Lembeh Promotional Video

FYI, here is some of my recent work.

I visited Bunaken and Lembeh twice in late 2010 and early 2011 to put together a promotional video for Two Fish Divers. Lembeh, as always, yielded a huge number of weird critters, only a few of which are in this video. I am also working on a Lembeh critter identification DVD.

This short video is for promoting the Two Fish Lembeh resort on the web. I made a similar one for Two Fish Bunaken. And one each of a longer, music-only Bluray video for use at dive shows.

The experienced guides at Two Fish were an essential ingredient.

http://www.peterwalker.com/peterwalker.com/Lembeh.html

Shot with Sony CX550 in a L&M housing with Sola 1200 lights. Edited in FCP 7 and SoundTrack. Music by SonicFire 5.

Regards

Peter

Hi Peter,

Looks like fun. Speaking strictly as a prospective client, I would have liked to see a couple more shots of the cabins interior. I'm not sure I would have cut in the shot showing the three chairs packed around the little table right after telling how "spacious" it is.

Loved all the critter shots, the mating blue rings sequence is killer!

Thanks for sharing with us!

Steve

Hey Peter (or Steve for that matter),

Is there a particular program or software that is used to do that opening scene where the plane flys from one spot to another? Sometimes folks will ask me where such-and-such is when I go diving so that may be a good way to show them when I do a video.

By the way Steve, I may be sharing a skiff with you in the Cocos!

Is there a particular program or software that is used to do that opening scene where the plane flys from one spot to another? Sometimes folks will ask me where such-and-such is when I go diving so that may be a good way to show them when I do a video.

I use Motion, included in Final Cut Studio. The map is made from a 1920x1080 screen shot of Google Earth. The plane was a clip art, maybe from PowerPoint, cleaned up and saved with an invisbile backgraound in PhotoShop. Getting the plane to the follow the line is easy in Motion, once you've got your head around "behaviours".

Regards

Peter

Hi Peter,

Looks like fun. Speaking strictly as a prospective client, I would have liked to see a couple more shots of the cabins interior. I'm not sure I would have cut in the shot showing the three chairs packed around the little table right after telling how "spacious" it is.

 

Loved all the critter shots, the mating blue rings sequence is killer!

 

Thanks for sharing with us!

Steve

Yes, you are right. In the 15 minute dive show version, there is a pan shot of the cabin interior. When trimming for the web version, I cut it. In hindsight, I should have cut the verandah shot instead. Doh!

Great stuff Peter.

I really enjoyed my time over there too last year.

Very relaxing diving.

I will plug it into my site.

Hey Peter,

I have led several groups to Lembeh but never to Two Fish Divers. Maybe I should check that out. Agree with Steve W. that, as a promo, I would have liked to have seen shots of the rooms and camera tables. In all my trips there, I have yet to film the Blue Ring Octo, and your clips of them mating and walking are the behavior shots that make guys like me drool. Just beautiful. Also like your opening graphic of the diver. Did you make that in Photoshop or Motion?

Ash, don't recall which NLE you use tho I know you are on a PC but the plane tracking the map is not terribly difficult. If you bring your laptop to the Cocos in Aug. I would be happy to show you how. Just have your plane graphic and map with you. Be sure your map is the proper size and quality.

Steve

In all my trips there, I have yet to film the Blue Ring Octo, and your clips of them mating and walking are the behavior shots that make guys like me drool. Just beautiful. Also like your opening graphic of the diver. Did you make that in Photoshop or Motion?

I understand that the Blue Ring's mating is seasonal. I shot that footage in Mid-November last year.

The opening graphic was done in Motion. Motion will drive you nuts trying to guess how to get all the behaviors to work. But, after a lot of hair pulling, I can now do some of the basic movements.

I was using Motion for all my titling too but then I discovered that it would sometimes crash when using double-byte text, like the Thai language so I stick with Boris inside FCP.

Regards

Peter

I have led several groups to Lembeh but never to Two Fish Divers. Maybe I should check that out.

I can heartily recommend Two Fish at both Lembeh and Bunaken. Both resorts are small and very personal. Tina and Nigel are really great sincere people. And, at both places, the emphasis is on getting you to some great critters. They have very experienced guides who know where it is to be found. And the dive guide ratio depends on your requirements. They allocate me and my son a dedicated guide. Within reason, they will adjust the boat schedule to take you to what you want to see.

Like the Rhinopias in the video. I'd heard about it and wanted to see one. At my request, Nigel announced that one boat was "looking for Rhinopias" and away we went. We used up two tanks of air each, swimming in a large grid over the likely location, searching for the elusive fish but, right at the end of the second dive, found one.

Interestingly, I was down to 30 bar (at 12 meters) when we found it. I used 20 bar shooting it. Started my safety stop with my dive comp showing 10 bar. After 2 minutes of safety stop, at 3 meters, my tank went dry. But, no problem to slowly surface from 3 meters. Just had to edit the incessant beeping out of the soundtrack. But the footage was "in the can", as they used to say... (Disclaimer: definitely not recommending this to anyone - just happened to be in conditions where the risk of running out of air during safety stop was manageable)

Regards

Peter

It wasn't until my 3rd trip there that I finally got the rhinopeaus but then we had two different kinds that entire trip. Now to find that blu ring.

Steve