My First YouTube Video

Kimberly wrote on 12/23/2009, 5:40 PM
Hello All:

Here is the link to my first YouTube video:



I wanted to share this with the Forum because you have all been so helpful answering my questions and as well as the questions from others. I read a lot of the posts and I try to retain and use as much as possible.

The YouTube quality is pretty good, but it's better on the DVD. (A big Thank You to those who replied to my questions yesterday about YouTube settings.) I still need to mess around with my settings to avoid the skinny black bars. I thought I had that fixed but I guess not.

The video was shot in July 2009 using a Sony HDR HC-3 in a Sea&Sea VX-S1 housing. It was a sunny day topside and the water conditions were pretty good below. At the I was having "technical difficulties" with my housing so I did not have a zoom or an on/off button. So for this footage I was limited to physically moving in close to get close-up shots. But I did get a few good ones!

I hope the subject (shark feeding) does not offend anyone. I don't enjoy shark feeding, but it's part of my job to film it. And with the tourist revenue it brings, the sharks are worth more alive than dead, so that counts for something.

I hope you enjoy the video, and I welcome your feedback.

Kim

Comments

Tim L wrote on 12/23/2009, 6:59 PM
I thought it looked pretty good. Too bad about the water drops on the housing when you were topside, but that's understandable I guess.

At about 2:36 or so I liked the shark that had the fish in his mouth -- shaking it back and forth. With the guitar music right there the shark reminded me of a heavy-metal headbanger rockin' out at a concert or something :-)

The only suggestion I have is that while you were still topside the video seemed too "sterile" without any field audio. Even though you have music I'd like too hear a little bit of splashing in the background to go with the trashing about. Might be tough since your camera was in a housing and so maybe you don't get any audio through it? Anyway, I found from my own experience that even when I have videos set to music I generally like to have at least a little bit of the natural sound mixed in there as well. But, just my opinion.

Tim L
musicvid10 wrote on 12/23/2009, 7:00 PM
Kimberly,
I followed your previous thread. Is the original HDV video still available? Is it necessary to use a SD render to upload to YouTube?

The latest YouTube HD upload options are pretty good.
SD is, well . . . SD.
Kimberly wrote on 12/23/2009, 7:12 PM
Hi Tim L:

Yeah I was bummed when I saw the housing had water droplets topside. It started out dry but it was splashed in the thrashing. Sometimes I can get enough topside footage before it gets wet but not this time : (

Good advice on including some of the splashing sounds! The housing does have a sound port and picks up pretty well. I might give that a try on my next video.

The normally weekly video also shows shots of the guests topside and watching the feed, but I didn't include that because I didn't want to use images of the guests without permission.

Kim

Kimberly wrote on 12/23/2009, 8:14 PM
Hey Musicvid:

All my current footage is SD . . . but if all goes well, I'll be shooting everything in HDV when I return to Chuuk (in two weeks). Once I'm back in Chuuk, I'll have access to Internet just once a week and it's DIAL-UP speed ! ! ! : o
So if I have troubleshooting issues with the HDV, I'll have to fall back to my trusty SD, which works pretty well. Wish me luck!

PS. Thanks for all of your help on my previous posts. I am continually amazed at how generous people are with their knowledge and time.

Kim