Looking for opinions.

[Jakec97]

Hi, just joined the forum, don’t really know my way around yet but this seemed like a good place to start. I’ve always loved talking pictures and video of things I saw that caught my eye, and trying to capture them in the way I see them. Went from an old digital camera to phone cameras and now up to a dslr. I’ve taken lots of photos that are awesome to me and maybe I’ll share them sometime but my main love is video. Every year I take a trip up to northern Minnesota with a group of guys, usually in the summer and we canoe, camp and fish on the many lakes up there. for a few years now I’ve made a slideshow video of the trip for fun and put them up on YouTube so I could easily share them with anyone on the trip. Each year the videos got better and I’d take better equipment up there but they also got “artsy-er” and kinda outgrew their original purpose. I put a lot more work into them than necessary but I enjoy it. Don’t care about views or anything I just like making a video I’m proud of. Anyway the last video I made i really liked and no one else I showed it to seemed to care for it. I’m kinda just looking for some people to see it and tell me how they feel about it? Not necessarily the video as a whole either I’m more focused on the individual shots themselves. I guess I think it’s kinda good but I want to see if I’m moving in the right direction or if I’m out of touch with what’s good video. Again, not trying to get views or promote I just want honest feedback. I also did the music myself so let me know how you feel about that too. Thanks in advance! Link:

 

[Jeff15]

Hello and welcome.....

 

[Space Face]

Hello.

 

[nokk]

welcome.

i'm not much at video, but here's what i noticed. watch your horizons in the shots, especially some of the water photos without real horizons. the ripples in the water should be level. the human stuff didn't really fit in since most of the video seemed to be about the nature; lots of calm, peaceful nature and then all of the sudden there's a guy hacking away at a piece of wood with a knife. some of the clips were pretty jerky, try smoothing them in post or get a gimbal.

 

[NancyMoranG]

Welcome.
I think you are on the right track. As noted, horizons need to be level and some of the jerky moments cut out.
I wonder if you added a piece at beginning of a car arriving in the woods, and you getting out....then I feel it leads into your peaceful moments that you enjoy while out there (including fishing, making a fire etc)
Makes more a story to follow..
Just my .0000002.

 

[Jakec97]

welcome.

i'm not much at video, but here's what i noticed. watch your horizons in the shots, especially some of the water photos without real horizons. the ripples in the water should be level. the human stuff didn't really fit in since most of the video seemed to be about the nature; lots of calm, peaceful nature and then all of the sudden there's a guy hacking away at a piece of wood with a knife. some of the clips were pretty jerky, try smoothing them in post or get a gimbal.

Thanks for the feedback! I agree with the horizon part for sure. The human part I felt obligated to add for the sake of the other guys on the trip, I agree it is jarring and doesn’t fit great. As far as the jerky shots, I’m ok with all the handheld ones, I like the feel handheld shots give the video. There’s probably a good balance between too jerky and perfectly still and I agree a gimbal would help, don’t want it too smooth though. Again thanks for the feedback much appreciated!

 

[Jakec97]

Welcome.
I think you are on the right track. As noted, horizons need to be level and some of the jerky moments cut out.
I wonder if you added a piece at beginning of a car arriving in the woods, and you getting out....then I feel it leads into your peaceful moments that you enjoy while out there (including fishing, making a fire etc)
Makes more a story to follow..
Just my .0000002.

Totally agree about the story. Most years I include shots like you mentioned. This year I wanted to try something else but I felt obligated to include some of the guys that were on the trip. I agree though more story on the human side or no humans at all. I’d have preferred no humans in this video I think.

 

[NancyMoranG]

Did you use a slider for some of these shots?
Or a gimbal for phone/camera?
Liked the time-lapse, ( which I have yet to do)
Which program to do the video?

 

[Jakec97]

Did you use a slider for some of these shots?
Or a gimbal for phone/camera?
Liked the time-lapse, ( which I have yet to do)
Which program to do the video?

yeah on a lot of the shots I used a slider, I use hitfilm express to edit everything, you can do time lapse in hitfilm too. Everything in the video was shot on an older cannon dslr.