Thank you! Excellent feedback. I really do appreciate it : )

I start making videos again in Janaury so I'm searching for new ideas. I wrestle back and forth with straight cuts versus crossfades. I'm playing around right now with new titles from NB Titler Pro so your suggestions will definitely help there.

Okay now I gotta figure out what the dinosaur thingy is . . .

Regards,

Kimberly

Kim...really nice piece!

I'm going to pick nits because there's really nothing wrong with what you've posted there.

I found the frame rate on Vimeo a little distracting. Was the footage shot that way or was it just the output?

One thing as a purely creative shooting thing...let each shot focus on one thing. It felt like a lot of the shots were moving from one thing to another and moving quite quickly. For the dreamy music, etc, you could really just slow down the motion a bit. Less is more, so even if you're slowly swimming/trucking into an object, a really slow move will give the viewer time to understand what they're looking at, and then appreciate the detail (from my limited two-dive experience getting footage snorkeling, I know it's easier said than done).

The shot at 4:27 of the (medical case?) was good because it was a strong focal point...even if you just VERY slowly moved across the case, it would be easier for the view to get a handle on what they're seeing. That said, a higher frame rate would help in that too.

I also agree with Muttley on the opening graphic. In my experience, again, less is more. For introducing each wreck, just keep the shots going, but just put a very "gentle" caption on the lower-third to indicate that the viewer is watching footage from a different wreck.

The colours were really nice, and your choice of music was good. Well done!

Beautiful really. My only complaint would be with the smoothness of the motion, but I think that is just the way Vimeo is these days and not your footage at all.

Vimeo is getting so stuttery these days that it is hard to tell what is going on cadence wise. Do you use optical stabilization? Some of the shots reminded me of what happens when you use stabilization on a tripod, but then again that could just be Vimeo. On underwater stuff, should you use stabilization or is the water friction enough? I used to love Vimeo, but these days it is getting so jerky that I can hardly stand it.

The light looks really good. It seems to go beyond your framing enough that it looks really natural. Not that spotlight look that you see so often under water. The scenery is just gorgeous and the overall look is great.

If I had any suggestion at all it would be to slow the camera moves down, especially if it is going to have online video compression. That and maybe find somewhere other than Vimeo to host it. Yeah, I use Vimeo too, but I am shopping around again.

All good feedback. Even now I'm busy reworking titles -- trying to learn NB Titler after having it for the past year. Something snazzy, yet dignified.

The original footage was 1080x1440 HDV. I homogenized it into Vimeo's format. I didn't put any additional stabilization FX so that's just me swimming around. My old housing did not have a wide angle lens so yes, there was a lot of panning to try to show everything (new housing has wide angle ! ! ! ).

The lights are stunning. They have about a 110 degree beam. My new housing has a wide angle of about 90 degrees. I should be able to slow down on panning yet the wide angle-ness shouldn't exceed my lights.

Thanks to all for watching and helping me.

How about in camera stabilization?

Kimberly, I LOVED the opening shot until the box flew in. I wish I could shoot underwater. Really loved the video; fonts and transitions not.

I hate to wade into something so subjective as music, but I will say that your choice reminds me too much of corporate muzak. Sorry -- it didn't work for me. At all. Your beautiful capture of relics of a bygone era haunting the sea floor begs for haunting music. I think it would really change the entire feel of your video. Instead I felt like I was waiting on hold for an operator. Not a criticism of your work, just choice of a soundtrack.

The video played smoothly for me (on DSL) but I watched the non-HD version.

I'm a home hobbiest -- not a professional -- but personally, I would like to see an "establishing shot" (with title) for each wreckage. If possible, start with a distant shot showing the big picture as you approach. It felt strange to me to start out "inside" a wreck without seeing the outside first to give me a feeling of where I am. (I'm not a diver, but I do like watching this sort of thing.)

However, as I type this, I realize maybe that isn't possible -- that maybe there isn't enough light to do that and you can only shoot close-ups within range of your lights.

I read your description first, on Vimeo, then watched the video. If I hadn't read the description first, however, I wouldn't know what I was looking at. Maybe a brief title slide for each wreck could give a very condensed version of the details -- maybe add the year the ship sank (although I'm guessing these are all WWII era?)

I did enjoy watching your video. :-)

Okay so yuck on the fonts from at least two viewers. That's good to know. Any suggestions on fonts that might look better? I tried to stay away from thin fonts with serifs

And -2 on the boxes. I was going to nix the boxes for 2013 anyway so your advice is timely : )

Music . . . that's a tough one because I use only royalty free music. My selection has been limited to free and low cost music. I might need to up my budget a bit there.

Laurence -- I checked my HC3 and I'm pretty sure there was no image stablization available on that model. The new CX760V has awesome above water stabilzation; will have to see how that plays out under water.

Hi Kimberly - just my 2c worth :) I will also have to pick nits because the overall video is stunning, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Music - it worked OK for me. I think the main criterion of background music is that it is pleasing, doesn't dominate the scene, and hopefully can generate a mood appropriate to the subject. For me, as I say, it worked.

Transitions - the flying boxes were OK, I have done lots of stuff like this (changing pages in a diary in one travel video), however - food for thought. I know I am an amateur, but the way professionals do things can be useful to look at and copy. IMHO the wildlife stuff that David Attenborough puts out is superb. What you remember from that is the subject matter, not the cool transitions. (Incidentally they don't use any - it's all straight cuts). I am coming to the conclusion that less is more; my favorite transition is the simple crossfade, with maybe a linear wipe when subject matter changes. Otherwise it's straight cuts. So all those fancy things Vegas provides never get used at my place...

And to echo another thought, maybe simple subtitles (or even a voiceover??) to detail different wrecks, items etc. This enriches the experience of the viewer so much more.

I think the "dinosaur" may be an aircraft tail....

Overall very well done, and thanks for sharing.

(Edit - just saw your last reply - if the budget will stand it I recommend Smartsound. I took the plunge this year and can really recommend it)

Kimberly,
I won't embarrass myself by commenting on your video, since I don't dive and shoot, or even dive ;?)

However, your music is way too hot. Cheap tracks or not, the compression is beyond extreme (only 3dB dynamic range!) and as a result, is around 5dB too loud overall. Decrease your master volume by that amount and you will be in range for US and EU loudness standards.

The Tonebooster trial version meters don't expire (hint).

Kimberly, I strongly recommend SmartSound. If you're looking at a 2013 budget, consider the likelihood that SmartSound runs end of year specials, i.e., buy a 25 album pack for $###. I bought a 40 album pack and will probably have to download like crazy before my 1 year to redeem is up; I already have so much excellent material. The music is rich, customizable, and gets you leagues away from that free-sounding music (I know, I once used it, too!).

Fonts: you have huge, mega-chunky words in bold white jammed around the center of frame, all set against an eery, creepy, slightly mesmerizing underworld. It's a bit like bag pipes letting loose during a church service. I think your opening scene, with shafts of light filtering through blue water, would look so much better with a thin, clean, sans serif font, justified neatly to the left in a block toward bottom of frame. White is good; it just wouldn't blare like it does with the current font. Maybe try a few pixels of a black or dark blue stroke.

Transitions: I can't remember the last time I used anything other than dissolves and straight cuts. I think I once used a clock wipe and felt very conscious about it, even though it fit nicely. I thought your material would lend itself nicely to dissolves.

The slow moving chord structure of the music is not that bad but the rhythm of the hi-hat and the filigree of the bass drum is a little out of character for the slow movement of underwater scenes. If you chose to keep the same music and have the ability to tone down the volume of the rhythm section some, it would sound less like elevator music.

I liked the video.

If you're making money, feel free to disregard everything I say, cause I ain't.

Very nice video. You should be very proud of what you have and what you have done with it. Fun to watch!

I spent about 8 months at Truk/Chuuk back in 1992 provided job skill training, construction projects, and medical assistance. There are plenty of sites to see above sea level, as well. Old Japanese command post, German/Japanese built runways on a couple of islands, big guns in mountain caves aimed at the entrances to the lagoon, and an actual downed Zero shell of an airplane, etc.

Lots of memories and useless stories...

@Mikeof7:

The main road on Weno is worse now than when I first arrived in 2008!

Kimberly,

Here are a few ideas to get you started...simple, but they'll give you an idea:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19142827/truk_lagoon.zip

edit: If you like the font, it's called "Tosca Zero" - http://www.fontspace.com/search/?q=tosca

[iThe Tonebooster trial version meters don't expire (hint).

musicvid, are you referring to the TB EBULoudness meter?

Mike

i quite enjoyed it. can't comment on it since i don't know who your intended audience is. if it us here, then i really don't have any problems at all...

i just want to know how you divers can get through so much beer while wearing masks!?

I put the TB_EBULoudness meter as a Master FX on your video (which I got from my browser cache) and it's giving me -17.2 dB LUFS integrated loudness. I'm doing my DVDs at -23 now, as per the TV standard, but for the net, where I'm in competition with lots of videos much louder than that, I'm going for -20. So by that reckoning I would drop the level on your video by 2.8dB.

I agree with the less-is-more approach of keeping it simple and just using straight cuts and cross dissolves. That's all I've ever done. In fact I have gone a bit over the top recently in going almost exclusively for straight cuts unless I wanted to convey a lag in time. There was a quote around from a famous director to the effect "A cross dissolve is just a straight cut looking for a place to happen". Can't remember who said it now, but I took it a bit too literally, and the flow of my videos has suffered in places. Now I'm going to start introducing more cross dissolves again. There is a place for fancier transitions too, but it's so easy to end up with a cheesy result, so use them sparingly. Content is king.

I also would have liked to see more wide establishing shots before the tighter ones. You can't beat wide>medium>tight as a story telling device underwater, or at least wide>tight.

The music was pretty good IMO, and suited the spookiness of the scenes. I know how hard it is to find appropriate music for underwater videos, at the right price. And it's a hugely subjective issue anyway.

Camera steadiness can always be improved underwater, when you're handheld. I like to have a big rig to give it plenty of inertia, and I have achieved this in the past by having big battery packs at the bottom of the housing and buoyancy at the top. I think your lights have the batteries built in, so that would be difficult. I wouldn't rule out building a frame around the housing to gain some inertia, possibly with buoyancy at the top and weight at the bottom, to make the housing tend to sit upright. The downsides are getting it into tight gaps, swimming with into a current, and transporting it.

But for me the biggest issue with your video is the levels. Many scenes are crying out for more contrast and colour correction. On those wreck interiors your blackest blacks are above 30, and sometimes much higher, but I would have them down at 16, and would have worked on the white balance of some of the more red or green scenes. The luminance/contrast is pretty fast to fix with the Levels FX, while watching the video scopes (although I am a masochist and would use Color Curves). The white balance is much more difficult to get right in post. Actually I'm wondering if there's a luminance issue with your workflow or codecs. Your opening and closing frames are up at 41 level. Having said that, the drop shadows on your pictures reach down to 16.

I hope this helps!

i quite enjoyed it. can't comment on it since i don't know who your intended audience is. if it us here, then i really don't have any problems at all...

Thanks for your kind words, ushere!

The intended audience is my weekly group of diving guests; this is their souvenir video. This particular video is a mashup of several dive sites that would normally get between 2-3 minutes of coverage each in the real weekly video.

The real weekly video runs about 30-35 minutes. It shows each dive site, has a segment that tells the significance of Truk Lagoon in WWII, and shows the crew and credits. In the real video I shoot for (ha ha) about 50% of the footage to include my divers and try to avoid "stock footage" whenever possible.

By the time the divers see this video, they already know the history of each wreck and have taken one or more guided dives to see all this stuff, but it can be overwhelming for some divers and they still may not recognize what they are seeing. So I'm always wondering, are my shots held too long or not long enough? Should I put that crappy footage of my diver in, or something good without a diver?

My only hard and fast rules are 1) Respectful depictment of the wrecks, and 2) Rated G for all audiences. I have improved immensely in the past four years, in large part due to following this Forum. Still have a loooooong way to go.

Regards,

Kimberly

However, your music is way too hot. Cheap tracks or not, the compression is beyond extreme (only 3dB dynamic range!) and as a result, is around 5dB too loud overall. Decrease your master volume by that amount and you will be in range for US and EU loudness standards. The Tonebooster trial version meters don't expire (hint).

Thanks Musicvid! Audio is definitely my weakest skill. Audio is an art in its own right.

I will have a look at ToneBooster. I've read up on the audio controls in Vegas. Still mystified but maybe that too shall come with more study.

I went through all of my skinny fonts:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41612696/Font%20Example.m2ts

I like the first one but I'm thinking it looks too Buffy-the-Vampire-Slayereque.

I vote for font #4. IMHO the text doesn't need to be colorful, it needs to be easy to read.

BTW, +1 for SmartSound music. After Cinescore died on the vine, I switched and I have gotten some great music from them. And as pointed out above, there are occasional sales that make it very affordable.