Imperial Sand Dunes - Mini 3 Pro

PhoenixBird · Sep 16, 2023

Folks, I’m creating a series of long form relaxation videos designed for passive viewing. The kind of thing to have on that does not need a lot of concentration to enjoy, designed to be paired with your favorite music playlist. Here’s an example of my latest, shot at the Imperial Sand Dunes just west of Yuma, AZ. I’m using a Mini 3 Pro shooting 4K at 60fps, 120 shutter at 200 iso with a 128 ND. Used Final Cut to master and reduce the speed by 50%.

mavic3usa · Sep 16, 2023

I watch a lot of these. This one is fine except for me personally, the shots are a little too close in; probably need to be higher up and wider out since all I see is mostly sky and sand. But that's just me, I know it's all about the music but since there a million of such videos available, thought I would give some feedback.

old man mavic · Sep 16, 2023

@PhoenixBird ,nothing wrong with the idea ,but for me personally ,i would rather just put on some headphones ,and listen to my favourite music ,without any additional visual content combined with it
watching a short 3 or 4 minute video ,of some different interesting places ,with an appropriate added soundtrack would suit me much better
this is just my opinion and not meant to cause offence

mavic3usa · Sep 16, 2023

On youtube, it's a thing. Using a nice projector or a large hi-res screen, it's ideal.

OP can use some of these for reference. Some of my personal favorites, it's not only the music but also these are all mostly drone-only videos and some of the shots are incredible:

MavicAir2Marc · Sep 17, 2023

mavic3usa said:
On youtube, it's a thing. Using a nice projector or a large hi-res screen, it's ideal.

OP can use some of these for reference. Some of my personal favorites, it's not only the music but also these are all mostly drone-only videos and some of the shots are incredible:

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I agree, they have some amazing drone shots on a lot of these.

PhoenixBird · Sep 17, 2023

mavic3usa said:
I watch a lot of these. This one is fine except for me personally, the shots are a little too close in; probably need to be higher up and wider out since all I see is mostly sky and sand. But that's just me, I know it's all about the music but since there a million of such videos available, thought I would give some feedback.

Thank you for the feedback, and good point about the altitude. This spot proved challenging to make interesting, given its very two dimensional. Next time might try a different light and see what that does.

PhoenixBird · Sep 17, 2023

old man mavic said:
@PhoenixBird ,nothing wrong with the idea ,but for me personally ,i would rather just put on some headphones ,and listen to my favourite music ,without any additional visual content combined with it
watching a short 3 or 4 minute video ,of some different interesting places ,with an appropriate added soundtrack would suit me much better
this is just my opinion and not meant to cause offence

Thanks for the feedback. Still working on the formula to make this long form content interesting, and you make a good point about length.

rjwmorrell · Sep 18, 2023

PhoenixBird said:
Folks, I’m creating a series of long form relaxation videos designed for passive viewing. The kind of thing to have on that does not need a lot of concentration to enjoy, designed to be paired with your favorite music playlist. Here’s an example of my latest, shot at the Imperial Sand Dunes just west of Yuma, AZ. I’m using a Mini 3 Pro shooting 4K at 60fps, 120 shutter at 200 iso with a 128 ND. Used Final Cut to master and reduce the speed by 50%.

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Ok, I'm going to be a bit harsh because it's in the critique channel, so fair warning.

It's a long form video that you're going to pair with relaxing music, that's important because the 19 minute video is otherwise 17 minutes too long.

However, given the length you need to vary the shots a lot more. Many of the shots are a slow push forward, with a few pull backs and like a couple of rise and reveals. I'd love to see some parallax with foreground going one way, background going the other, from some slow orbit shots. Pick a dune to fly in and go half way around it then draw back, try a reveal where you're literally a few feet over a high dune and revealing the landscape behind it, or try a sliding transition.

That's my two cents, otherwise the shots are very good, the colour and lighting is excellent. It's a lot of sand though, so as a viewer I'd enjoy it more if there was more lateral or arcing motion on some shots to spice it up.

rjwmorrell · Sep 18, 2023

mavic3usa said:
On youtube, it's a thing. Using a nice projector or a large hi-res screen, it's ideal.

OP can use some of these for reference. Some of my personal favorites, it's not only the music but also these are all mostly drone-only videos and some of the shots are incredible:

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I sat in a laser clinic while my fiancee got her Lasik procedure done, and watched amazing drone videos for 30 minutes. They were great, just like a lot of these. They're definitely a thing people will put them on in a doctors office or Lasik clinic and leave them on repeat all day, they're mesmerizing. But shorter shots, more motion,.more parallax, more interesting subjects would be my goal if I was just shooting sand dunes.

Prop Wash · Oct 2, 2023

I agree with what was said above. I understand the concept, but relaxation is one thing, "endless" flying above the dessert w/o music tends toward boring.