Divefilm HD - Sharks

I have just watched the latest divefilm hd podcast. I would like to congratulate to Shawnh for his work, I enjoyed very much, the editing and the nice chapter "headlines" were excellent. I like the especially those frames, where the cameraman is visible in mirror in the big-big bubble:-)

Jules

Thanks Jules. I was fortunate enough to have some great subject matter to choose from. The bubble shot is one of my favorites. have to position just so the bubble gets as big as possible before it pops:)

Wow! Very envious of your experiences on this trip Shawn. It seems to me that despite all the hammer encounters one can enjoy at Layang Layang, Galapagos, Malpelo and other 'hammerhead city' locations, the Cocos really take the biscuit for sheer numbers and close encounters.

I notice you are using a lot of split screen editing these days Shawn - is that so you can cram as many clips of the same thing into a limited time space, or what is your criteria for using the technique? It looks very snazzy, but sometimes I think it can detract from a killer shot. I love these post prod techniques, but like all powerful household utilities they should come with a 'use sparingly' label. Hope I'm not being too harsh.

Really like the momentary 'flash zoom' effect which one hardly sees but adds impact.

Also the rays sequence is magical! Wonderful stuff.

BTW I'm really pissed off you didn't invite me on this one ...

For those of you who don't have these podcasts automatically set up, the link for this vid is http://divefilmhd.com/HD%20Podcast3.html

And for others like me who were wondering why it wasn't showing up, this HD one is a completely different podcast to the older one. You need to subscribe to it separately.

Really nice video Shawn. I enjoyed that a lot and it looks great in 480p.

Didn't mind the extensive use of split screen myself and the editing was nice and tight, giving me the urge to watch it again. The music was spot on and dramatic. The titles/effects looked really professional.

I'm pretty sure you were using the super wide angle on some of that. I particularly noticed that around the stingray sequences... shots I couldn't have quite got with the 80-degree. And looked like there was less distortion around the edges compared to that previous mola mola clip you posted.

"giving me the urge to watch it again."

Yes, it was my feeling also. I think this feeling is very important, because it shows (at least for me) that there is so much to see and I must see it again and again...

I hope it is not offtopic, but the first short film which raised the same feeling was the arctic film of Göran Ehlmé, you can watch it here: Göran Ehlmé's film

Jules

Apart from the nice speedy pace and of course the awesome content, I think the split-screen material helps create this "watch again" feeling because there's not quite enough time to fully take in what's going on in each of those three windows.

I'm constantly fascinated by the effect on the viewer of different pacing, and the choice of which clips to keep short and which to let linger. Sometimes the length of my clips can simply depend on my mood at the time. If I'm editing tired I might let clips run to even an average of say 6 seconds, giving the eye time to wander over the picture, but if I've just had strong coffee they might come out nearer 3 seconds

There's nothing worse than a video that's paced too slow and bores the viewer.

Hey guys,

Really appreciate the feedback and positive comments. I put a good deal of time into this flick. I started by cutting a "lean" 30 min sequence. Then put it down for a bit. Came back and painfully butchered down to 10 mins. Then, having put on the restraints and downed the pain killers, i amputated, severed and brutally cut down to just over 6 minutes. It was very painful and i felt i was ruining the whole thing. Now several months later, i find myself mostly watching the shortest version (i kept all 3) and really liking the pace.

Nick J., the split screens are actually used sparingly. I use this technique to introduce distinct segments of the film. My objective is to give the viewer a fleeting taste of what is to come next but not enough to satiate them...leaving them wanting to see more. As they then get comfortable with the next segment, i do it again. Repeat through the film and i hope it keeps their full attention on the entire film. I think of these as mini trailers. Also, i have come to like that zoom/gamma effect, but only for very impactful moments.

Music is a big part of this. I wanted ominous and med-fast paced. My goal was to have the viewer feel like they were on a bit of a roller-coaster ride. Varying the temp but always pushing it up with the action.

Nich H., most of my clips are in the 3-4 second time frame. The exceptinon is powerful and unique footage like the huge schools of hammers. When the pace is slow, i tend to use longer clips. For fast pace, i use shorter. For machine gun/strobe effect i use fractions of a second.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed and look forward to any other helpful feedback.

Hi All,

My apologies for being so absent from the forum recently--been traveling and tinkering with new venues, the new DiveFilmHD.com website, and new encoding specs in anticipation of the just-released AppleTV. (Mine is en route, which should lead to even more tinkering with encodes after I get hooked up and begin to test videos.)

Shawn's "Realm of the Sharks" is wonderful! Please check it out if you haven't already. And with the new DiveFilmHD presence viewers can watch it in a higher definition resolution, and subscribe to these new hd vids as DiveFilmHD podcasts so that subscribers will automatically receive new episodes when they're posted. These hd vids are *not* compatible with iPods. For iPod versions, we'll continue to release the original DiveFilm Podcast Video episodes.

Here's where all the tinkering has come in. Not yet actually having an AppleTV box to test with (it arrives Friday!) and relying on video compatibility specs from the Apple website, I'm trying to encode vids that will be compatible, yet not have immense file sizes. (Of course, this is all relative, and my apologies to those who are on low-speed internet connections by necessity and likely consider anything in the MBs to be large.)

QuickTime Pro now has an "Apple TV" default export setting, which I've used for Shawn's hd podcast version. That should be compatible with AppleTV. However, it doesn't work well as a "fast-start" download web video. So I've added a second version, which is now what you get when you click on the image for Shawn's vid at DiveFilmHD. Whether this version will also be compatible with AppleTV is something we'll know once we can do some testing with the actual box.

So there, you have it. Lots of tinkering. And a huge thank you Shawn, and everyone checking out the videos, for your patience with this whole process. And hope you all enjoy the new DiveFilm HD videos!

Mary Lynn