What do you think of my video

[mtl perry]

Hello
i have some videos and i would like some advice on how to make them better .
go ahead pick them apart i have thick skin

1 The Black Grouper dive
YouTube - Scuba diving Holguín Cuba march 2010 dive #2

2 small wreck dive
YouTube - Scuba diving Holguín Cuba march 2010 dive # 3

3 lion fish ?
YouTube - Scuba diving Holguín Cuba jan 2010 dive # 3

thanks
Perry

 

[robint]

okay... I guess I will start.

I only watched the first one so far -

Good job for a beginner to underwater video! You had a storyline, a beginning middle and end, you edited, and you held the camera pretty still for the mostpart.

I am guessing that it is a point-and-shoot camera instead of camcorder due to the blue color to everything underwater. If you intend to keep shooting videos with that rig you should invest in a red filter for the housing. The color is very drab and boring otherwise.

Other than the color issue I would say that many of the clips were too long, I would shorten the video overall by about half as you don't have enough different types of "events" to hold a viewers interest other than the grouper and the eel. Those were very cool, but after a minute of just watching them swim around you need other things to make a 5 minute video interesting. Closeups of divers, good, closeups of particular fish, good, wide shots, good. Mix it up more and edit it down. (you said to be honest!) And get that red filter or get a true camcorder, you will be surprised how much more interesting a video can be if it has the full range of colors!

robin

 

[mtl perry]

thanks robint
I'm using a light & motion stingray lll sport with the oldest camcorder i have Sony dcr hc 21 . i have some other camcorders but I'm scared to scrap them { flood }
thanks again for your advice .

Perry

 

[firstdive2005]

Hi Perry! Thanks for taking the time to record and produce your dives. They are fun to do. I am a novice at doing stills and vids also. I look on the video threads a lot to try and get advice.
What I have gleaned is when shooting something not moving, like the sand diver dont keep the video rolling to long at production. Just us it as a still, only have it in the vid for a couple seconds rather than watching it breathe, know what I mean?
When coming out of swim throughs dont let the vid run so long unless there is something to see. Give us brief shots of the swim through.
On the wreck vid you brought in other subjects, keep it to just the wreck. Give bursts of the wreck and use the scene change transitions to blend frames. I am sure you could have put more of the wreck on that vid. No?
Write intros in your videos, little things to read like, ' took ten minutes to get to site' that kind of thing. During the dive on the vids you can write little things like, ' diver thought he was going to get bit by Green Moray.'
At the end of the video write credits like. Dove with so and so, used so and so dive shop.
I liked your shots, we likely wont make a living at it but we will have a lot of fun. Thanks for giving me a dive today. Look at my crap on youtube at firstdive2005. you can run me through the mill too. have good dives kevin

 

[robint]

thanks robint
I'm using a light & motion stingray lll sport with the oldest camcorder i have Sony dcr hc 21 . i have some other camcorders but I'm scared to scrap them { flood }
thanks again for your advice .

Perry

LOL.... time for you to upgrade! My old videos (prior to 2009) were with a Sony HC-42 and Ikelite housing. The big F finally hit me in Nov 2008, not bad considering how many dives. I just got sloppy and had something stuck in o-ring, not the housing's fault. My fubar. :depressed: I was looking at upgrading anyhow, it just made me get serious and quit putting it off.

I do think you will be much happier with a new HD camcorder with housing though. Get it insured and no worries. Prices have come down, too. I paid the same for that old SD system as I did for this new HD one... only difference is I had to buy a new computer with quad-core processor in order to edit the video files (HD files are huge!)

(In 2.5 weeks I will be taking my HD rig on its first warm-water dive trip. Cross your fingers for me!!)

robin