Mavic Video - Wedding in Santa Barbara,CA - Constructive Criticism Wanted

[Shaneoc]

Hey All,

So let me give you a quick background on this video. So I attended a wedding in Santa Barbara a few weeks ago and the Bride and Groom got wind I had my mavic with me and wanted some photos/video made. So they asked me the night before the wedding would I be able to grab some shots for them. Obviously I obliged and was honoured to capture some of the occasion.

Issues I Had:
1.
So, I was very busy prior to the wedding and I only managed to grab a few quick coastal shots which you will see at the start of the video. The venue for the ceremony was right downtown Santa Barbara and was in quite a built up area, I manage to grab a few shots of the venue from above prior to the ceremony but with limited space I couldn't really capture anything close to the ground.

2.
Next, i joined them for there photos at a church 10min drive away but we only stayed max 25mins and it was mainly the photographer leading the charge as obviously he had a paid gig and the photos were planned long in advance.

3. So I grabbed an awesome POI of the two of them embracing each other and of course forgot to press record, was really kicking myself about that. Anyways they did a special dance back at the venue and wanted it recorded so I grabbed all of it from about 15m up and thats what you will see at the end of the video.

Overall I am not happy with the video and the way it flows, transitions etc. , I had such limited footage to work with it ,so that made it very challenging. The photographer was in the way a lot of the time, and we were in a rush to get back to the wedding venue and guests.
The photos turned out great and I know some are being printed on canvas already by the bride and groom.

So I welcome all constructive criticism on all aspects of the video so I can make some improvements before I sent it to people. I showed some of the family yesterday and they thought it was great but as you can tell I am far from happy.

Video edited,color graded with FCPX. Cinematic ND 16 Filter used on the day.

Thanks all.

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[Top Hat]

Video unavailable.
Thanks for posting...will chk back later....thnx!

 

[Shaneoc]

Video unavailable.
Thanks for posting...will chk back later....thnx!

Should be good to go now, it was set to private.

 

[Geo]

I liked it

 

[ttommla]

Nice job looks professional

 

[frankiez]

Looks great. Good job!

 

[GPMAN]

I think you did an amazing job. You came up with great ideas showing the marina and the over view of the building and the area. I am wondering how the video quality degraded. I guess when you uploaded to youtube something wasn't set as high as possible. Anyway, you definitely have some director in you.

 

[Shaneoc]

I liked it

Looks great. Good job!

Thank you guys!

I think you did an amazing job. You came up with great ideas showing the marina and the over view of the building and the area. I am wondering how the video quality degraded. I guess when you uploaded to youtube something wasn't set as high as possible. Anyway, you definitely have some director in you.

Thanks GPMAN, much appreciated. I am not sure why the video quality also degraded, I think I created the project by mistake in 1080p rather than in 4k and later exporting and compressing it to 1080p.

 

[Shaneoc]

Nice job looks professional

Thank you. I guess I am my own biggest critic when it comes to the final product.

 

[Nomand Eloc]

To be honest the color is way off. It's far too saturated and quite a bit of the highlight are overexposed. The overly green grass is a distraction. I work just north of SB and I went to school in Santa Barbara so I know how the place looks in a more neutral setting.

 

[JGhost]

I like the overall aspect of your video. However, I am confused at some of your transitions and compositions. You asked, so here goes. I apologize if this is tough reading. I'm old school and my mentors didn't hold back when it came to video on tripods or hand-held and now the same with my crane and dolly shots with my drones. But I still have a long ways to go.
1. compose an opening and closing (one shot of the ocean and transition to the wedding). One coastal shot coming in and one going out would suffice.
1.a. I was confused watching a nice shot of the coast and then a boat and another of a different angle of the coast and then the marina and then the land...etc. Was the boat just a happenstance or were the couple aboard that? If not, this takes us to point 2.
2. This is about the wedding, the people and venue. What is the actual subject? I was trying to determine if you were just out shooting and happened across a wedding. Some great shots but again, what was the subject? The boat here made no sense to me. But it was a great shot. Was the wedding party thrilled to see it?
2.a. The shot rising from the chairs into a spiral effect was nice. But I think in this case, less is better. No need for a turn at 100+ feet. It was distracting. Compose the shot going out and enjoy the view. Again, less is more here.
3. The shot of the couple holding hands in front of the building was beautiful! NICE! Like the use of color (or lack thereof). Well done.
3.a. You broke to a previous shot of the venue (chairs) and you were spinning. It was a cool shot but turned fast. Very slow is better here in that it lends to motion but not "action". Your speed had me thinking action.
3.b. You then broke back to the building with the bride/groom missing this time. Where'd they go?
4. The shots of them with the photographer is nice. How about a slow pan to the left or right. Adding motion...but again...SLOW is key.
4.a. The waving is an outstanding shot and great for your second to last shot before closing with a fly away towards the coast as mentioned in 1. above. I may have used the running away shot prior to this as a way to say, "we're about to wrap up. Be prepared". Then, have them waving with your fly away and then a transition to the close of the coast and fade-out.

Overall, I get being rushed. It blows! I truly abhor being rushed. When I am rushed, I tend to concentrate more on my subject and pray I can catch "B" roll later. If have no time for B roll, well, time to get creative with the photographer and collaborate IF they will allow you to use some of their stills. If not, B roll the next day isn't a bad thing unless you had to have the finished product to them that evening.

I like your effort and your eye. I have a buddy in Japan that calls a good eye a, "Gajun eye". Don't ask because I have no idea where he got that term. Seriously, video is not easy. Yes, it is photography that is moving. We all get that. But when adding pan; tilt; zoom (fly-in/out); crane; and dolly, these only tend to add to an already maxed out thought pattern for compositions. Well, for me at least. So, back to my apparent theme and what I had drilled into my head a billion and one time. Less is more. I'd rather have a 30 second movie that tells the story well than a 3 minute video that is disjointed. Trust me...I have made too many of those and I hate pulling them up and seeing some of my work from years ago. But we all start somewhere.

I poked around a bit looking for different transitions for some of my work. This guy actually did a great job explaining them and providing good examples. He is not the be all end all...but every little bit helps.

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Again, some awesome shots. I look forward to seeing more from you. You composition will continue to lend to your efforts and you already have that eye...

 

[Shaneoc]

This is exactly what I needed, thank you JGhost for taking the time to write such an informative post. I have made some comments below in red to clarify some things. I will def be taking some of your recommendations into account and reediting the video.

I like the overall aspect of your video. However, I am confused at some of your transitions and compositions. You asked, so here goes. I apologize if this is tough reading. I'm old school and my mentors didn't hold back when it came to video on tripods or hand-held and now the same with my crane and dolly shots with my drones. But I still have a long ways to go.
1. compose an opening and closing (one shot of the ocean and transition to the wedding). One coastal shot coming in and one going out would suffice. Agreed, I wanted to finish off with the night shot as that was really the end of the day rather than going to the night shot and back to a coastal shot to finish off.
1.a. I was confused watching a nice shot of the coast and then a boat and another of a different angle of the coast and then the marina and then the land...etc. Was the boat just a happenstance or were the couple aboard that? They were not on board, this footage of coast and boat was captured the day before the wedding. If not, this takes us to point 2.
2. This is about the wedding, the people and venue. What is the actual subject? I was trying to determine if you were just out shooting and happened across a wedding. Some great shots but again, what was the subject? The boat here made no sense to me. But it was a great shot. Was the wedding party thrilled to see it? True, I plan to remove the boat shot.
2.a. The shot rising from the chairs into a spiral effect was nice. But I think in this case, less is better. No need for a turn at 100+ feet. It was distracting. Compose the shot going out and enjoy the view. Again, less is more here. Agreed,will remove the aerial pan.
3. The shot of the couple holding hands in front of the building was beautiful! NICE! Like the use of color (or lack thereof). Well done. Yes i particularly love this shot but because I wanted images as well I stop recording and switched to photo capture mode, would have liked another few secs of this.
3.a. You broke to a previous shot of the venue (chairs) and you were spinning. It was a cool shot but turned fast. Very slow is better here in that it lends to motion but not "action". Your speed had me thinking action. Agreed, slower is better too for this I think I was trying to match the music here.
3.b. You then broke back to the building with the bride/groom missing this time. Where'd they go? This was captured right before we left,think they were getting into the car to leave, I was hoping to do some sort of transition from the shot in #2a above to this to get the full perspective of the church.In post editing i decided that the two shots wouldnt really work together, any susgestions?
4. The shots of them with the photographer is nice. How about a slow pan to the left or right. Adding motion...but again...SLOW is key.10/4
4.a. The waving is an outstanding shot and great for your second to last shot before closing with a fly away towards the coast as mentioned in 1. above. I may have used the running away shot prior to this as a way to say, "we're about to wrap up. Be prepared". Then, have them waving with your fly away and then a transition to the close of the coast and fade-out. As mentioned above I wanted the night shot/dancing to be the last few clips as this was the end of the night and didnt want to switch back to daytime footage again.I do agree that the wave is a good close out shot or close to close out shot.

Overall, I get being rushed. It blows! I truly abhor being rushed. When I am rushed, I tend to concentrate more on my subject and pray I can catch "B" roll later. If have no time for B roll, well, time to get creative with the photographer and collaborate IF they will allow you to use some of their stills. If not, B roll the next day isn't a bad thing unless you had to have the finished product to them that evening.
I dont have much experience incorporating still images into video, not amind aerial footage. I had no time for B roll after the fact. Any suggestions? I am sure they would give me access to the stills.

I like your effort and your eye. I have a buddy in Japan that calls a good eye a, "Gajun eye". Don't ask because I have no idea where he got that term. Seriously, video is not easy. Yes, it is photography that is moving. We all get that. But when adding pan; tilt; zoom (fly-in/out); crane; and dolly, these only tend to add to an already maxed out thought pattern for compositions. Well, for me at least. So, back to my apparent theme and what I had drilled into my head a billion and one time. Less is more. I'd rather have a 30 second movie that tells the story well than a 3 minute video that is disjointed. Trust me...I have made too many of those and I hate pulling them up and seeing some of my work from years ago. But we all start somewhere.

I poked around a bit looking for different transitions for some of my work. This guy actually did a great job explaining them and providing good examples. He is not the be all end all...but every little bit helps.

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Thank you
Again, some awesome shots. I look forward to seeing more from you. You composition will continue to lend to your efforts and you already have that eye...

Thank you again for all of your review, I truly appreciate the time you took on this and look forward now to reediting the video and seeing what you think.Stay tuned, I will have this done in a day or two.

 

[Shaneoc]

To be honest the color is way off. It's far too saturated and quite a bit of the highlight are overexposed. The overly green grass is a distraction. I work just north of SB and I went to school in Santa Barbara so I know how the place looks in a more neutral setting.

I have to agree the green grass is def over saturated I have to fix this. Lucky you growing up in SB, lovely city.

 

[Rbruz]

I like the overall aspect of your video. However, I am confused at some of your transitions and compositions. You asked, so here goes. I apologize if this is tough reading. I'm old school and my mentors didn't hold back when it came to video on tripods or hand-held and now the same with my crane and dolly shots with my drones. But I still have a long ways to go.
1. compose an opening and closing (one shot of the ocean and transition to the wedding). One coastal shot coming in and one going out would suffice.
1.a. I was confused watching a nice shot of the coast and then a boat and another of a different angle of the coast and then the marina and then the land...etc. Was the boat just a happenstance or were the couple aboard that? If not, this takes us to point 2.
2. This is about the wedding, the people and venue. What is the actual subject? I was trying to determine if you were just out shooting and happened across a wedding. Some great shots but again, what was the subject? The boat here made no sense to me. But it was a great shot. Was the wedding party thrilled to see it?
2.a. The shot rising from the chairs into a spiral effect was nice. But I think in this case, less is better. No need for a turn at 100+ feet. It was distracting. Compose the shot going out and enjoy the view. Again, less is more here.
3. The shot of the couple holding hands in front of the building was beautiful! NICE! Like the use of color (or lack thereof). Well done.
3.a. You broke to a previous shot of the venue (chairs) and you were spinning. It was a cool shot but turned fast. Very slow is better here in that it lends to motion but not "action". Your speed had me thinking action.
3.b. You then broke back to the building with the bride/groom missing this time. Where'd they go?
4. The shots of them with the photographer is nice. How about a slow pan to the left or right. Adding motion...but again...SLOW is key.
4.a. The waving is an outstanding shot and great for your second to last shot before closing with a fly away towards the coast as mentioned in 1. above. I may have used the running away shot prior to this as a way to say, "we're about to wrap up. Be prepared". Then, have them waving with your fly away and then a transition to the close of the coast and fade-out.

Overall, I get being rushed. It blows! I truly abhor being rushed. When I am rushed, I tend to concentrate more on my subject and pray I can catch "B" roll later. If have no time for B roll, well, time to get creative with the photographer and collaborate IF they will allow you to use some of their stills. If not, B roll the next day isn't a bad thing unless you had to have the finished product to them that evening.

I like your effort and your eye. I have a buddy in Japan that calls a good eye a, "Gajun eye". Don't ask because I have no idea where he got that term. Seriously, video is not easy. Yes, it is photography that is moving. We all get that. But when adding pan; tilt; zoom (fly-in/out); crane; and dolly, these only tend to add to an already maxed out thought pattern for compositions. Well, for me at least. So, back to my apparent theme and what I had drilled into my head a billion and one time. Less is more. I'd rather have a 30 second movie that tells the story well than a 3 minute video that is disjointed. Trust me...I have made too many of those and I hate pulling them up and seeing some of my work from years ago. But we all start somewhere.

I poked around a bit looking for different transitions for some of my work. This guy actually did a great job explaining them and providing good examples. He is not the be all end all...but every little bit helps.

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Again, some awesome shots. I look forward to seeing more from you. You composition will continue to lend to your efforts and you already have that eye...

Seen this before, great tips indeed !

 

[JGhost]

Thank you again for all of your review, I truly appreciate the time you took on this and look forward now to reediting the video and seeing what you think.Stay tuned, I will have this done in a day or two.

You're very welcome.

3.b. You then broke back to the building with the bride/groom missing this time. Where'd they go? This was captured right before we left,think they were getting into the car to leave, I was hoping to do some sort of transition from the shot in #2a above to this to get the full perspective of the church.In post editing i decided that the two shots wouldnt really work together, any susgestions?
This is a tough one. Me, I would have just left it on the cutting room floor. But it's a great shot. So...maybe move part of the timeline way early to show the building? It's tough because you're doing a crane "away" and you really want it moving towards the building to show that you're coming into the wedding. But, it could also be used as an "unveiling". I was going to suggest reversing and slowing it by at least 50%. The issue there is the cars in the street on the right. They would be traveling backwards (NOPE...don't do it...ha ha).
So, let's just say for sake that this is all the clips we have to work with. Definitely enough to tell "the story".

Use the timeline from 08 > :15 and then use the building (in color). Slow it down in your software by X percent (50% maybe?? which will give you 50% longer time on screen. 6 second shot becomes 9. 4 second shot becomes 6...etc.). Use this to "unveil". If you use the 50% as suggested, your shot should go from 4 seconds to nearly 6 seconds. You can slow further, but it may look weird with the car barely moving. You'll have to play with it.

I would play with your timeline and keep like shots from being brought back a second time. For example, you see the couple waving and reverse fly away. Then, running in the grass and then another shot of them in a fly away and then another shot of them walking in the grass. Once is enough. Unless we are time travelers, humans don't see this way (I wish I could time travel...anyone with a working model yet? Ha ha). My suggestion for this clip...start at 1:22>1:25 cut to 1:29>1:34. Two shots, back to back...says it all. IF it is playing in my head the way I think, this should work. But again, sometimes playing with the timeline and figuring out if that works will sometimes show that it just doesn't.

Here is the biggest key. Unless you have a guaranteed contractual reason why it has to be done by a certain time, cut your timelines together and then walk away for at least an hour. You have to do something, anything at all to get your mind completely off the cuts you did. Taking an extra day to cut a wedding together is worth it. Remember, they are going to keep this as long as they are together and they WILL watch it again. Could be 3 years or 30. You never know. Take your time to get it right. Example, I shot a wedding in Vegas in January. I have spent way longer than I should have on editing. I had a new gimbal (ground shots (hand-held)) that I was working with and other things that played into some horribly composed or poor quality shots. So, to the floor those have gone. Now, I have less to work with and NO, I don't have access to the stills. So, I'm taking a while to get it done. I have just enough "B" roll to compose a nice story. The best part is, they got married in Vegas in January but not having the reception until June. They told me that I have time. Thankfully!

Sorry for the novel.

Here is a quick timeline from my perspective. The times are used as if I had your video and broke it out to a timeline as it is and then used a razor to cut the current line into pieces for re-order. Please keep in mind, I'm trying to put the timeline together in my head:
Start 0:08 > 0:15 (this works if people don't pay attention to the reverse horizon)
Cut
1:11 > 1:15
Cut
0:21 > 0:38
Cut
0:57 > 1:02.5 (I'm guessing you are going to be in between a time frame here...hence the .5)
Cut
1:16 > 1:27
Cut
1:29 > 1:34.5 (again..maybe between a full second here??)
Cut
1:49 > 2:24 (couple dance) (your composition at 2:00 was perfect. I've been there where you panned up and could have left it where it was. Shot still works. You might be able to zoom in using post production tools and bring the couple back to center)
BLUR CUT
(Time blur to move to faster dancing with group because 20 extra seconds of the couple dancing is a bit long (in my humble opinion) unless they are pros. Yes, even they will get bored after 10 seconds)
2:45 (let it run to the end) > end
your transitions at the end were great....let it fade out as you did.

By the way....however YOU cut this together that makes YOU happy is ALL THAT MATTERS!

Happy editing!

 

[JGhost]

Oh...one thing I forgot to note. This MP shoots in 4k. If you are shooting in 4k, do NOT stop your video and take a still. The 4k video should have at least one or two GREAT frames that you can do a screen capture from. I do this quite a bit. It saves me from ruining the video composition or from having to shoot a comp twice to get the still AND the video.

 

[Shaneoc]

Oh...one thing I forgot to note. This MP shoots in 4k. If you are shooting in 4k, do NOT stop your video and take a still. The 4k video should have at least one or two GREAT frames that you can do a screen capture from. I do this quite a bit. It saves me from ruining the video composition or from having to shoot a comp twice to get the still AND the video.

Ok guys, I spent some time last night picking the video apart, chopping and deleting, changed some transitions, toned down the saturation, centered the couple dancing. Now I am much happier with the end product.
Jghost I am insterested to hear your thoughts now.

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[Rbruz]

Much Better !!!

 

[Shaneoc]

Much Better !!!

Thank you

 

[CashCache]

Ok guys, I spent some time last night picking the video apart, chopping and deleting, changed some transitions, toned down the saturation, centered the couple dancing. Now I am much happier with the end product.
Jghost I am insterested to hear your thoughts now.

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Very nice. That was fun to watch.