Photo/Video Editing

Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
After watching the amazing last video that Av8chuk just posted in

http://www.multirotorforums.com/showthread.php?113-Show-what-you-filmed

I think it is worth starting this thread. Not only has MRF attracted some of the best minds in the business but is is also attracting some professionals from the Imaging world.

So with that in mind I have started this thread so some of us mere mortals in imaging may be able to ask a few questions and get some advice from the peeps who are so obviously more experienced in the field.

Dave
 

Kilby

Kilby

Active Member
I guess the first question would be which platform to use. It seems to me that most people fall into 2 camps for this type of work. Final Cut Pro or AfterEffects. I would assume that this was done on FCP?

BTW, lovely video. Me and the lady sat up and watched it several times last night. She is an artist and was floored to see someone pushing her favorite theme of "Art is always moving". She always paints travel themed pieces & got very inspired by this video. Check www.belindachance.com if anyone is interested in seeing her work, or my web design skills. ;-)
 




Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
It looks like we are going to have two camps here! Mac and Windows!

So lets not get messy at the start!!! Lets all get on great and all admit to each platforms merits!

Ok I am on MAC. Have been since my first SE back in ermmmmm well a long time ago. I have used most video packages but for my fast and quick editing when all I used to film was mad mountain biking iMove HD was my program. It was simple, quick, and very space efficient. I moved up to Final Cut Express but could never really devote the time to it. I have done a couple of shorts with it but as I say I found it to easy to get a quick movie up on youtube or vimeo using iMovie HD.

I am now using iMovie 11.. mmm, very limited and frustrating because of its creative limitations, saying that it works ok for quick edits and getting stuff up on youtube and for a few quid what more would you want.. Well that is until Av8chucks piece!

I am waiting for the new release of Final Cut named FinalcutX.. for photos I use Aperture. I am not into photo retouching I like the raw stuff.!

Dave
 

Macsgrafs

Macsgrafs

Active Member
Very creative video, love the PIP with the frame, very well thought out. Smooth flying as well, which is a real bonus.
I use premiere & have done since 2001, love it! just wish my main computer didnt keep crashing when editing full HD :(
I once made a film very similar, with a girl on a sofa, watching herself on TV, on TV she was dressed as a police woman, reading the latest corruption enforcement news ;)

Ross
 

Av8Chuck

Av8Chuck

Member
Thanks Kilby, I'm glad you guys enjoyed it.

Its kind of difficult to see online, it looks much better and is more obvious in full HD, but all of the images in the fame where my wife is walking around are moving images. This was meant to represent that we don't see life as a series of stills, the graffiti represents the noise of every day life, the frame represents how we filter out the noise and focus on a specific moment and the gallery represents how we often store those moments, both as still and moving images. We kind of wanted it to appear to go full circle, like an Escher painting.

If you don't tell people what you tried to do then they might think you did a great job, if you explain the concept then people realize how far off you are...

The real challenge for me wasn't which software to use but could we communicate the concept. Like most things you always see ways you could have done a better job, also, art is never finished, you just stop working on it, I had about three hours to shoot this and a couple of days to post it so it was interesting to see how much of it we could get done.

Generally my wife doesn't like to do this sort of thing but this little project was a lot of fun for both of us so its very gratifying when people recognize what your trying to accomplish.


Kilby said:
I guess the first question would be which platform to use. It seems to me that most people fall into 2 camps for this type of work. Final Cut Pro or AfterEffects. I would assume that this was done on FCP?

BTW, lovely video. Me and the lady sat up and watched it several times last night. She is an artist and was floored to see someone pushing her favorite theme of "Art is always moving". She always paints travel themed pieces & got very inspired by this video. Check www.belindachance.com if anyone is interested in seeing her work, or my web design skills. ;-)
Click to expand...
 

S

Stacky

Member
Nice Chuck, the thing Im finding out very quickly is how difficult it is to shoot to a predetermined theme/idea or "script". Not just in terms of intepretation but the simple act of flying to a predetermined flight path. The other huge learning curve for me is video editing software, Im very limited at present using imovie because its for me quick and easy. I now have final cut pro but havent yet learned enough to put together anything.
 


Macsgrafs

Macsgrafs

Active Member
Chuck thats a geat film, i got the message quite clearly. Loved all the memories in the frames, worked very well...in fact it came across as a commercial, I was expecting to see some airline name or bank name on the end to be honest. It's true art is an ongoing thing & we always look back at our own creations & think..."If only I had".

Ross
 

Av8Chuck

Av8Chuck

Member
Hi Stacky.

Its a bit of a learning curve to make the transition from iMovie to FCP, I'd recommend checking out Lynda.com, they have some good tutorials that can help you get up to speed quickly. Regarding shooting a predetermined concept, as far as the aerial goes I just kind of point the quad in the right direction and hope for the best. If you have a script or storyboard it helps you visualize what your trying to accomplish, so you might not know exactly what your going to get when you set out, but your more likely to recognize the shot opportunity when your flying.

Stacky said:
Nice Chuck, the thing Im finding out very quickly is how difficult it is to shoot to a predetermined theme/idea or "script". Not just in terms of intepretation but the simple act of flying to a predetermined flight path. The other huge learning curve for me is video editing software, Im very limited at present using imovie because its for me quick and easy. I now have final cut pro but havent yet learned enough to put together anything.
Click to expand...

ctbon, I'm flying a modified Gaui 330X, I'm sure I've posted this before but you can chek it out here if you like: http://www.vimeo.com/18859201

All of the aerial footage is shot with a GoPro. I'm building a larger quad and Hex, I hope to be able to fly a Canon T2i, the 7D is too heavy.
 

S

Stacky

Member
The bit I am having to work at is where an art director from an agency wants me to fly a certain flight path, it sounds easy but can be a little harder to do. I should get better at that as my flying ability improves.
 

Av8Chuck

Av8Chuck

Member
I hear you, part of the challenge is managing their expectations. I recently had a [full size] helicopter shot that went really well but they made some changes to the project and asked me to shoot some more but they were whining about the costs so I suggested using my quad, when we went to do the shoot the director wanted a shot done a specific way and I just had to tell him that's not likely going to happen unless you want to spend $2500 hour for the real thing.

When they saw the shot they were ecstatic, not exactly what they envisioned but it worked as well or better.
 

CopterCam

CopterCam

Member
Stacky said:
The bit I am having to work at is where an art director from an agency wants me to fly a certain flight path, it sounds easy but can be a little harder to do. I should get better at that as my flying ability improves.
Click to expand...

If you think that's hard,............. wait 'til you get the Producer in your ear issuing positions, etc. as you fly on a predetermined flight path ? Been there,..... I think its important from the outset to clarify what their expectations of the shots are and then demand that you be left to concentrate on the flight. They are used to peering into a Monitor and directing proceedings and under estimate the task at hand whilst flying. A two person operation is a must in these type of situations ?

Sid
 

Emowillcox

Emowillcox

Member
HI Kilby... great thread you started.. and really cool video by Av8
I think as for editing.. and maybe Av8 has more comments.. but its FCP ( Final Cut Pro) and Avid are used as industry standards for editing professional video. After Effects can be used to edit but its used more for special effects like what you see in that super cool video. Avid use to be the big dog in town in the 90s.. AVID works on both mac an pc based platforms just depending what post house your in. In the early 2000s FCP (Final Cut Pro) came around as a good mac plat form for editing and quickly moved up the ranks because of its price and great support....and being relative similar to Avid. I was at many post houses that had FCP as their platform and I was able to transition pretty easily from Avid to FCP..... FCP is only mac and really got their start in the corporate world and slowly moved to broadcast. In corporate many times the application was for dvd or web and apple has many other good applications that were great for taking your FCP product/video and compressing it for DVD or web. FCP is reasonable priced and had a great user support while Avid wasn’t always so user friendly....(atleast from what a few of my managers told me...).... and I think this really helped FCP to get a good foothold on the video editing territory.
I know there are several other platforms for editing but this was kind of my take from working in the Video industry out in LA and Texas.
Its really cool that Av8 got some aerial footage in that video.... I saw it on Vimero.. but wonder what the master plan with that video was?

The AE or After Effects guys in my time were always a whole nother animal, that spoke a slightly different language then us Avid or FCP guys.. they could do some really cool stuff and was made compatible for either FCP or Avid
 
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Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
HI Kilby... great thread you started.
Click to expand...

It was meeeee ;-(

So we have a goodley few editing pros as well by the looks of it, and on both busses!

The new version of Final Cut should be outs soon. Apple just announced the new Lion OS AND its just £21

The rumours are that the new FCX will be around £300 which is a real show stopper. Guess Adobe will need to have some pretty amazing arguments to hold their prices if its true.

Dave
 

Macsgrafs

Macsgrafs

Active Member
Its about time adobe had some serious competition at a real price. I have tried so many other NLE progs & always come back to my trusted premiere.

Ross
 

Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
Final Cur Pro

Final Cut ProX is out and from my first impression I like it. There is some criticism in the press and the industry but times change and from what I can see the new version breaks a bit of the black magic of video editing.

For £179 its a bargain
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/

Time will tell..

Dave
 

T

tonkajeep34

Member
First of all, Av8Chuck that is an awesome video!

I was doing some video editing on the side 12 years ago or so and used Premier at the time (mac and PC). My question for you guys though is I just bought a copy of Premier elements, thinking it should do what i needed. It was also on sale and i only have a PC now days. How i'd love to have FCP after looking at it. But when i'm trying to use PE to edit some video coming off my GoPro it seems to be pretty limited especially when it comes to exporting the movie.

Do you guys have any recommendations for relatively inexpensive software packages for the PC and for those of us that don't really want to spend a lot of money for software? Or should i just save up and get premier pro? I'm not planning on doing more than making a few little movies here and there for fun.

Mike
 

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