Airshow Video Trailer
 

Hello,

I just finished all the major work on the footage from the Willow Grove airshow earlier this year. The style is sort of a silent documentary since the intended audience either doesn't need or doesn't want to hear someone in post describe what they're seeing. They just want raw sounds. I would have made the trailer shorter but its a 2 disc set so I had to be fair.
The footage was shot using a DVC60 and edited with Motion DV Studio. I had practiced with the camera for a total of about 20 min before it was used at the show so some of the things like image bouncing from the OIS (never used for airshows anymore) and the white balance (what button did i just hit?) are now non-issues and were edited out of the finished product, to the point of leaving out entire performances if it wasn't up to standard.

http://semperapollo.com/Media/Video/.../WG06Promo.mpg

Chris

Hey chris its good, but im sure everyone will agree when i say this is that it needs some music on it, some action high beat, high pulsh music to get the viewer to feel that he/she was there

i do not see how music would make it seem more real. only more commercial.

ok then. i mean it would make it look more professional. im saying this from the view of a veiwer. It really needs some music because its (no hofence) really dull and i think music is the key to make it interesting and grabs the veiwers attention.

I should have stated the intended audience better in the original post:
There are lots of airshow videos out on the internet and on the market. Most of the former are done by people who were happy to film a few specks in the sky and smoke trails. Most of the latter are either full-fledged music videos or documentaries where the narrator talks 80% of the time. Fans of aviation and airshows (which includes pilots both military and civilian) have been longing to get unadulterated footage of aircraft and this is what we are providing. The deep chugging of a radial engine and the guttural roar of an afterburning turbofan is what they love to hear.
As for music, we considered that initally 2 years ago but after looking at everything involved we opted against. For starters, there are plenty of aviation music videos, many of which are outstanding in their quality and choreography. However, trying to fill 1-2hrs of airshow with music is not feasible from a licensing standpoint. By not having music, we also don't rule out people who may not be fans of whatever genre we chose. And finally, most acts have superb soundtracks that are broadcast over the loudspeakers. Willow Grove 2006 was the first show where we filmed away from the crowd and on the flight line.
We fill a niche sort of like fishing or arena sports videos do for their respective fans. Not everyone likes aviation, but for those that do, we hope to give them the very best.

An example of the effect of music shown here (filmed with our old 1chip camera):

http://semperapollo.com/Quickstart/V...birds_sat1.mpg

And an example of no music is shown here:

http://semperapollo.com/Media/Video/...prise_WG06.mpg

Pretty jolly good I say. It's not that easy catching those flying machines. Especially on a tight shot. Think I'd prefer it without the music. It's good the way it is. A base line caption stating the type of aircraft would be interesting.
Also I think the shots of the aircraft on the ground would look better with the camera on a tripod, and the pans a bit slower. Very well done video. I always enjoy those warbird shows.

Music can set the mood - I slapped some music on this handheld footage that my wife shot just to illustrate:

http://www.b-scenefilms.com/sp.html

Owen's suggestion of a base line caption of the type of aircraft is a great idea. I would put it in the subtitles though so the viewer can toggle it on or off.

Kevin

Hi Chris,

Were you doing that Hand-Held ??

Harold

Nice images, but quite difficult to watch in places. handheld material is always difficult, but working at the long end of the lense is tricky even with a tripod. Airshows always need really good pan/tilt heads for rock steady shots - the shake, for me spoiled it.

I took a tripod and monopod to NAS Oceana last weekend and found that the tripod with a quick release works great for ground shots and I can quickly disconnect it when I need to get an aerial shot. Thanks for the suggestion...it makes shooting people working on planes 1/2 mile away a LOT easier. I'm also using a modified Video Innovators shoulder stabilizer that helps a lot for aerial footage, but there are just some angles the body was not meant to achieve. Case in point, one of the pilots told me he'd be coming past at 700mph and a split second after that pyro (wall of fire) was going to go off. Even though I knew what was going to happen, I still jumped...although not as bad as the poor photographers from Scotland who had no idea what was going on :) So when leaning back at an awkward angle, beware 1300 foot long lines of high explosives!

As for the titles, on the dvds and on all of our free video clips I put a title with the type aircraft, the location, sometimes the squadron and the pilot. It helps the viewer know what is going on and it helps me remember where I was.