Rocky Mountain Sky (timelapse)
 

a collection from the past six months of filming I've done on the front range of the Rockies...I composed the music to go with the feel of the film...let me know what you think...

Descant Productions on Vimeo

Hi Jem,

I liked it but I felt it was a bit long, I think you could tighten it up by a minute or so. I also think you let some of the takes fade too far to black, I think fading needs to be kept for the last take. Also, you need to be careful with camera placement as you get too much flaring and also suffer from washed out colours in some of the takes, you also picked up a light??? in one of the takes, on the LHS. Always try to shoot with the sun on either shoulder during 1000 to 1500 Hrs, depending on the time of year. This'll give you richer colours at source. With a short film like this it'd be an advantage to colour grade the whole thing if you're able.

Overall, a good little piece to learn a lot off. Well done.

Al

Alan,

Thanks for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate your thoughts. I was actually aiming for 4 minutes due to the length of the song, just as a personal preference it seems a comfortable length to me, but most pop songs fall in the three minute range so you're right on with that. As for shooting with the sun at 10 - 1500 hrs, I was going for a lot of sunsets, and since the mountains (my geographic preference to shoot instead of over the plains) are to the west, I have little choice but to shoot near, or into, the sun. Sorry for the flares :) I think you're right about the fades, too, it was just hard to cut the cool cloud movement at the end of some of them. I think I need to be a little more ruthless on my editing overall.

As for color grading, that's one of my weak points, knowledge-wise. I'm hoping to learn more on that subject this winter, so maybe I'll start with this one and see how I can make it better. Again, thanks for the input...Jem

Jem,

Option 2 if you have no choice but to shoot into the sun is use a good matte box, it'll make tons of difference whilst the sun is a bit higher. When the sun is lower, flaring is going to be awkward, your best bet is to use it creatively.......

And yes, be ruthless with your editing ;).....a good habit to get into......think...Aunt Jess's 3 hours of video of the kids when we blah blah blah............ [horror story....and legal grounds for homicide..... ;) ]

Al