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

[Captain Filmmaking]

Hi!

Nice video and good looking shots - especially in the opening of your video! I liked the colours - though sometimes it looked a bit dark (as mentioned above).

Yes adding a bit of a story would help! Maybe the white truck, which is driven through now and then!? Finally ending up by showing who is driving the truck! Where it is heading up to and why!?
Maybe that would support the video a bit!

Kind regards,
FerdinandS

 

[Greekislandlover]

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.

Excellent idea!

Personally I use a DJI Osmo Action, mounted on a FeiyuTech WG2X gimbal, which is mounted on a selfie stick for wandering about. The gimbal is also used on a chest mount for mountain bike sequences.

Below is a sequence I shot just yesterday using this kit. A bit of context about the clip. My son and I are making a film about an old railway. There's virtually nothing left of it apart from a few bridges and a sort of preserved station. It's a mixture of historic archive, drone and action cam footage. At this point in the film we are nearing the end of the line. The preceding sequence will be about the tunnel I refer to in the film clip. The bit where the green disappears into the corn field is where the tunnel went into the hill.

It's a very rough edit with no colour or sound correction, and I'm sure the final edit will be different. The point of posting this is to show what an action cam on a gimbal can do. Obviously there's a wide range of action cams on the market, and a good few gimbals. My kit is now a couple of years old, and the latest generation of action cam might give good footage on a selfie stick without a gimbal.

The sound is done by cameraman using a wired mic, and the wandering about body uses a Rode Wireless go.

 

[Zac Johnson]

Excellent idea!

Personally I use a DJI Osmo Action, mounted on a FeiyuTech WG2X gimbal, which is mounted on a selfie stick for wandering about. The gimbal is also used on a chest mount for mountain bike sequences.

Below is a sequence I shot just yesterday using this kit. A bit of context about the clip. My son and I are making a film about an old railway. There's virtually nothing left of it apart from a few bridges and a sort of preserved station. It's a mixture of historic archive, drone and action cam footage. At this point in the film we are nearing the end of the line. The preceding sequence will be about the tunnel I refer to in the film clip. The bit where the green disappears into the corn field is where the tunnel went into the hill.

It's a very rough edit with no colour or sound correction, and I'm sure the final edit will be different. The point of posting this is to show what an action cam on a gimbal can do. Obviously there's a wide range of action cams on the market, and a good few gimbals. My kit is now a couple of years old, and the latest generation of action cam might give good footage on a selfie stick without a gimbal.

The sound is done by cameraman using a wired mic, and the wandering about body uses a Rode Wireless go.

yeh looks good, the osmo isn't too bad. The naration is good too.
I often find myself shooting in poor lighting situations, or rapidly changing lighting, such is Tasmania.
Ideal would be a drone with adjustable aperture (will wait to see what the air 3 might offer) and handheld camera with similar quality to the air 2s image or whatever drone I'll be using. Wonder if DJI will do an Osmo pocket with 1" sensor, that would be cool.

 

[vindibona1]

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.

I've missed the obvious so many times thinking the same thing. There are no rules that way your drone has to be flying while you're filming. While it is limited to a set focal length and Fstop a drone can be hand held while filming. The real disadvantage to a hand held drone is that it is wide angle only and sometimes you need the longer reach.

 

[Enhanced Exposure Media]

I thought the footage looked really good and enjoyed your music choice. Just about all the shots looked good on my iMac with retina display.

 

[Zac Johnson]

I thought the footage looked really good and enjoyed your music choice. Just about all the shots looked good on my iMac with retina display.

thanks, that's good to know.
check out my more recent uploads too, I have moved away from shooting in normal colour profile. As discussed with another user on here and thanks to their suggestion, I now know I can get the same amount of cropping shooting 4k48p and still have access to dlog.

 

[highflyeressex]

Amazing footage i thought it was great nice panning shots cloud shots the jetty brilliant clip length is fine regardless what others have said
being a film maker and photographer it worked well in my opinion 10/10

 

[Zac Johnson]

Amazing footage i thought it was great nice panning shots cloud shots the jetty brilliant clip length is fine regardless what others have said
being a film maker and photographer it worked well in my opinion 10/10

thanks mate much apreciated, was thinking of doing another very similar video but shooting dlog 48fps instead (48-60p crop in the image but still looks crisp).

 

[MS Coast]

Very nice flying and video work, both shooting and editing.

I'll toss out a negative opinion on the music, though. The drama and tension of the music just don't suit the tranquility and peace of the scenes. The ominous music suggests something is about to explode or Godzilla is going to rise up from the harbor, while the visuals are all mirror-surfaced water, wispy fog, and night settling onto the land.

 

[Zac Johnson]

Very nice flying and video work, both shooting and editing.

I'll toss out a negative opinion on the music, though. The drama and tension of the music just don't suit the tranquility and peace of the scenes. The ominous music suggests something is about to explode or Godzilla is going to rise up from the harbor, while the visuals are all mirror-surfaced water, wispy fog, and night settling onto the land.

mate, 100% agree with you on the music, it's really hard to find good music

 

[MS Coast]

mate, 100% agree with you on the music, it's really hard to find good music

I've recently discovered that Youtube has a surprisingly good library of royalty-free music.

 

[Shayne]

Zac, I won't repeat what others have said. But, I loved seeing the creative choices you made. Well done.

You also reminded me how beautiful Tassie is. Thank you.

 

[TerryToast]

Excellent footage and edit. That said, I’ll be harsh on little things that I didn’t like.

1. 0-4sec. Footage unrelated to the Heron valley. Cut this.
2. 19sec. Weak transition, as you go from one scene to an almost identical scene and show me nothing new. Either cut the second scene (as the first was better with more depth due to a foreground element) or convert the transition to a “speed ramp” to fast-forward the viewer from the first scene to the second scene
3. 28sec. “Blending” transition, which is out of place and implies a total scene change. Convert this to a regular cut.
4. 1min 55sec. Pan-up reveal from lake reflection, the first of two (in a row). Cut this as you’re repeating/overusing the effect and the second pan-up lake reveal at 2min 6 sec is much better.
5. 3 min 6 sec. Birds, second clip. Cut this, or if you really want to keep it, move it forward so it becomes the first birds clip, as then you go from weak to strong.

All very subjective feedback and keep in mind that what I didn’t like (see above), someone else might love.

Great vid though.

 

[Lister]

TerryToast makes good points. Try to never use the same effect or shot type twice, especially back to back. Less is always more.

"Story" could be as simple as "small town in Tasmania awakes and begins another beautiful day." It just needs to progress from dark early morning to clearly full-on daytime.

The last shot could have credits or info on where the piece was photographed.

All in all, though, really lovely work. Well photographed and well flown.