Post flight video editing; how many do it?

BingErr · Jan 28, 2019

Here's an example of my videos and what I'm talking about.

carlosdivega · Jan 28, 2019

Hi, I'm just learning to fly for video shooting.
But editing after flying is a must for me.
It's amazing what you can do with a 3D Lut with the video footage from a M2P (or similar copter) in H265 and appropriate color profile.

eutx9795 · Jan 28, 2019

Why don´t edit the footage? On edit is where the magic appears. Do you think this video will be the same without any edit or a fast edit?

bushie · Jan 28, 2019

I have recently discovered the "Drone Video Reviews" facebook page. Not good for the ego as you will find your work torn apart, but you learn a lot

BingErr · Jan 28, 2019

bushie said:
I have recently discovered the "Drone Video Reviews" facebook page. Not good for the ego as you will find your work torn apart, but you learn a lot

Keep in mind it takes years of constant practice to reach the levels of the pros. I'm happy when I look back at my own videos from a year ago and see how far I've come. Just realize you're competing with your old self, not the professionals.

Former Member · Jan 28, 2019

BingErr said:
Keep in mind it takes years of constant practice to reach the levels of the pros. I'm happy when I look back at my own videos from a year ago and see how far I've come. Just realize you're competing with your old self, not the professionals.

Do you eve go back and edit your old raw footage that you never edited before? Maybe do compilations or such?

Photo-Sorko · Jan 28, 2019

For editing time there's a rule of thumb: 1 minute footage takes one hour of editing.

BingErr · Jan 29, 2019

Thunderdrones said:
Do you eve go back and edit your old raw footage that you never edited before? Maybe do compilations or such?

Only a couple times. But I've thought recently about doing "1 year later" or "2 years later" videos. I've got footage of buildings being knocked down and built. City skylines that have changed. Fields and parks during different seasons. It would be nice to fly those locations again to do a "then and now" or "through the seasons" videos.

Moose1967 · Feb 11, 2019

With video editing you never ever have to worry about taking bad footage - it can always be cut out - one thing is I have my Mavic movements all toned down so that I don't make any sudden movements - also I have the tilt on the camera set to slow as well - be nice if you could be able to pick a set of "settings" once you start flying - instead you have to tweak each - DJI if you are reading there is a the challenge.

As to when to video you will know when - I can't wait till this summer !!!

Qoncussion · Feb 11, 2019

I'm guilty of running heavy triage on my footage. Only the best clips make it to the editing bay. Whenever possible I try to have a plan before I shoot. I no longer shoot random scenes. But I do do (yeah, I said do-do) a fair amount of editing. As a professional videographer, I have a reasonably fast editing process. Having a plan is how I produce gems like this:

Maviac · Feb 11, 2019

I’ve just gotten into doing some editing (Premiere Pro) but realize now that my fairly high-end (or so I thought; I spent the extra money to “future proof” it a little longer) 3-year-old computer is woefully underpowered for 4K editing and rendering, so I’ve got to go back to HD or buy a new computer.

BingErr · Feb 11, 2019

Maviac said:
I’ve just gotten into doing some editing (Premiere Pro) but realize now that my fairly high-end (or so I thought; I spent the extra money to “future proof” it a little longer) 3-year-old computer is woefully underpowered for 4K editing and rendering, so I’ve got to go back to HD or buy a new computer.

Laptop or desktop? If you have a desktop you may be able to upgrade the GPU and get some more life out of your unit. I've heard most video processing is done by the video card anyway. If you have a decent GPU and Adobe Premiere isn't using it then you may want to trouble shoot that here.
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2127947

Maviac · Feb 11, 2019

BingErr said:
Laptop or desktop? If you have a desktop you may be able to upgrade the GPU and get some more life out of your unit. I've heard most video processing is done by the video card anyway. If you have a decent GPU and Adobe Premiere isn't using it then you may want to trouble shoot that here.
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2127947

Thanks. I’ll look into it. I honestly haven’t had time to try to troubleshoot much yet, but I think my computer is just a little too slow. It’s a laptop (Surface i7) so unless I can find an external GPU that will work I’m stuck with the on-board hardware. But I’ll try to see what I can do. My limited research online isn’t promising, though.

BingErr · Feb 12, 2019

Maviac said:
Thanks. I’ll look into it. I honestly haven’t had time to try to troubleshoot much yet, but I think my computer is just a little too slow. It’s a laptop (Surface i7) so unless I can find an external GPU that will work I’m stuck with the on-board hardware. But I’ll try to see what I can do. My limited research online isn’t promising, though.

I don't think an external GPU exists that could provide what you need. It's a bummer that the surface isn't cutting it. I was just reading an article reviewing an i5 Surface for 4k video editing and they say it's quite underwhelming.
What it's like to edit video on the Surface Laptop
When I'm traveling I use an underpowered laptop for editing but I maxed out the RAM and installed an solid state drive. Still, it's slow, and sometimes takes hours to do a pre-render. I try to add as few clips as possible to my workflow. Editing short 1-2 minute videos works the best when I'm editing on that laptop.

Coskier · Mar 7, 2019

Thunderdrones said:
Ok, another thought. Does anyone shoot, and then note while they are shooting at what minute and second something significant happened to make sure it doesnt get dropped on the cutting room floor?

I am presently debating a change in my workflow, to do editing from Lumafusion on my iPad 2018 with the video source files stored in the cloud somewhere. As such, I am thinking it will be important for me to catalog each video file I decide to save, with entries noting the time of something interesting, as well as what that interesting thing is. I don't have a huge library of footage yet, so I am thinking this is a good time to start. I think I have interesting stuff though, from rivers and forests in Colorado, to red rock formations in Vegas, to Saguaro and pecan orchards in Arizona, to a big river and bridge in Austin, TX to the coast in Italy. Would be immensely helpful to know where the good stuff is in each file. Just moved from the Air to the M2P (well, got the M2P yesterday, hasn't been in the air yet), so we'll see if I go for more stills vs video.

Here's a couple I shot.

the Travel Boost · Mar 8, 2019

In our case, we always go out to shoot knowing that we will post that video. So, first we try to think about a "story" and then we try to shot as close as possible as what we have in mind.

And about the edition, we use Adobe Premier Pro, it's pretty complete and not so difficult to learn. The result can be very cinematic.

This is a video recorded with a DJI Drone Mavic Pro and edited with Premier Pro.