First Place Video - Classic - SEA International 2013

[Oceanshutter 121]

Hello all,

The folks over at the SEA International Photo and Video competition (NCUPS). have announced the winners of this years Video competition. They run a great organization, and I recommend anyone who is interested to enter in next years competition. This year I was lucky enough to have placed in first place in the Classic category. I have to admit, I am pretty excited about this, as this the first competition I have ever entered.

 

Have a look if you have a few minutes. Feel free to Share, Like, and Comment on it.

 

I value all the opinions here on Wetpixel, so if there are things that you think I could do better, please feel free to chime in. I am always looking to improve.

 

Thanks,
Dustin

 

https://vimeo.com/66011703

 

 

 

 

 

[SimonSpear 65]

Wonderful! It's not often that I watch a vid on the internet and when it ends I wish that it had gone on for longer! Congrats on your win - it looks well deserved

Cheers, Simon

[Pete L 48]

Well done mate.

[Kelpfish 14]

Exciting encounters. Well done.

 

Joe

[Jo Horrocks 5]

Well done Dustin, lovely film.

[dykvideo 4]

Beautiful colors(-;

 

Søren

[asmigel 0]

Very nice! Great lighting.

[RestlessDeviant 1]

Wow...

 

Insane close ups and skill with lighting. Well deserved win

 

Shit... Makes me think about going night diving again! It's been years

Edited May 14, 2013 by RestlessDeviant

[Ferg42 13]

Fabulous- a well deserved win.

[Nick Hope 146]

Very nice work Dustin. Full frame looks so challenging for macro because of shallow depth of field but you did good. Great lighting. Great music.

 

Suggestions for improvement...

 

Use some straight cuts instead of cross-dissolving every single transition.

 

And move your copyright notice right out into the corner. It's distracting where it is. You'd still qualify for statutory damages under US copyright law if someone crops it out.

 

Also if you're using a royalty-free CC licence, make sure it's CC-BY and not CC-BY-ND, which doesn't cover syncing to music, or CC-BY-SA, which requires you to share your video under the same licence.

 

What did the stargazer eat?

[Oceanshutter 121]

Well done Dustin, lovely film.

Thanks Jo. Your films were also great! Congrats on your several placings.

 

Dustin

[Oceanshutter 121]

Very nice work Dustin. Full frame looks so challenging for macro because of shallow depth of field but you did good. Great lighting. Great music.

 

Suggestions for improvement...

 

Use some straight cuts instead of cross-dissolving every single transition.

 

And move your copyright notice right out into the corner. It's distracting where it is. You'd still qualify for statutory damages under US copyright law if someone crops it out.

 

Also if you're using a royalty-free CC licence, make sure it's CC-BY and not CC-BY-ND, which doesn't cover syncing to music, or CC-BY-SA, which requires you to share your video under the same licence.

 

What did the stargazer eat?

Thanks Nick.

 

I appreciate the tips. I don't mind doing a straight cut, but the music I feel has to work with it.

 

As for the music, I believe it is cc-by-Nd, which to my understanding, that is usable. http://weblogs.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=weblogs&cdn=compute&tm=64&f=10&su=p284.13.342.ip_p504.6.342.ip_&tt=11&bt=2&bts=2&zu=http://creativecommons.org/

This link shows what it allows for, and don't see any problem with it.....unless there is something I don't understand.

 

Thanks again,

 

Dustin

[Drew 0]

Excellent work. Congratulations. The lighting created a nice mood and you had the camera fixed on a tripod for stable shots. I do think you will need to get a focus gear for your 100mm. I appreciate you tried to get the rack focus look with the ghost pipefish but you could've done it better with a real rack focus. It would've worked with a few other shots as well in your clip.

 

You may also want to consider rearranging the sequences to tell more of a story. Right now, it's just a collection of cool clips. Having a storyline gives a clip more life as it were.

[Jo Horrocks 5]

Thanks Jo. Your films were also great! Congrats on your several placings.

 

Dustin

 

Thanks Dustin. I look forward to seeing more of your great footage!!

[Steve Douglas 16]

All that in 3 minutes, really well done. No matter how great a film is, 3 years down the road you will see things that you will want to change but, by then, the time to move on has come. Very nice music and, you're right, it does set the ambience. Agree with all of Nick's suggestions. Never the less, loved it and it is rare that I like music videos.

Steve

[Oceanshutter 121]

All that in 3 minutes, really well done. No matter how great a film is, 3 years down the road you will see things that you will want to change but, by then, the time to move on has come. Very nice music and, you're right, it does set the ambience. Agree with all of Nick's suggestions. Never the less, loved it and it is rare that I like music videos.

Steve

 

Thanks Steve. I appreciate your feedback. I am glad you enjoyed it.

 

Dustin

[Oceanshutter 121]

Excellent work. Congratulations. The lighting created a nice mood and you had the camera fixed on a tripod for stable shots. I do think you will need to get a focus gear for your 100mm. I appreciate you tried to get the rack focus look with the ghost pipefish but you could've done it better with a real rack focus. It would've worked with a few other shots as well in your clip.

 

You may also want to consider rearranging the sequences to tell more of a story. Right now, it's just a collection of cool clips. Having a storyline gives a clip more life as it were.

 

Showing my ignorance.....What is Rack focus? And will it work for Ikelite, 5d mark ii with a manual focus port from Ike? I am interested in hearing more about this.

 

Thanks for the comments Drew. I appreciate it.

 

Dustin

[escape 84]

Very nice, well done.

[Steve Douglas 16]

Rack Focus is a very commonly used technique in both TV and movies. In a layman's explanation, you have something or someone in the foreground and something or someone else in the background. Rack Focus will occur when the subject in the foreground is sharply in focus but then the cameraman adjusts the focus to sharply focus the background bringing the foreground subject out of focus. It can go either way and is fairly easy to do. Productions houses will often have a focus puller do the job while the cameraman simply works the camera. Try it a few times for yourself and you will find that you can pick it up pretty quick. Know how far you have to go to focus on the background when switching from the foreground so that you don't go too far with it. All techniques and tricks are good when you don't use them too often.

[Oceanshutter 121]

Rack Focus is a very commonly used technique in both TV and movies. In a layman's explanation, you have something or someone in the foreground and something or someone else in the background. Rack Focus will occur when the subject in the foreground is sharply in focus but then the cameraman adjusts the focus to sharply focus the background bringing the foreground subject out of focus. It can go either way and is fairly easy to do. Productions houses will often have a focus puller do the job while the cameraman simply works the camera. Try it a few times for yourself and you will find that you can pick it up pretty quick. Know how far you have to go to focus on the background when switching from the foreground so that you don't go too far with it. All techniques and tricks are good when you don't use them too often.

That makes sense. Thanks Steve. Although, I think it be hard to do underwater, with the way the manual focus works on the Ike..I have to sort of push the knob in and then turn. Potentially distrupti g the stability the tri pod provides.

 

I will give it a go though.

 

Dustin

[meister 1]

Congratulations. Most excellent!

[Oceanshutter 121]

For those interested.. Here is a 5 minute version of this film.

 

https://vimeo.com/66974789

 

[Drew 0]

Nice catch on the nudi predation.

[Oceanshutter 121]

Nice catch on the nudi predation.

Thanks Drew. when I have time, I am going to do a separate short video on it. With a bit more footage. I didn't even know they ate other nudi's!

 

Dustin

[Roegie 2]

Wow...Awesome work ......A level to strive for!

 

Congrats on your win!