Video: Northern Utah

[Vegan.Hiker]

So with some time off for the holidays I finally got around to putting a video together from my trip to Utah this past September. I'm a video editing noob, so constructive criticism is certainly appreciated. In the end, this is just a souvenir for myself. Something to remember the trip by later in life. The footage was taken on a Canon point and shoot and edited using Cyberlink Power Director 12. The original Trip Report can be found here. http://backcountrypost.com/forum/threads/my-cross-country-weekend-adventure-in-utah.3667/

Note: for some reason it's not automatically playing back in HD so I you need to manually change it to play back in HD. Not sure if there's a way to embed it differently so it does it automatically?

 

[Nick]

Well done! That part where the cloud rolls up fast and takes over the frame is awesome. That really makes me want to try harder to produce videos. The only thing I might change is the text setups. I'm not sure exactly how, but it seems like it takes longer than my brain wants it to. Maybe faster fades?

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Well done! That part where the cloud rolls up fast and takes over the frame is awesome. That really makes me want to try harder to produce videos. The only thing I might change is the text setups. I'm not sure exactly how, but it seems like it takes longer than my brain wants it to. Maybe faster fades?

Yes your totally right. Now that you mention it, I re-watched it and the beginning moves way too slow. I think I was trying too hard to pace it with the music. That cloud clip was from the walk up the paved switchbacks to Timp cave. It was raining pretty hard for most of the walk but as it cleared the clouds began putting on a show.

 

[steve]

Really well done! I'm no pro, and I still have a LOT to learn about making interesting videos. Here are a few of my random thoughts about video (i'm sure you already know most of them). I like talking and thinking about video, so don't take my abundance of comments as an indication that you are lacking skills; I'm just overenthusiastic.

1) I don't know of a way to force it to launch in HD. There used to be a tag you could add to your link and it would force it to play in 720p, but I can't remember if that tag is still working. I used to force all my videos in HD 'till I realized that a lot of people view on mobiles and if it takes too long to load they'll just skip it and not watch it alltogether.

2) Great job on the video! Video tells a great story and you have done really well using video as a storytelling tool, especially the opening scene.

3) the panning shots are great. Including another subject in them for scale will really add to the grandeur of how huge these mountains are. Whether that's a cabin, or an animal, or a person, it'll give an even greater sense of grandeur.

4) Good job zooming in on a few of the scenes. Did you do this in post or with the zoom of your camera?

5) Check out the documentary "mile, mile and a half" to get a great idea of how to capture great shots in nature and keep it interesting and diverse. You may not love the movie (I did), but it'll give you a ton of different ideas of how to shoot different scenes.

6) Try different perspectives. Shoot some from down low (feet height), shoot some from above, shoot some from behind a bush. Shake it up. The more diverse each shot it, the more it'll capture the viewers' attention.

7) Remember that you shot this video for you. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, how many views it gets, or what the YT or BCP comments say. It's a souveneir for you to remember your trip. Video watchers are a fickle breed. They're so easily distracted, hardly ever make it to the end, and the video won't be nearly as meaningful to them as it is to you. Try to have a thick skin and keep at it!

8) There's a really fine balance between a video that's too long, and a video that doesn't tell a story. I like seeing short 3-5 second clips of the journey, not just the destination (peaks). The mountain peaks were incredible, but an intriging story would hook me a little more. What was the hike like? What kinds of plants and animals did you see along the way? What can I expect if I were to repeat your trip? It's always painful to end up with a 25 min video, then have to cut 20 min of footage because it's too long.

9) Be careful not to over-use fades. I'm super guilty of this. I used to use cross-fades for every transition, but I've weaned myself off of them. Every once in a while a nice transition really makes it feel great. I use fade to black to signify passage of time (like transitioning from night to day, or to a period of time hours in the future). I use crossfades sparingly, but I mainly use them when a hard cut seems too abrupt. For the most part, hard cuts are just fine.

10) great music. The music really sets the mood of the video.

11) Check out Wistia's video tutorials. They do a fantastic job covering gear, lighting, music selection, setting the scene, scripting, you name it. http://wistia.com/learning

12) It's all a matter of personal preference and what you're going for in your videos, but I'd love to see you (and other people) in it, whether you're hiking, or even just sitting there observing it. Like I said, personal preference and you may or may not want to do that (though I find ther interaction of people and nature interesting)

13) great mix of photos and videos. I always forget to put my photos in my videos.

14) fantastic job capturing the cave. Caves are tough to get on video and photos. You did a great job helping me feel like I was there (again).

15) I agree with nick, the fades were a bit slow, but 100x better than my first 10 videos.

16) Watch tons of other videos out there. Subscribe to people who have styles you like. Every time you watch someone else's video, make notes about what you like and don't like, then implement those lessons learned.

17) Consider adding some time lapses. They're major pain, take forever, and use a lot of battery, but they sure give a cool feel to a movie. The cloud growth definitely got the feel of a time lapse. I like it.

18) Film with the edit in mind. I'm sure in the next video you do you'll be thinking about "I remember how much this sucked to edit last time" and make adjustments accordingly.

19) Find the perfect balance between an enjoyable trip and a killer video. You could make the best video in the world and have an absolutely miserable trip. Conversely, you could have an incredible trip with only a lousy video to show for it. Find the balance. I know I could make much better videos of my trips, but then they end up feeling like a video shoot gig than a backcountry experience.

20) Forget all the tips everyone gives you and just go out and do your own thing.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Really well done! I'm no pro, and I still have a LOT to learn about making interesting videos. Here are a few of my random thoughts about video (i'm sure you already know most of them). I like talking and thinking about video, so don't take my abundance of comments as an indication that you are lacking skills; I'm just overenthusiastic.

Thanks for taking the time to give such great feedback. It is super helpful, encouraging, and much appreciated.

1) I don't know of a way to force it to launch in HD. There used to be a tag you could add to your link and it would force it to play in 720p, but I can't remember if that tag is still working. I used to force all my videos in HD 'till I realized that a lot of people view on mobiles and if it takes too long to load they'll just skip it and not watch it alltogether.

Reading your comment, I think your right. Forcing playback in HD would probably restrict a lot of people/devices. Probably best to leave it alone. Especially since I just used a cheap P&S to shoot the footage.

2) Great job on the video! Video tells a great story and you have done really well using video as a storytelling tool, especially the opening scene.

Thanks. I tried to line everything up chronologically.

3) the panning shots are great. Including another subject in them for scale will really add to the grandeur of how huge these mountains are. Whether that's a cabin, or an animal, or a person, it'll give an even greater sense of grandeur.

That’s a great tip. What blew me away about Timp was the sheer size of everything and I didn’t think that could be captured on camera. Using people for scale would have really helped with that. I usually try to avoid people in pictures so it doesn’t detract from the landscape but I can see now the benefit of including them in certain shots.

4) Good job zooming in on a few of the scenes. Did you do this in post or with the zoom of your camera?

Any zooming was done on the camera but I did put motion on most of the stills which I did when I was editing with Power Director.

5) Check out the documentary "mile, mile and a half" to get a great idea of how to capture great shots in nature and keep it interesting and diverse. You may not love the movie (I did), but it'll give you a ton of different ideas of how to shoot different scenes.

I actually saw it. I thought the best part of the documentary were the siblings who trudged all of their painting supplies up there and the two musicians. The video/photo guys were too advanced for me to appreciate I think.

6) Try different perspectives. Shoot some from down low (feet height), shoot some from above, shoot some from behind a bush. Shake it up. The more diverse each shot it, the more it'll capture the viewers' attention.

This particularly helpful to hear. I was literally just pointing and shooting while hiking the trail. I didn’t think much about composition (I think I’m using that term correctly), but I’m trying to do that now. I literally just learned about the rule of thirds like a month ago. I’m a noob in every sense of the word.

7) Remember that you shot this video for you. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, how many views it gets, or what the YT or BCP comments say. It's a souveneir for you to remember your trip. Video watchers are a fickle breed. They're so easily distracted, hardly ever make it to the end, and the video won't be nearly as meaningful to them as it is to you. Try to have a thick skin and keep at it!

I totally agree. I’m definitely not trying to dazzle anyone. I just thought it would be fun thing to learn and try.

8) There's a really fine balance between a video that's too long, and a video that doesn't tell a story. I like seeing short 3-5 second clips of the journey, not just the destination (peaks). The mountain peaks were incredible, but an intriging story would hook me a little more. What was the hike like? What kinds of plants and animals did you see along the way? What can I expect if I were to repeat your trip? It's always painful to end up with a 25 min video, then have to cut 20 min of footage because it's too long.

My problem was not having enough footage (or at least usable footage). Great advice though, and I agree on showing the whole journey, not just the destination. I included the plane footage for that reason but the downside is the people around me probably thought I had never been on a plane before since I kept whipping the camera out lol.

9) Be careful not to don't over-use fades. I'm super guilty of this. I used to use cross-fades for every transition, but I've weaned myself off of them. Every once in a while a nice transition really makes it feel great. I use fade to black to signify passage of time (like transitioning from night to day, or to a period of time hours in the future). I use crossfades sparingly, but I mainly use them when a hard cut seems too abrubpt. For the most part, hard cuts are just fine.

This is also really helpful. I can see already that I over used the fades, at least the long drawn out ones. I think sometimes I got lazy and used fades to make it easier to sync with the music. Not a good idea in retrospect.

10) great music. The music really sets the mood of the video.

Thanks, I wasn’t sure how well the songs fit since certain parts were a bit loud. I decided to go with it since those were the albums I actually listened to on the flight. Added some personal nostalgia for me.

11) Check out Wistia's video tutorials. They do a fantastic job covering gear, lighting, music selection, setting the scene, scripting, you name it. http://wistia.com/learning

Thanks, definitely will do.

12) It's all a matter of personal preference and what you're going for in your videos, but I'd love to see you (and other people) in it, whether you're hiking, or even just sitting there observing it. Like I said, personal preference and you may or may not want to do that (though I find ther interaction of people and nature interesting)

This is an interesting topic. This will probably sound stupid but the style that I would like to go for is “this is what I saw” without the staged shots. Things like “walk-bys” come out cool in other videos I’ve seen but I’d prefer not to stage scenes. It’s sort of why I’m not in the video. I don’t have it in me to pretend I’m not aware of the camera. On the other hand I don’t want to include a dopey picture of me saying cheese for the camera either. I’m not sure this is even a style come to think of it, maybe it’s me just not being open to try different things.

13) great mix of photos and videos. I always forget to put my photos in my videos.

14) fantastic job capturing the cave. Caves are tough to get on video and photos. You did a great job helping me feel like I was there (again).

Thanks. I didn’t take many pics in there cause I was freezing!!! It gets cold in there and I was wet from the walk up in the rain.

15) I agree with nick, the fades were a bit slow, but 100x better than my first 10 videos.

Yup, this seems so obvious now that you guys pointed it out to me. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. I guess that’s why you need other people to look at it with fresh eyes and give feedback.

16) Watch tons of other videos out there. Subscribe to people who have styles you like. Every time you watch someone else's video, make notes about what you like and don't like, then implement those lessons learned.

That’s a great idea. I have some channels I subscribe to but never really observed their video editing. I’m definitely going to start watching them a little differently.

17) Consider adding some time lapses. They're major pain, take forever, and use a lot of battery, but they sure give a cool feel to a movie. The cloud growth definitely got the feel of a time lapse. I like it.

This is something I want to try. I need to get one of those trigger things and a decent tripod (lightweight hopefully). The cloud wasn't time lapsed but it was sped up a little to make it fit the timing of the music a little better. Standing there while the clouds swooped in from below was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

18) Film with the edit in mind. I'm sure in the next video you do you'll be thinking about "I remember how much this sucked to edit last time" and make adjustments accordingly.

I definitely wasn’t doing that when I shot this but I’m already starting to think that way.

19) Find the perfect balance between an enjoyable trip and a killer video. You could make the best video in the world and have an absolutely miserable trip. Conversely, you could have an incredible trip with only a lousy video to show for it. Find the balance. I know I could make much better videos of my trips, but then they end up feeling more like work than enjoyment.

Definitely. Getting a good picture or video is secondary to me when hiking. I’m there to enjoy the hike first. If taking pics adds to the joy I’m all for it but I’ll never let photography take away from hiking experience, I love hiking too much to let that happen.

20) Forget all the tips everyone gives you and just go out and do your own thing.

Thanks, I’ll take all the help I can get though so thanks again for all the helpful tips and tricks. I’ll definitely keep all these things in mind.

A few questions for you Steve. Would you mind talking about your setup a little including what stuff weighs. Also, what do you use software wise for editing? Should I be using something else instead of Power Director. I kind of like it but I haven't used anything else, so I have nothing to compare it to.

Thanks again,
John

 

[steve]

I included the plane footage for that reason but the downside is the people around me probably thought I had never been on a plane before since I kept whipping the camera out lol.

LOL!

 

[steve]

Would you mind talking about your setup a little including what stuff weighs.

It's funny, I've become an ultralight nut, but I haven't weighed my camera setup yet. For most of my trips, I just take my GoPro. I like its wide angle, light weight, and the fact that I can take underwater pics. With the underwater housing, the audio is muffled, so sometimes I bring two housings for it. I try to swim as much as possible while backpacking, so it's worth it for me. I've been using a Brunton All Day extended battery lately and it gives me tons more battery life than the gopro batteries. Only catch is it isn't waterproof with it on. I'd like to get a hero 4 black soon so I can have one for underwater and one for interviews. I've got a couple little gorillapod tripods that can handle my little cameras. They're very light. I plan on getting a GoPro 3-way for my main tripod for the GoPro.

Sometimes I take my Canon EOS M, but it's heavier and more fragile than the GoPro. I also have to take a few batteries for it, especially if I'm doing time lapses. I plan on shooting with this camera more in 2015, but it usually means more weight and more junk to carry around. I've been carrying an enerplex solar panel to recharge my batteries on the trail. It's starting to get to the point where it's more work than it's worth, so I end up using the GoPro most of the time.

what do you use software wise for editing? Should I be using something else instead of Power Director. I kind of like it but I haven't used anything else, so I have nothing to compare it to.

If you like Power Director, I say stick with it. It seemed to do everything you needed it to with ease. If you reach a point where it's holding you back, consider looking at some other software. For now, it seems to be working beautifully.

I use Adobe Premiere Pro. I use it at work, and I know my way around it pretty well. It's also very easy to find tutorials on the web. It's expensive, so unless you're doing a ton of video editing, it's not worth it. It's extremely powerful. I only use about 15% of its features. I'm always learning how to tweak my shots more and more.

 

[Duke]

Great vid and Steve's comments are great info for me so thanks to both of you!!

One comment about software.....if you think PowerDirector is great then stick with it....but if you think you might change later for some reason as Steve was implying might happen then change now. The time it takes to learn the software is much more valuable than the price of the program. chose one and stick with it. I don't remember why I went with Sony Vegas but the fact is that I did. It took many hours to get it down and it is worth hundreds of $$ to me to not switch and start again at square one with another one. I'm sure Power Director is fine so I'm not saying to switch but if you are thinking of a different one in the future then do so now.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Thanks @steve . I'd really like to find a light and small, but good quality tripod for panning steadily and for time lapse. I'll look into the gorrilapods you mention. Just how expensive is Adobe premier pro? Cyberlink was pretty cheap. I don't remember the exact price but it was under $100 for Power Director and about $60 for Photo Director.

I definitely see what your saying @Duke about not wanting to deal with 2 learning curves. It's taken me awhile to really start to feel comfortable with Power Director and I really wouldn't want to start over. I haven't run into any limitations with it for what I have wanted to do so I'm thknking I'll stick with if there isn't a gold standard alternative out there that blows everything out of the water (that I can afford). I picked Power Director in the first place because many of the reviews said it was easy for the beginner to start using right away but robust enough to grow into as you become more advanced. I've found it to be true so far although I'm still at a beginner stage.

 

[steve]

Just how expensive is Adobe premier pro? Cyberlink was pretty cheap. I don't remember the exact price but it was under $100 for Power Director and about $60 for Photo Director.

Back when Adobe sold just the lincense it was $750. Fortunately I had a buddy who worked at Adobe who hooked me up with a much better price.

You could get by with Adobe Premier Elements, which is a stripped down version. I'm not sure if it's still being sold as a standalone software, but back when it was, it was around $100. It pretty much gets you learning Premiere at a cheaper price, but when you need the advanced features, you have to pay the big bucks for the pro version.

Adobe has since gone to the stupid cloud subscription-based software. It's great if you're a professional doing this for your job, but for people lik me who don't make much (if any) money doing this, it's not worth $50/month ($600/year) to have the latest and greatest software. Fortunately my work pays for my license at work, but at home I just use my old CS 5.5 license and it's just fine for me.

The two main professional softwares for editing video are Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro (only available on Macs). Sony vegas is great too, but the other two are a bit more widespread in the industry. Hope that helps.

 

[Nick]

Adobe has since gone to the stupid cloud subscription-based software. It's great if you're a professional doing this for your job, but for people lik me who don't make much (if any) money doing this, it's not worth $50/month ($600/year) to have the latest and greatest software.

As a 'professional doing this for my job', I just have to say that it is still not great at all. $50 is the discount rate. Regular price is now something like $80 which SUCKS even when your income depends on it. Oh, and then when you try to quit you find out they actually tied a contract into it all! Haha!

With that said, I recently learned about benefits available to faculty/staff at certain educational institutions. ($9 per year for the entire suite )

But back to the subject, it seems like if there were a gold standard that Premier Pro is it. Final Cut Pro on the Mac used to be huge (and may still be), but I know they suffered a lot when they released their mickey-moused X version and pissed everyone off. Ultimately, what you can afford is the best software. It's hard to recommend any Adobe product now with their stupid subscription plans.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

That's way beyond what I'd be willing to pay and I'm so clueless with editing, I wouldn't even know the major differences.

Curious though if I'd be eligible for the faculty/staff discount? I'm an adminstrator at Rutgers which is the State Univesity of NJ.

 

[Nick]

Curious though if I'd be eligible for the faculty/staff discount? I'm an adminstrator at Rutgers which is the State Univesity of NJ.

I would say most definitely yes. And at that price, definitely get your Premiere Pro on.

This is the deal through the U of U for the entire Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Premiere, etc., etc.,:

"Staff and faculty can download the software onto university-owned computers for free, and work-at-home subscriptions can be purchased for $9.75 per year."

I would imagine that if the U of U has that deal with them that a school like Rutgers certainly would. There may be some gray areas to 'work-at-home', but I don't think anyone cares enough to even ask.

More info:

http://software.utah.edu/news/adb/etla/adobe-software.php

For the public record, I pay full price for my membership.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

I would imagine that if the U of U has that deal with them that a school like Rutgers certainly would. There may be some gray areas to 'work-at-home', but I don't think anyone cares enough to even ask.

I'll talk to someone in IT to see if it's available at a discount for personal use (don't want to skirt the rules). Since I work for the Biomedical Health Sciences division, all work must be done on an encrypted computer so they may only be able to install it on my work computers and not on my personal laptop since it's not encrypted. Might not be an issue though, I remember getting Office 365 with a University discount for my personal laptop and that was fine.

 

[steve]

usually you just need a .edu email address. If you can get an educational discount, it's a no-brainer!

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Okay, so I checked with my job and I can get something called Adobe Creative Cloud Complete for $19.99 per month or something called Creative Cloud Photography for $9.99 per month. These are for personal use (or else it would be free). I assume neither of these includes Adobe Premier. since the descriptions from the link they sent me don't mention Premiere at all.

Complete - $19.99 per month

• The latest Photoshop, Illustrator, and more, plus cloud features

• ProSite portfolio website

• Typekit desktop and web fonts

• 20 GB of cloud storage

• Requires institutional affiliation

Photography - $9.99 per month

• Latest version of Photoshop

• Latest version of Lightroom desktop, mobile, and web

• Requires institutional affiliation

 

[Nick]

I think complete would include Premiere.