Las Caletas, Vallarta Mexico - Day Trip

[Al Di]

First off, I learn so much from watching other flyers work. Second off, I wish I did what you-all did ... some amazing stuff. With that said, I would appreciate feedback on this video. It was a tour we took while vacationing near Nuevo Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I berate myself for not planning better. I tend to shoot from the hip and then wonder if I hit the target.

 

[GFields]

For the most part, your flying was good. I find the transitions somewhat jerky and on the verge of annoying. I also suspect you may get criticized about flying over people. Practice makes perfect. And remember, obtaining the assets (videos/photos) which need to be framed, focused, and have good subject matter, is only the first step. Knowing how to assemble/manipulate them in the editing process takes work.

Finally, you must avoid getting too worked up about criticism as each is entitled to their own opinion and each has different tastes. What really matters, at the end of the day, is how it looks to you (and/or your client if you are doing the work for someone else).

Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

 

[Al Di]

Thank you for your kind and encouraging thoughts. They are much appreciated.

 

[Karlewski]

Not Bad, I would avoid speeding the footage with water or lots of people. Using your phone to grab some ambient noise of the scenes can help sell it too. . . for me the best asset is the music and using it to tell a story, evoking emotion that I want the viewer to feel, sometimes even more important than the footage itself. I do like you mix of cameras and angles! Come check out some of my stuff and expound on my ideas! That has helped me so much over the years, that and making 1000's of mistakes and ending up learning something cool simplely by dumb luck. . . Story and emotion. . .

 

[BobaFut]

Others might disagree, but with the flying there were two things that I would do differently. First, I would fly slower for most of these shots. A lot of the shots were very fast and IMO that doesn't tend to work well with "static" scenes like a coastline. Second, turning while flying is always tricky to do effectively in a shot, and I think panning (either by rotating on a fixed axis or sideways in a straight line) would've worked a lot better. The FPV-type of shot can work well, but again, IMO it doesn't work well unless there's action in the scene that you're following.

And in general there were several shots where it wasn't quite clear what I was supposed to be looking at and film effects that seem to be there for no reason. I think a lack of subject is okay for big landscape-type cinematic shots, but there are a lot of close-in shots where there isn't any obvious subject or where the film effect is just there for the sake of breaking things up.

 

[Al Di]

Not Bad, I would avoid speeding the footage with water or lots of people. Using your phone to grab some ambient noise of the scenes can help sell it too. . . for me the best asset is the music and using it to tell a story, evoking emotion that I want the viewer to feel, sometimes even more important than the footage itself. I do like you mix of cameras and angles! Come check out some of my stuff and expound on my ideas! That has helped me so much over the years, that and making 1000's of mistakes and ending up learning something cool simplely by dumb luck. . . Story and emotion. . .

Thank you. It never occured to me to use my phone to record ambient. I used what my girlfriends took from her cell phone as the land images/video. I get ambient all the time when use my DSLR to take videos. Duh, what was my problem. Thank you for your other commens as well. I learn so much from watching others. I feel as if I will never learn enough.

 

[Al Di]

Others might disagree, but with the flying there were two things that I would do differently. First, I would fly slower for most of these shots. A lot of the shots were very fast and IMO that doesn't tend to work well with "static" scenes like a coastline. Second, turning while flying is always tricky to do effectively in a shot, and I think panning (either by rotating on a fixed axis or sideways in a straight line) would've worked a lot better. The FPV-type of shot can work well, but again, IMO it doesn't work well unless there's action in the scene that you're following.

And in general there were several shots where it wasn't quite clear what I was supposed to be looking at and film effects that seem to be there for no reason. I think a lack of subject is okay for big landscape-type cinematic shots, but there are a lot of close-in shots where there isn't any obvious subject or where the film effect is just there for the sake of breaking things up.

Thanks. Wow what great comments I am happy to receive. Lack of subject and seemingly cuts for no reason. Hmmmm, I didn't think that, obviously. I will look at my video with those filters on, see what I can do to improve. Thanks again for commenting. Great

 

[DiscoverSpain]

First off, I learn so much from watching other flyers work. Second off, I wish I did what you-all did ... some amazing stuff. With that said, I would appreciate feedback on this video. It was a tour we took while vacationing near Nuevo Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I berate myself for not planning better. I tend to shoot from the hip and then wonder if I hit the target.

Well, after watching the video I don't know where to start because I can make too mucho comments, many subjective and others objective, about the video. I will try to organise them, and focus on the most important ones, like this:

- Objective comments:

1) The video stutters, in many drone. and handheld camera shots, which leads me to believe that you have a problem with the fps of the timeline, render, or both.

2) Scenes out of focus, either by themselves, or by zoom applied in editing, as in .07.

3) Camera movements, or accelerated in editing, as in .11 that make the camera rolling shutter clearly visible.

4) Jerky movements of camera / drone in many, many scenes.

5) Non-continuous, non-uniform movement, changes of directions in the same scene.

6) Shots without much sense where the main object of the shot is a stone, the ground, ...etc.

7) Mix of still images / video.

8) Dull, cheerless colours in most scenes.

9) No common colour scheme, brightness, white balance, or contrast throughout the video. There are many changes throughout the video.


- Subjective comments:

1) After watching the whole video, I can't get a general composition of what the place looks like: I've seen a lot of detail shots, but very few general shots of the place. It also doesn't help that the video jumps from one place to another without order and concert (that's what it looks like).

2) One question, how many other scenes did you shoot that you haven't used in the video? I get the feeling that the video is a race to try to show as much as possible in as little time as possible. In my case, with the music you have chosen, stuterring, accelerated shots, scenes with jerky movements, ... etc. it doesn't look good to me.

3) I don't like to see speeded up scenes when there are things that indicate to me that it's totally artificial: in your case, the water.

I hope my comments help you.

 

[Al Di]

Well, after watching the video I don't know where to start because I can make too mucho comments, many subjective and others objective, about the video. I will try to organise them, and focus on the most important ones, like this:

- Objective comments:

1) The video stutters, in many drone. and handheld camera shots, which leads me to believe that you have a problem with the fps of the timeline, render, or both.

2) Scenes out of focus, either by themselves, or by zoom applied in editing, as in .07.

3) Camera movements, or accelerated in editing, as in .11 that make the camera rolling shutter clearly visible.

4) Jerky movements of camera / drone in many, many scenes.

5) Non-continuous, non-uniform movement, changes of directions in the same scene.

6) Shots without much sense where the main object of the shot is a stone, the ground, ...etc.

7) Mix of still images / video.

8) Dull, cheerless colours in most scenes.

9) No common colour scheme, brightness, white balance, or contrast throughout the video. There are many changes throughout the video.


- Subjective comments:

1) After watching the whole video, I can't get a general composition of what the place looks like: I've seen a lot of detail shots, but very few general shots of the place. It also doesn't help that the video jumps from one place to another without order and concert (that's what it looks like).

2) One question, how many other scenes did you shoot that you haven't used in the video? I get the feeling that the video is a race to try to show as much as possible in as little time as possible. In my case, with the music you have chosen, stuterring, accelerated shots, scenes with jerky movements, ... etc. it doesn't look good to me.

3) I don't like to see speeded up scenes when there are things that indicate to me that it's totally artificial: in your case, the water.

I hope my comments help you.

Wow ... Thanks for the detailed critique. You have tapped into some of my issues. Hurried shots. Fly it arouand and see what I get. I can be very lazy at times You were astute to pick up on the fps problem. I realized belatedly that some of the footage was in 25fps and I converted it to 30fps in post. I noticed I had a rolling shutter problem. Do you have any suggestions as how to avoid the problem? Again thank you. I appreciate your time and effort.

The zooms in the drone shots were accomplished by filming in 4k and rendering it in 2k giving me a 2:1 zoom without loosing pixel resolution. Regarding colors ... hmmm I used d-cine and work on color in post. I noticed the dull colors. The trees were not leafed out which gave me issues. If I pump up the color the greens looked over saturated. I thought I had eeked out all that I could with the color. Any suggestions as to handling the colors in a dull scene?

After submitting this video for review, it is obvious it is far from my best ... which I guess is good. Peer reviews are a great learning experience no matter how old you are or how long you have been practicing your art. A Big thanks to all who are helping me be better at my art. Be well and safe flying.

 

[DiscoverSpain]

Wow ... Thanks for the detailed critique.

You're welcome!

You have tapped into some of my issues. Hurried shots. Fly it arouand and see what I get. I can be very lazy at times You were astute to pick up on the fps problem. I realized belatedly that some of the footage was in 25fps and I converted it to 30fps in post. I noticed I had a rolling shutter problem. Do you have any suggestions as how to avoid the problem? Again thank you. I appreciate your time and effort.

While shooting, use ND filters to reduce shutter speed. Shutter Speed, Frame Rate and the 180° Rule

Set timeline fps to the highest that the fotage have, use "Retime & Scaling" editor options to create needed frames on clips with missmatched fps. Render at same fps than timeline has.

The zooms in the drone shots were accomplished by filming in 4k and rendering it in 2k giving me a 2:1 zoom without loosing pixel resolution. Regarding colors ... hmmm I used d-cine and work on color in post. I noticed the dull colors. The trees were not leafed out which gave me issues. If I pump up the color the greens looked over saturated. I thought I had eeked out all that I could with the color. Any suggestions as to handling the colors in a dull scene?

There is no recipe that will lead you to correct the colours of a problematic scene, there are many methods and only practice will help. Try reducing the blue level a lot, reduce the red level of the scene a little and correct the white balance. This should improve the colours, but you will have to make a new adjustment for each scene (not all scenes have the same problem).

After submitting this video for review, it is obvious it is far from my best ... which I guess is good. Peer reviews are a great learning experience no matter how old you are or how long you have been practicing your art. A Big thanks to all who are helping me be better at my art. Be well and safe flying.

Honestly, and no offence intended, I think you overestimate your work, which prevents you from clearly seeing the problems with the video, and therefore trying to correct them.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing how your videos improve.