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Northwest Arkansas – What can I do to improve?

DJ Wes

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Location
Springdale, AR, USA
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www.litchiutilities.com
I often see wonderful videos of interesting places displayed here by others. I currently live in Northwest Arkansas. There are not many (any?) exciting things here to showcase. Would you take a look at this video and make any suggestions on how I might improve it? I’m open to any suggestions (except for moving).


Thanks in advance for your feedback.
 
Don't be so hard on Northwest Arkansas! You've got quite a lot to work with there and some interesting subjects.

The video itself isn't bad, but in the main you have just one shot - rotate/orbit around subject at pretty much always the same height. Every cut in the video jumps to the next subject bang in the middle of frame. There's no anticipation on the viewers part.

Especially with the bridges, you might try some much lower shots, maybe rising up while panning upwards to reveal the subject. Or start in close and fly backwards to reveal the full expanse of the bridge.

Depending on exactly how abandoned it is, the area at 20 seconds looks to have some great areas for closer flying and interesting angles.

Obviously a lot of these shots take more skill/risk so obviously only go for them if you've got confidence ?

Personally I wasn't a fan of the caption sound effect, or the visual style but that is just a preferenece so don't necessarily listen to me. On the other hand it was really nice to have some basic data overlaid about what I'm looking at rather than "just another video of things near a drone pilot" ?
 
I often see wonderful videos of interesting places displayed here by others. I currently live in Northwest Arkansas. There are not many (any?) exciting things here to showcase. Would you take a look at this video and make any suggestions on how I might improve it? I’m open to any suggestions (except for moving).


Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Ditto to what @Malcx said. I have similar issues trying to make a flatland, countryside full of trees interesting where I live in Michigan.
  • Continue to do what you did in your video... namely have a "theme", some kind of topic that ties things together and tells a story. For example, one could make a video covering just bridges, or old barns or abandoned houses.
  • Don't repeat similar shots of the same subject from the same point of view, but provide a different perspective by getting closer. Maybe try a close flyby, or maybe a dolly zoom. Look for the shot that makes the viewer ask "how'd he do that?"
  • Add a fade transition between different subjects. But don't use such fancy transitions simply because you can... the video is about your subject, not the fancy transition.
  • If you can, do not include things in your composed field of view that are unrelated to the subject. Watch the Chris Bray Photography course on YouTube. He covers composition.
  • If appropriate, use a temporal approach to your subjects... which one comes first, second, etc. Sometimes there are no temporal aspects of a theme.
  • And look for flight movement spikes... eliminate rapid yaws and gimbal pitching during post.
  • Keep your clips 3 to 4 seconds long. This is difficult and I violate this all the time. But it's good to strive for. If you have a long clip, break it up into thirds or fifths, then cut every other segment and fade between the remaining segments. This makes a long clip short while playing in real time.
  • If you're posting on YouTube, try to capture in 4k, 30fps, and render in H264 at 40 to 45 mbps otherwise, YouTube can make some shots and fade transitions look pixelated.
  • Finally, watch major motion pictures and observe what professional cinematographers do. You will be amazed at what the pro's do when you pay attention.
I hope some of this makes sense.
 
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Good critiques. Follow that advice. I would add, keep shots of one thing grouped together, like the concrete bridge, Mix-up the angles and height but keep all those bridge shots together. You could even try flying under the bridges. Definitely, get lower, especially around the barn that looks like a pirate ship. That is so unusual and fun, I want to see more. You might be able to color grade more too, bring out the warmth of the shots to go with that music. Overall though, good job. Last thought, if you could get a bunch of guys to agree to let you shooting aerials of them as they play paint ball, that would be cool. You'd have to do your best not to fly over people but I'll bet you could get close enough and still not be above people to get good video. You could even mix in some ground level GoPro video with that. Then have fun with some rockin' music on that kind of video!
 
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I often see wonderful videos of interesting places displayed here by others. I currently live in Northwest Arkansas. There are not many (any?) exciting things here to showcase. Would you take a look at this video and make any suggestions on how I might improve it? I’m open to any suggestions (except for moving).


Thanks in advance for your feedback.
I watched all the way through. I must admit there are not a lot of interesting subjects, so you have to make it more interesting than just a mishmash of scenes, circling various structures, abandoned buildings, rivers, and roads. To make matters even worse, you added a popping noise and title in the middle of the images. I was startled at the first one. No one actually cares, I think, when a bridge was built , or whatever, unless it is really historic. Let the film speak for itself. Finally, the grandiose classical music was really not appropriate, although it was probably free of royalty rights risks. As a plus, I can say that your clips are great at 3-6 seconds or so, and the overall film is not unduly long.

I would try to mix up the scenes with some lower or higher angles, add video from another source on the ground level, like your iPhone video, a GoPro or Osmo Action camera, or an Osmo Pocket. Even good still images mixed in would add variation. I think that in this countryside you have wonderful old barns, livestock, maybe a waterfall. Shoot those cows or horses or old cars up close. Or a close up off the very river you show from the air, but with the drone going along above the surface for about 100-200 feet. And there is alway your car, which can take you to more interesting venues for future filming. I routinely seek out sites as much as a one to 1 1/4 hours away. Just this last week I drove an hour from my home in Miami to Key Largo to shoot.

Remember, in photography, it is not what is before your eyes, but what is BEHIND your eyes, that makes the image.

Not that I am any Ansel Adams or Cecil B. De Mille, but here is a link to my video website. Watch this example of one of the last I have published.


Dale
Miami
 
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No one actually cares, I think, when a bridge was built , or whatever, unless it is really historic.

I actually disagree on this, for me it added a bit of interest, especially as someone very much not from that part of the world. I wouldn't want to see it on every video but it was a nice quirky change that brought something personal to the scene. But yes I'd 100% change the style and remove the sound effect.
 
I actually disagree on this, for me it added a bit of interest, especially as someone very much not from that part of the world. I wouldn't want to see it on every video but it was a nice quirky change that brought something personal to the scene. But yes I'd 100% change the style and remove the sound effect.
We are all computer savvy and know how to find facts by Googling, etc. When I put up a video and there is important or explanatory information such as my recent sunrise video, I put it into the written description of the video. The facts in the video body itself take away from the artistic enjoyment of the film. See the description in this video for an example.
 
We are all computer savvy and know how to find facts by Googling, etc. When I put up a video and there is important or explanatory information such as my recent sunrise video, I put it into the written description of the video. The facts in the video body itself take away from the artistic enjoyment of the film. See the description in this video for an example.

Sorry, what description in that video? Embeded as it is here all I know is that's a Miami sunrise and uses a lot of timelapse. I'm not sure that pure artistic enjoyment is the only purpose of many videos either, for some audiences yes but not always.
 
Sorry, what description in that video? Embeded as it is here all I know is that's a Miami sunrise and uses a lot of timelapse. I'm not sure that pure artistic enjoyment is the only purpose of many videos either, for some audiences yes but not always.
OK- I'll answer this although I think you are looking for an argument which I am not going to get into. It's a matter of opinion, naturally. To answer your question, if you go the the Vimeo link, on the link you will see the description, which can be as detailed as I want it to be.

You asked for feedback and your heading was, "what can I do to make this better." Then, when I give you a frank answer, you give me a hard time. If you do not want a different opinion, then don't ask for feedback.
 
Hi @Dale D you seem to have got a bit confused. I'm not the OP and didn't post this video or request feedback.

I wasn't trying to get in to an argument with you, just point out that extra info in the description is kinda pointless. The way vimeo gets embedded in the page, once I've clicked play on the video there is no obvious way to get to the description as many users don't know to click on the vimeo branding.

In my original comment to you I was simply disagreeing with your assertion that "no one" cares about the extra information in the original video on this thread. I'm not a fan of copious use of time lapse, but I wouldn't ever suggest that no one likes them.

It is as you say, all a matter of opinion.
 
Hi Wes,
almost everyting was said by others about your video. My two cents: Do also try to make very low flying shots, as for example fly underneath the bridge. Or through the bridge at 1.15 Don´t forget to make some nice closeup shots of every subject you can find on the area.
At 0.44 one can see a kind of pond on the other side of the highway, why not make some nice shots there? Or for example make some closeup shots at low level from the wreck at 1,47 At 1.59 there is a sandbank in the middle of the river. There you could fly by very low at about 6ft high. At 2.17 there is a rotten shed nearby the ship wreck. Sone closeup would be nice. There are always subject which can be shown in a interesting way, even such banale ones as a rotten shed1
happy flying and cheers Paul
 
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I agree with most comments above. Your footage/flying is very good, but the whole video looks too similar. The one thing I would add would be to shoot some sunrise/sunset shots to mix in. With some of the advice you could make a very nice video that would be very enjoyable to locals.

I've gotta give you a bit of a hard time on moving though - being a mountain guy from WA I can't imagine staying put in AR, or most places in the mid-west (I have visited friends near Harrison and enjoyed the hill country for a few days, but couldn't survive summer). I've often wondered why so many mid-westerners buy drones to take pictures/videos of water towers, towns, and farms, but that is my personal jaded view.
 
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My take on pretty much all drone video's is that if you are doing a video about a town / place / or whatever don't make it entirely drone footage. Mix the footage from the drone with ground based footage or stills. Add some local history even - tell a story!
 
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