights, shadows, mid-tones, & saturation, using “Scopes” and “Color Wheels”. (3) Adjusting Temperature. (4) Apply Custom Color Luts.

Thanks for your feedback!

I thought it was pretty good for a first edit!

You succeeded in not making many of the mistakes first time editors make like excessive panning, over the top colors, and blown highlights. Kudos for showing that restraint and not trying to over do it.

I would have liked you to pull up the shadows and mod tone just tiny little bit. I think the black point is good white point is good but overall is a tad dark. Now that’s good for filming, I like raw footage to be slightly dark but that’s so I can punch it out. Don’t forget about the histogram in FCPX. The waveform monitor is good for highlights and blacks but the histogram is best for mid tones and overall brightness.

Color grading and white balance look good to me, color saturation and vibrancy was very good and consistent with your look throughout and not overdone ?.

I think you did a good job of setting the theme to your movie and most of the shots went with that theme. However, I was not a fan of the tiny planet at the end. It felt forced and put in there due to you wanting to use that shot. Something what’s difficult for an editor who is also the videographer to do but is necessary, is to be unattached to clips. You can have the best clip ever but if it doesn’t fit into the overall film you gotta resist that urge to find a way to fit it in. If it doesn’t fit don’t force it.

Overall very good and shows a lot of research that went into finding your look, the emotion, and restraint to keep it in between the lines and not try to do to much.

Bravo!

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

and nice and short too !!
Pretty good on flying and editing, and you should only get better from here.

Those are very nice gardens, you picked an early morning (?) to fly with few others around, and good light.

 

[macfawlty]

You’re on the right track in your approach. Anyone can get a drone in the air and take a photo. Cinematic video is an eternal quest requiring creativity, planning and practice.

It appears you’ve not made the proper settings adjustments to soften your drone and gimbal response. Also, check your camera settings. I’ll assume you have ND filters.

You have a good venue for filming and a couple good shots, through the columns being the best one although a bit off line once you got through and unsure what to do once you got through them.

You should plan your shots to fit the venue and objects you want to feature... before you start flying...before you leave the house. When executing a move, if it seems like a good shot, do it a few times to get it right. In editing, you aren’t likely to use many shots longer than 5 seconds, so make the 5 seconds good and cut the rest.

The gazebo shots weren’t executed well as you’re unsure on how to do combo altitude/gimbal moves. These are the easiest to execute, yield the best clips and you’ll use them a lot. Altitude changes are typically combined with gimbal tilt to maintain subject in the center of frame. Your eye expects a focal point. The rest of the frame can be in motion as long as the viewer has something the eye can fix on. Nearly every move is a combination move, so develop a good sense and a very light touch with your joysticks. Avoid yaw and course corrections at all costs until you can do VERY subtle sweeping turns along with elevation change and gimbal tilt.

I responded to a similar post (below) along with some videos on setup and further down the page a video with a comprehensive demo of cinematic drone moves.

First Post - 40 second Canadian Roadtrip video

Hi all! I finished a 2000 mile Roadtrip through the Canadian Rockies with my kids and here's a short video from the journey.

mavicpilots.com

 

[brett8883]

You’re on the right track in your approach. Anyone can get a drone in the air and take a photo. Cinematic video is an eternal quest requiring creativity, planning and practice.

It appears you’ve not made the proper settings adjustments to soften your drone and gimbal response. Also, check your camera settings. I’ll assume you have ND filters.

You have a good venue for filming and a couple good shots, through the columns being the best one although a bit off line once you got through and unsure what to do once you got through them.

You should plan your shots to fit the venue and objects you want to feature... before you start flying...before you leave the house. When executing a move, if it seems like a good shot, do it a few times to get it right. In editing, you aren’t likely to use many shots longer than 5 seconds, so make the 5 seconds good and cut the rest.

The gazebo shots weren’t executed well as you’re unsure on how to do combo altitude/gimbal moves. These are the easiest to execute, yield the best clips and you’ll use them a lot. Altitude changes are typically combined with gimbal tilt to maintain subject in the center of frame. Your eye expects a focal point. The rest of the frame can be in motion as long as the viewer has something the eye can fix on. Nearly every move is a combination move, so develop a good sense and a very light touch with your joysticks. Avoid yaw and course corrections at all costs until you can do VERY subtle sweeping turns along with elevation change and gimbal tilt.

I responded to a similar post (below) along with some videos on setup and further down the page a video with a comprehensive demo of cinematic drone moves.

First Post - 40 second Canadian Roadtrip video

Hi all! I finished a 2000 mile Roadtrip through the Canadian Rockies with my kids and here's a short video from the journey.

mavicpilots.com

That’s a good video! Nice find ?.

 

[Olav van Gerven]

A lot of editing is preference. Give three editors the same footage and you will have four versions That makes it harder to critize, since it is YOUR video and YOUR editing according to what YOU prefer.

Besides that, there are some technical aspects: At one point, I see people moving, it is obvious that the footage there is shown with a higher framerate then it was recorded. If that was what you wanted, okay, your choice, if not, try to be aware that it make a video very "restless" if you have people moving at higher speed then they were moving. It also contradicts a little bit the slow music you have put to it. Fast moves requier faster music (according to MY opinion which does not have to be yours). And one last preference thing, aspecially using the slower music, are the hard cuts between the scenes. That again is "speeding up" the video contradicting the music.

For a first edit, not bad at all. I'm pretty sure, mine were worse

 

[Dave Maine]

Really enjoyed your video. You are on the right track. Good composition;and pacing. Did not think the end spherical shot works at all, as it breaks the flow of the other shots. Your shadows are too dark for me. Are you using a calibrated monitor? It may be that your monitor is showing the footage lighter than it actually is.

Music is always complex to fit to video. In some cases it works better to start with the music as a basic bed, and fit the video too it. In any case, the music’s rhythm needs to complement the video rhythm. Trial and error, and a lot of experience is key to doing it quickly.

 

[Smokieflies]

Much better then my first attempt. Thanks for sharing and keep practicing. Some of the flight moves and gimbal movements are a little shaky, but much better then my first attempts.

 

[RickinWaST]

Thanks to all for the helpful feedback. Since you took the time to provide your comments, it is only fair that I acknowledge them as seen below Again, thanks!

Bret8833
<>I would have liked you to pull up the shadows and mid tone just tiny little bit. <>The waveform monitor is good for highlights and blacks, but the histogram is best for mid tones and overall brightness.

=>Thanks for mentioning this. My photography post workflow has been with PS CC using a specialized plug-in (I listed the link if someone is interested.) I’m on a quest to keep learning which tool does what in FCPX. I’ll start using the histogram. Zone System Express panel.

<>I was not a fan of the tiny planet at the end.
=>I understand your point. My goal was to focus first on the fountain and while moving the drone up, reveal more of the gardens. Clearly, I should have thought of different ways to show this; or not at all.

Macfawlty
<>It appears you’ve not made the proper settings adjustments to soften your drone and gimbal response.
=>I keep playing with this. What has worked for you?

<>Also, check your camera settings.
=>Please explain this more, which are you referring to?

<>I’ll assume you have ND filters.
=>I do not, but they are on my to-be-purchased list. Most likely the Freewell variable ND filters. I use ND in my landscape photography.

<>When executing a move, if it seems like a good shot, do it a few times to get it right. In editing, you aren’t likely to use many shots longer than 5 seconds, so make the 5 seconds good and cut the rest.

<>Nearly every move is a combination move, so develop a good sense and a very light touch with your joysticks.

=>Correct. Learning and achieving the fine art of having a “light touch” is critical.

Olav van Gerven
<>At one point, I see people moving, it is obvious that the footage there is shown with a higher framerate then it was recorded.

=>Maybe this was a function of the Quickshot Asteroid mode? I'll check the final rate.

<>And one last preference thing, especially using the slower music, are the hard cuts between the scenes. That again is "speeding up" the video contradicting the music.

=>Good point. Having a pretty good musical background, I struggled trying to match the music (Crescendos, etc.) to specific editing points in a clip and/or transition.

Dave Maine
<>Trial and error, and a lot of experience is key to doing it quickly.
=>You have that right!

 

[macfawlty]

The YouTube of cinematic drone moves has a link to an Excel spreadsheet for reference. A lot of the moves you may never use, so print it off and highlight the ones you like and use it to plan your practice.

As I said, your gimbal tilt is the easiest to master once you’ve set the sensitivity to 30. Accompany all gimbal tilts with elevation change and maintain the center point of rotation. You’ll be elevating, tilting and traveling forward/backward simultaneously. Two thumbs and a finger in synchronized movement.

There are plenty of YouTube videos on camera settings and ND filters. I use my ND 64 and 32 the most and 16 less. No need for anything less than ND8.

Lightroom is the standard for photo editing. Photoshop controls are completely inadequate.

You’ll learn quickly enough. Don’t worry about the editing and color grading during flying season. I have a huge backlog of drone video from the last 6-7 months to edit and a lot from last year as well. That’s what winter is for. It’s a lot more important to fly and practice while the weather is good. Just take some pics and edit those. I’d rather see good pics than an edit of bad video clips.

Editing is so much more challenging with bad footage. I think it’s a waste of time editing while you’re still learning to fly and film. Sure, you can put a few clips together for a 30 second edit, but it’s more helpful to view your footage with an eye to the things you should have done.

 

[Vegasdad]

I thought it was pretty good for a first edit!

You succeeded in not making many of the mistakes first time editors make like excessive panning, over the top colors, and blown highlights. Kudos for showing that restraint and not trying to over do it.

I would have liked you to pull up the shadows and mod tone just tiny little bit. I think the black point is good white point is good but overall is a tad dark. Now that’s good for filming, I like raw footage to be slightly dark but that’s so I can punch it out. Don’t forget about the histogram in FCPX. The waveform monitor is good for highlights and blacks but the histogram is best for mid tones and overall brightness.

Color grading and white balance look good to me, color saturation and vibrancy was very good and consistent with your look throughout and not overdone ?.

I think you did a good job of setting the theme to your movie and most of the shots went with that theme. However, I was not a fan of the tiny planet at the end. It felt forced and put in there due to you wanting to use that shot. Something what’s difficult for an editor who is also the videographer to do but is necessary, is to be unattached to clips. You can have the best clip ever but if it doesn’t fit into the overall film you gotta resist that urge to find a way to fit it in. If it doesn’t fit don’t force it.

Overall very good and shows a lot of research that went into finding your look, the emotion, and restraint to keep it in between the lines and not try to do to much.

Bravo!

Brother that's what's its all about helping!!!!!!