filming amongst the redwoods..

[ravencrew]

He is something else I do for fun besides taking photos. I have been trying to figure out how to make a zipline for my video camera. This was just shot through the windsheild and out the of the side window. With a zipline I could get some pretty good shots of the trees and try to get the sensation of fly amongst the trees. Here is a short video of the redwoods edited to music that I produced. Nothing special since I didn't have much footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D-bW4jcuxs

[Skyman]

I love it!
I think you should post this in the digital video forum, I know a lot of our members do this sort of stuff and I want to encourage them to share their work for comment and critique. Your camera handled the incredible contrast pretty well. What camera did you use. Also your footage is very smooth considering, was the camera mounted to the car in some way or were you hand holding it? Also what program did you use to edit it, as the slowed down footage is remarkably smooth.

ps you might want to check out the modo steady from manfrotto, sure it isn't a steadycam, but for a small camera it can really give your shots the steadycam look.

http://modo.manfrotto.com/

[Photo-John]

Very nice! I like your editing and the choice of music. It works really well.

I'm making the executive decision to move this to our Digital Video forum. It's not really off-topic, since we do have a video forum. Skyman is actually one of the video forum moderators. So I'm glad to see he's inviting you to post there. We also have our own video hosting here. The quality is much better than YouTube and we'd love to have you add some videos and share them here. The link is in the main navigation, under "Share." But I'll just make it easy and give you the link: http://videos.photographyreview.com/

Thanks for sharing!

[ravencrew]

I love it!
I think you should post this in the digital video forum, I know a lot of our members do this sort of stuff and I want to encourage them to share their work for comment and critique. Your camera handled the incredible contrast pretty well. What camera did you use. Also your footage is very smooth considering, was the camera mounted to the car in some way or were you hand holding it? Also what program did you use to edit it, as the slowed down footage is remarkably smooth.

ps you might want to check out the modo steady from manfrotto, sure it isn't a steadycam, but for a small camera it can really give your shots the steadycam look.

http://modo.manfrotto.com/

First off I would like to say Thank You for the warm comments, I didn't realize their was a video section in ths forum, Thanks for putting it in the right spot. I looked around and didn't see anything so I posted it in the off topic.

I'll answer your first question of what camera did I use? I used a Sony Handycam DVD with a Carl Zeiss lens. This is one of those hand held compact video cameras. The camera records to a mini dvd. I have used this camera for over 6 years and it works great for what I do. I have learned through trail and error how to use its functions over the years. Most people will just buy a camera put a Tape or Mini DVD into it and start shooting. They miss out on all of the functions these little hand held cameras are capable of. If anyone does buy a new digital video camera take the time to learn the functions of your new camera. You would be amazed at how much you can manuplate the contrast and focus along with the zoom features. I created a 54 minute DVD of my In-laws race season and made a pretty good return on the sales. It's not hard if you just take the time to learn your video camera like you do your SLR or Digitail still cameras.

Okay here goes on the second question, I just put the camera on the dashboard of my pick-up truck hit the record button and began to drive at a slow steady speed, trying to avoid sudden acceleration or braking. Roads are great for filming things when your off the beaten path. Some of the other shots like the tree shot that looks up towards the tree tops was just learning how to hold my camera steady. I rested my arm on the open window and pointed the camera towards the tree tops, As I went past a certain tree I panned the camera to follow the tree top. Pretty simple techniques that add a little flair to your videos. Mind you I wouldn't try this during the summer months as this road is full of tourists and travelers. I do have a lipstick camera with an Aiptek body unit that I will use if I'm going to be filming at higher speeds.

Your third question "what program did you use to edit it, as the slowed down footage is remarkably smooth. The program I used was called ULead 10+ pretty simple program to learn. It has all of the functions you'll need for making a decent film. This program also has video overlay, blue screen, numerous tranistions, masking, ect. I can also directly upload the dvd straight into Ulead 10. The program costs around 100.00 USD. I picked mine up at Circut City.