Thank you for sharing. Love the IVS Invades Bonaire one. Since you asked for critiques (and keep in mind I have no qualification whatsoever to do so, just personal taste and judgment), here is my opinion.
I think that the Bonaire one is by far the most achieved out of the three.
I like that it has a bit of storytelling (a group diving trip to Bonaire), and how it mixes different sounds (music, breathing, people talking), subjects (fish, people, landscape, coral), environments (UW, land, vehicles), types of shots (video/stills, macro, wide angle…
. It is long (13 minutes), but with enough movement/action to keep me entertained and interested. I also love the humourous notes in the credits and the "extra footage".
The images are really nice, in all of your videos (even though my internet connection was too slow for me to watch them in HD). I like the close ups on marine life (shark, eel, turtle, squid, octopus…
and how you captured them in action. In a few of the shots I wished the camera had been more eye level with the animals (instead of slightly above), but still great footage IMO.
The above comment applies to all videos.
Regarding the first one specifically, I found it lacked editing and storytelling. To me, it just seems like a compilation of (beautiful) rushes with a musical background (that I didn't care for much, but that's just personal taste). Also, the juxtaposition of shots from the same (type of) animal (shark+shark+shark+shark+eel+eel+eel+turtle+turtle+turtle+turtle…
emphasizes the difference in lighting/exposure/color in between the different shots, it's disturbing.
Individually, the shots of that video are awesome, the editing doesn't do them justice.
I loved the music in the second film, and appreciated the effort to synchronize it with the images. Doesn't always work (and is hard to do, which I guess is why you unfortunately don't see many UW movies with a rock background), but some transitions are really neat. Maybe you could have used some effects ("fast forward", zooms, funky transitions…
and/or added more shots to "speed up the on-screen action" and make some images as upbeat as the music.
Like the first film, it does lack storytelling as well. The fact that it has more variety (not just fish, diver as well ; not just UW, on the surface too) makes it more enjoyable, but there's still no scenario. Would be less of an issue if the images and music were in perfect synch and rhythm (music video style).
Again, I am no movie critique (and still can't figure out how to edit in Final Cut). But I think you have a lot of potential. You take great shots and seem to master the technical aspects of editing. Just need to work on the story/scenario and rhythm.
