Underwater video music whine

[TSandM]

I wish I could find the video I'm thinking of . . . a fellow named John Walker did several wreck videos from Southern California, with voiceovers telling what part of the wreck you were looking at and why they found it interesting. They were the first wreck videos I ever watched and UNDERSTOOD, and therefore found interesting. Most of the time, I'm looking at silty pieces of rusted, twisted metal that make no more sense to me than Arabic writing (and aren't as pretty). Voiceovers can be very effective.

So can captions -- Dale C here on ScubaBoard does very nice videos with captioning, and Gombessa has done that, too. Just something to explain to the viewer where you were, or who is in the picture, or why this particular clip was interesting enough to include.

I have watched many, many hours of underwater video in the last eight years. Nowadays, a video really has to be done well to be memorable. Unless it has bunnies . . .

 

[doctormike]

What? No Beach 8th Street or Dutch?

[VIMEO]65945770[/VIMEO]


Ron has serious skills. I have admired his work for many years.


Me? I'm stuck shooting video of the school bus...


[VIMEO]31698669[/VIMEO]

 

[ronscuba]

Thanks Mike. You are way too kind with the compliments.

Love the bus video. It's not the location that matters. It's the creativity, diver interaction, the music choice, the planning, props, and your editing. I think I recognize most of the divers. Is that Meredith reading Harry Potter ?

I've been fortunate to dive great locations. I've always said shooting video is easy. Photography is much more difficult. In video, the challenges are in the editing. I'm very fast on the computer which lets me experiment and adjust my video to get things right, pretty quickly.

A good photo ? Nothing you can really do if you don't get the shot in the 1st place.

 

[doctormike]

Love the bus video. It's not the location that matters. It's the creativity, diver interaction, the music choice, the planning, props, and your editing. I think I recognize most of the divers. Is that Meredith reading Harry Potter ?

Thanks! Yup, that's Meredith... also Olga on the scooter, Renata with the phone, and Steve with the bag and the hat... a fun day for the Sea Gypsies...

 

[DaleFranklin]

Why is it that everyone who produces an underwater video feels obliged to use some obnoxious "theme song" in the background? Most of the time, these songs add nothing to the video. It is a rare bird who gets that right. Why not just do a voiceover explaining what we're seeing with light music behind that? Some of the videos seem to be a cross between an adventure movie and a massage room. Just saying...

Agreed. Been doing u/w video since '95' (with LINEAR editors) -- now using FCPX. Bought & studied most all famous videographers. Been to several NAB shows. Multiple courses, etc. One course that blew me away was the same 15 second video clip played with 4 different music soundtracks. This totally blew me out of my saddle. Depending on the music, it created 4 different moods (suspense, tragedy, comedy, & romance). When I first heard the phrase "folks remember more what they HEAR than what they SEE", I immediately thought "wait a minute -- they've got it backwards". Then 10 years later I heard it confirmed at a digital video workshop at NAB 2000.

I do video ONLY for family and friends so I can apply proprietary music from my iTunes library of 6k songs. If you intend to sell (or post, in some cases), you're stuck with buying royalty free music else "go to jail" (been there, done that -- advice from 2 lawyers). Some composers hire lawyers to comb the web and tell folks to "REMOVE MY CLIENT'S music!" Really STUPID in my humble expert opinion. I saw a video on youtube, wrote down the composer, and went to iTunes store and bought ALL his music. That's called FREE advertising.

On this forum, there appears two different mindsets when it comes to video:

(1) Gee, look at what I did! Similar to taking a picture [every day] in the parking lot and *MUST* email it to my [networked] friends, and

(2) film documentary & video journalism.

If the latter, then you'll trash about 90% of your production video, avoid other divers, and TELL A STORY -- without YOU having to be in each clip. When it comes to MUSIC, sometimes I spend more time searching for the right stuff. In one case, I spent three (3) days looking for the RIGHT music to go with a 3 minute chapter of manta rays at a cleaning station (Indonesia). It is relatively EASY to take production video VS. HARD in post production to make it interesting with matching music.

I once saw a documentary of Andres Segovia teaching a master class in classical guitar. In so many words he said this: "you don't look tenderly & kindly at your love in the eyes and -- then yell "HEY! YOU"RE BEATUTFUL!! Instead, you match the mood with the sound", unquote.

To each their own -- but with a manta or gentle swimming turtle, I don't use heavy metal or grindcore. Save that for the rolling credits.

 

[3D diver]

Chiming back in after 100+ videos uploaded to YT.

Music feedback is mixed. I have a few who like my bluegrass/old time music & plenty who don't. I've received positive feedback for some of my guitar playing, though I'm really not much of a guitar player.

3D vs. 2D: YT has controls to change the 3D viewing method or disable the 3D entirely. Unfortunately they don't always work. I recently started posting both 2D and 3D renders & find the view statistics interesting. Initially the 3D views will out number the 2D views by 2 to 1. Over time the 2D views will catch up and pass.

A lot of this depends on where I post links to the videos, and the search key words entered.

Fun, fun, fun.


p.s. channel linkage: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLjPdhMk9M_Sl9Tl1L1hIrw/videos

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I wish I could find the video I'm thinking of . . . a fellow named John Walker did several wreck videos from Southern California, with voiceovers telling what part of the wreck you were looking at and why they found it interesting. They were the first wreck videos I ever watched and UNDERSTOOD, and therefore found interesting. Most of the time, I'm looking at silty pieces of rusted, twisted metal that make no more sense to me than Arabic writing (and aren't as pretty). Voiceovers can be very effective.

So can captions -- Dale C here on ScubaBoard does very nice videos with captioning, and Gombessa has done that, too. Just something to explain to the viewer where you were, or who is in the picture, or why this particular clip was interesting enough to include.

I have watched many, many hours of underwater video in the last eight years. Nowadays, a video really has to be done well to be memorable. Unless it has bunnies . . .

https://www.youtube.com/user/pinchibuso/videos

 

[cjfox]

OK here's my 2cents, voice over and original music. I'm old enough to remember Rod Serling doing the voice overs for Jacque Cousteau stuff, now that's a voice over!

Northern Vancouver Island - YouTube

 

[MB NZ]

as above, i don't think my own voice would add to my videos. if someone can recommend some high quality text to speech software, i might be interested. in the meantime, you'll be getting carefully selected music. as others have said, impossible to please everybody because it is a matter of taste, if you don't like it, there is the mute button and there is no requirement to watch.

my particular dislike is badly recorded natural sound. hissing, camera clicks, boat propellers and the diver breathing away like it is their last breath. this combined with shaky head cam footage guarantees that i will switch off in a few seconds.

 

[Mike]

as above, i don't think my own voice would add to my videos. if someone can recommend some high quality text to speech software, i might be interested.

Here is a beautiful example of what you're looking for

Turtles love divers to ride them...