Go hard! constructive criticism for my Air 2s cinematic video of my home area.

[Zac Johnson]

Shot in normal colour profile and graded.
I can take criticism, looking for unfiltered raw feedback on my video so I can improve my shots and editing etc.
cheers!
Zac

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Rich_fpv]

I think the shots are fantastic, you have great skill with the sticks and you always use multiple points of movement in every shot, yaw combined with turning plus gimbal. Excellent skills and engaging content. My criticism is the footage had little direction after the first day-night transition and felt like a b-roll compilation. Shorter videos with a definitive story focus are better when 100% drone footage. But again, can't fault the shots, editing or stick stills.

 

[Zac Johnson]

I think the shots are fantastic, you have great skill with the sticks and you always use multiple points of movement in every shot, yaw combined with turning plus gimbal. Excellent skills and engaging content. My criticism is the footage had little direction after the first day-night transition and felt like a b-roll compilation. Shorter videos with a definitive story focus are better when 100% drone footage. But again, can't fault the shots, editing or stick stills.

thanks Rich what excellent feedback. You're 100% right with the story telling bit this is really by far the bit I struggle with most and because of this I was thinking I should start uploading shorter, perhaps even single shot, one movement no edit constant flow style shots of an interesting subject or scene and then I could focus more on the flying and colour grading which is what I enjoy most.
Good to hear from someone else it helps affirm something that might just be at the back of your mind niggling away.

 

[Dave Maine]

Finding a good story to tell with drone footage is the big challenge. Most commercial use is a couple of shots to establish a location and then the story begins. Rarely does a collection of drone shots come together to make a story or theme by themselves.

 

[iamaven]

They are beautiful shots with really good panning. You follow the rule of thirds really well as you frame the scenes.

There are several areas that seem washed out when I am viewing on my Samsung Neo 49" screen. I only mention that because it is an HDR screen with local dimming and really amplifies contrast. An OLED would probably accentuate it even more. An example is 2:19-2:38. Your light areas look good, its just the dark areas feel like they should be darker.

1:39-1:45 doesn't appear washed out. It could be because its darker and doesn't have the sun directly in the background.

3:09-3:39 starts off fine, but then appears to become more washed out as the camera pans up to the sky. This might be something a neutral density or polarizing filter may help resolve.

 

[FLDave]

To me it was a bunch of short clips where each one blinks to the next before the viewer gets a chance to "digest" the first. It's more like a slide show set to video. The music didn't fit the mood. As mentioned previously there is no story. You could make it a story by adding narration or at least texts of what one sees; think of a slide show without narration.
This is a video so make video tell the story with appropriate scenes which move from one to another as a pace viewers can follow.

 

[FLDave]

One of my own general rules on video clip length that if it can't hold the viewer's attention for at least 10 seconds it's not worth including in the story. I like my stories to be smooth, so cut out all less-than-10-second cuts.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

I don't know if it's just my monitor but a lot of the shots look overly dark. I'm not sure if it's a grading choice to be moody but I'm just getting a lot of black on my monitor with no detail. I am watching it on not that great of a monitor but I wouldn't think there would be that much disparity between them.

 

[FLDave]

I agree on the darkness as not good. Personally, if I were editing I would just cut those clips as some of them do not add value to the video.
Generally, it's OK to reject unacceptable clips unless you can fix them.

 

[Lister]

One of my own general rules on video clip length that if it can't hold the viewer's attention for at least 10 seconds it's not worth including in the story. I like my stories to be smooth, so cut out all less-than-10-second cuts.

I disagree. Watch a 30 second TV commercial, count the shots and estimate the typical shot length. They're frequently a second or less. Same thing for movie trailers. Count the shots. You'll be surprised.

Granted, we're not making movie trailers or TV commercials here, but we're all familiar with what good production looks like and that's what we're aiming for, right? Ten second shots are rare and if they're used, they're very carefully planned and produced. Watch for drone shots in drama productions and be aware of how long they are. Seldom do they exceed five seconds unless it's a chase.

There's an old saying: "In television a second is an eternity"

I agree with the need-for-story criticism. If there's no story, however thin, it's just a slide show with moving images. What turns it from a slide show into a video is story. It doesn't take much to create a story and the linking shots don't have to be aerials.

Otherwise, well shot. Several repeats or very similar shots in there and some overly fast gimbal moves, but generally really good. The trick is to not use anything that isn't as good as the rest. Don't put similar shots back to back. Cut to something else and then come back if you have to use them both. The three fog shots, while superb, don't advance the story and they all look very similar. Choose the very best one and use it.

There's another old saying in the edit biz "less is more". Never more true than here. This show would be twice as good if it was two minutes long instead of nearly four.

Also, I found the day/evening/night lighting changes jarring. If they're used to tell the story, fine, but jumping back and forth between day and night is distracting.

Does make me want to visit Tassie, though.

 

[FLDave]

If the video were a TV commercial it would be different. As for this one I have not clue what the intent was.
Less is more is often good; in reference to this one it would mean eliminating redundant clips.
Does it make me want to visit Tassie? No. There is no context or narration to make we want to visit; it's just a bunch of slide clips.

 

[Zac Johnson]

Incredible feedback everyone thankyou.

Regarding the monitor issue, I think my next purchase for this year is a new monitor, I use quite an old TN panel 1980x1200 thing. Had alot of trouble getting the dark areas to the right level even after calibrating (visually not with a tool), images looking different on different devices etc. Some areas look nice and soft with detail in windows media player but totally black once uploaded to youtube so I went through every clip to make sure the blacks were above zero and added some filters etc to get it looking right on my old monitor but may look different on others.

Some shots are dark and it was a choice it was shot after sunset and the intention was to shift the mood but there are still supposed to be details there, might just look like nothing on other devices I'm not sure.

Actually many of the shots move to the next in actual 3d space but yeh you can't tell if you don't know the area (probably only makes sense in my head xP lol).
For example the last foggy shot the camera pans down and it blends to next shot of the bird on the jetty, the spot is actually physically below the shot in the fog but just shot days later.
Or after the shot of the car parked at night the next clip looks over the valley from the south then the next is looking from the north, then it drops down to the lookout below that spot then the bridge next to that then back up looking over the town directly above the previous shot etc. It was a pain to edit and doesn't really get the point accross I guess, need to establish a new approach.

 

[FLDave]

Now you have a story line in your last text. My recommendation is to put that story line and expand it with narrative to your video.

 

[Lister]

Nah, your approach is great. I loved the bird on the jetty shot.

It's difficult, though, to see a familiar location with the eyes of someone who's never been there. Don't let it interfere with your edit choices.

An IPS panel takes away most of the guesswork from photography. You don't need to spend much. My 32" Acer cost about $300 CDN.

The high end stuff is a waste of time, IMHO.

 

[Zac Johnson]

Nah, your approach is great. I loved the bird on the jetty shot.

It's difficult, though, to see a familiar location with the eyes of someone who's never been there. Don't let it interfere with your edit choices.

An IPS panel takes away most of the guesswork from photography. You don't need to spend much. My 32" Acer cost about $300 CDN.

The high end stuff is a waste of time, IMHO.

thanks yeh I will try make a shot like that a bit longer next time but they're nervous birds and she flew off just after that clip was cut xP

yeh a friend of mine who is much more computer savvy than I recommended IPS panel, something like 27" dell which often goes on special here on their online store (au).

 

[Carlos56]

One of my own general rules on video clip length that if it can't hold the viewer's attention for at least 10 seconds it's not worth including in the story. I like my stories to be smooth, so cut out all less-than-10-second cuts.

I agree, Dave. But I do think it is an "age" thing. The video game generation seem to prefer shorter clips and abrupt transitions, or at least can tolerate them. I recently watched some real estate drone videos, and every clip in them was 7 to 15 seconds in length. I was just getting interested and it cut to something else. Seems to be what the market wants however...?

 

[FLDave]

Definitely don't think it's an "age". In this case the video is not a video game so that reference doesn't matter. It's about the intent of the video creator. Video creation is a lot more than just creating fast-moving videos. For me fast clips make me just give up on a video. Long really interesting clip hold my attention while I stop a long boring video. Narration can do a whole to improve a video of any length.

 

[vindibona1]

One of my own general rules on video clip length that if it can't hold the viewer's attention for at least 10 seconds it's not worth including in the story. I like my stories to be smooth, so cut out all less-than-10-second cuts.

Interesting. My rule of thumb is that without a valid reason within the story for a clip to go longer I keep many of my clips to around 8 seconds or less even though there is enough good footage to go longer. It's not about the quality of the clip, but the viewers' attention span per clip. As I watch different videos I'm shocked at how short clips can be, often less than 1 second.

 

[Greekislandlover]

Well the videography and editing is flawless. Well done!

The bit I always struggle with is drone video's tend to be a bit samey without a storyline. How I'd make this into a story is where I'm a bit stuck. If you are making a video about a place, then you'd include ground shots, historic archive and maps with suitable commentary.

If you are making a journey then telling a story is fairly straightforward. An example that impressed me was where a guy was doing a clifftop walk. Opening shot of him getting out of the car, a loads of him walking and cliffs, a shot where he stopped for lunch leading to a sunset shot. Simple story telling, and mostly drone footage set to music.

I've also seen this technique done starting with the guy getting into his car and some driving stuff from the drone and action cam. Then into shots of the location, and repeat homeward. He had a nice car - it wouldn't have worked well with our battered old Honda!

So I guess my advice would be in planning the film. Think about the story before you get out and film it. Not plan every shot in detail, just have a rough idea of where you want to go with it. You are always going to get different ideas when editing, but having a base story I think is key. Plus include maps, or the occasional caption as to what we are looking at.
Well done

 

[Zac Johnson]

Well the videography and editing is flawless. Well done!

The bit I always struggle with is drone video's tend to be a bit samey without a storyline. How I'd make this into a story is where I'm a bit stuck. If you are making a video about a place, then you'd include ground shots, historic archive and maps with suitable commentary.

If you are making a journey then telling a story is fairly straightforward. An example that impressed me was where a guy was doing a clifftop walk. Opening shot of him getting out of the car, a loads of him walking and cliffs, a shot where he stopped for lunch leading to a sunset shot. Simple story telling, and mostly drone footage set to music.

I've also seen this technique done starting with the guy getting into his car and some driving stuff from the drone and action cam. Then into shots of the location, and repeat homeward. He had a nice car - it wouldn't have worked well with our battered old Honda!

So I guess my advice would be in planning the film. Think about the story before you get out and film it. Not plan every shot in detail, just have a rough idea of where you want to go with it. You are always going to get different ideas when editing, but having a base story I think is key. Plus include maps, or the occasional caption as to what we are looking at.
Well done

yeh just today we went on an amazing walk up to a place called pelverata falls in Tasmania. Whole time I was thinking I need a good handheld camera to mix with drone shots.