Fiji via the Nia'a, video/stills from Canon XA10 & Sony RX100

It was a great trip and the Nai'a is really set up for photographers. Video is mainly from the the Canon XA10 in a Gates housing but some is from the Sony RX100, stills are all from the RX100. But once again I am to lazy to make a short version. I tried using Final Cut Compressor 4.07, uploaded to Vimeo with ease but looks very "soft" to me. Regardless here you go...

Really nice! I need to get back to Fiji!

Dustin

NWDiver, on 26 Apr 2013 - 10:48 PM, said:

 

But once again I am to lazy to make a short version.

You do have some good footage but I would encourage you to throw off that laziness and take another shot at editing it. Then you'd have a great video. Here are a fewf things which, IMHO, would really help:

• Shorter - unless it has a very clear storyline and some narration, attention span on web videos is about 3 to 5 minutes max
• Trim out some of the camera wobbles
• A couple of clips are a bit too red
• Move the sharks up front to get the audience's attention
• Adjust the brightness / color on the stills or video so the transition is not so jarring
• Try playing with the contrast / curves in the blue water clips (e.g. sharks, barracuda) to make it more crisp
• A bit more music variety to match the mood of the footage

Hope this feedback helps.

Those shots of the anthea feeding like crazy in the currents around the bommies reminds me of my diving around Fiji in the 1980's. Of course, anthea feed like that everywhere but maybe not with quite the same intensity as they do around Fiji...

Regards

Peter

Well first of all I like the music choice of the Ansol & Dyro! Great song! Always love Fiji's fishy reefs and the Nia'a.

Did you color correct some of the clips because the water looked purple!
I stopped after that song was over though. It is a bit long but I realize it's your holiday video and not a show reel. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks all and appreciate the input. This was the version for us and even at that it was slapped together; no split screens, no text, etc. But of course you are right needs to get cut down to 3mins/1 song. This was my first attempt at editing with Final Cut X and did play with adjusting color and still figuring out their "color board".

The "poor me reality" is I have 2000 photos and +80 gigs of video to edit from our 14 day Raja/Arenui trip. The whole being gainfully employed thing gets in the way of my art! LOL.

I am curious how long does it really take many of you to edit and produce a clip from your long trips? How many hrs over what time span????

 

I am curious how long does it really take many of you to edit and produce a clip from your long trips? How many hrs over what time span????

I use two approaches.

One, which I prefer, is the storyline approach. Either formed before or during the trip, i put together a story, figure out the rough narration then skim through the footage to find stuff that matches the narration. Some good footage gets wasted but I usually find a way to weave in the really good stuff. I find people react best to these "built-up around a story line" edits. You'll need b-roll footage to tell the story.

If you have lots of great footage, you might be able to do two or more stories.

The second method, is the multi-pass cutting approach. First pass cuts out the crap. Second pass gets rid of the "almost good enough". Third pass gets rid of the duplicates. Fourth pass trims down clip lengths to make it more punchy. And so on. Paring it down until only the very best is left. Then I set a target time and cut aggressively to that time.

With both approaches, you need to be brutal with yourself. The main challenge with being both the shooter and the editor is that, when you do the editing, you are seeing what you wanted the shot to be when you shot it, not what is really in the footage. I find that it helps to let some time pass before you do the editing. Maybe a month. Then you can be much more dispassionate and look at the footage as if you've never seen it before.

Hard to definitively answer the "How many hrs over what time span?" question. At least an hour per minute of final footage, maybe two. As I indicated above, after a trip, unless I have a client demanding quick results, I'll just upload the video to disk and then leave it a month before starting to edit. Some projects take a few weeks, doing an hour or two a day. Longest was 6 months.

But it is worth it. Shooting good footage is only a third of the videographers commitment to the art. Story-telling and editing are the other 2/3rds.

Regards

Peter

Thanks for the feedback Peter. I just finished a first cut of the the raw Raja stuff and now time to start putting it together.... Gotta think it is an easy 2hrs per 1 minute of footage used and that of course grows exponentially the shorter the clip gets.

I look forward to seeing the finished work.

I am curious how long does it really take many of you to edit and produce a clip from your long trips? How many hrs over what time span????

Never really less than a day of work per minute of finished video, that requires colour correction and music. If it's a full-blown project with narration (and therefore research), it's probably more like a week of work per finished minute. My current project was shot over 9 days and has been in post-production for 6 years.

I have issues

My current project was shot over 9 days and has been in post-production for 6 years.

 

I have a couple of projects like that. In fact, I recently admitted to myself that they'll never be done and moved them off my WIP drive. I still have the footage in my events library if I ever get inspired to cut them.

In these cases, i think it is because I could not visualize the story that I was trying to tell...

Regards

Peter

I totally understand the process you two are going through, lol. The motivator for me is a better half that does not do the editing but wants to "see and enjoy the trip again". Happy wife, happy....