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I loved that book! I should re-read it.. I definitely agree that exceptional craft is not seen but is felt. Perhaps my whole film-making journey has been gradually learning to see what makes the great things great, as at first I knew they were great but couldn't tell you why. When thinking about your video, and visual storytelling in general, I keep thinking of poetry. In poetry you have things like alliteration, rhythms, rhyming, as well as metaphor, etc. For example, having a sequence of walking which ends with a mile-marker sets up the pattern that lots of walking happens to get to a mile-marker, and then you can give a short burst of shots of mile-markers and we know that lots of walking was implied. Having two sequences where the structure was similar but subject matter was different is a way to draw parallels between different subjects. Having a theme throughout the edit, perhaps from the editing style, perhaps from the compositions or other choices during filming, can 'rhyme' through an edit. There are lots of other examples possible. I watched an analysis of the first Nolan film, Tarantella, and a theme was that the non-linear sequences seem random at first, but as the film progresses, patterns begin to emerge and as links form between new shots/sequences and previous shots/sequences, your brain becomes aware of more and more patterns, making the experience richer. I think this richness of patterns is how I experience craft. Potentially I'm becoming more consciously aware of emerging patterns and themes (which can seem to me like comments or questions or both) and potentially the feeling is building up (which I interpret as there being patterns but I'm not registering them consciously), but mostly likely both. There are gems in the doom-scrolling which show examples of vibrant craft, but I think the quadrant I don't see that much is of gentle / relaxed / understated craft, rather than hype craft. Perhaps this is just that attention editing is perceived as being the only path to success on social media (it's not, but it's often perceived that way), or it might be that those capable of such craft are trying to make a career from it and so everything is a showreel of-sorts. As someone who has more than enough excitement/stress in my life without needing to find more of it online in my spare time, I really appreciate something that is relaxed, but is also intellectually stimulating and emotionally communicative. Filming subjects that contain stillness and space, and communicating that feeling (that emotional reality) within the edit without losing the attention of the viewer is a more significant challenge than retention through frenetic hype edits set to music written for the club at 2am.

Accidental perhaps, but very welcome! A very significant part of me deprogramming myself from the bubble of social-media film-making was looking at professional work. After my analyses I concluded that any shot-on-location TV doc piece that was above average would have the equivalent quality of the top 20% of social media content. The pieces winning Vimeo Staff Picks would only translate to good-but-not-great in TV land. So your instincts from client work put you in very good stead in comparison to the very shallow pool of talent in online travel film-making. I think when you have any professional level as your reference point then it's difficult to see how much extra there is going on!

Art is what happens when you stop thinking about the equipment, technical specifications, and shallow DOF. Therefore the only options for an art camera are cameras that shoot RAW at 3K or less, and to avoid Bokeh fever the sensor should be smaller rather than larger. OG BMPCC or BMMCC are the obvious choices, but these days the OG Alexas are coming within striking distance of the average new MILC - and are a much better choice because instead of pixel peeping 8K you can take your head out of your ass and go point the camera at something interesting.... which is required for "art" to even become possible. Of course, higher spec cameras can be used to make art, but the art happens in spite of the camera, not because of it, so I'd wager they're not "art cameras" they're tools for artists.

A most enjoyable watch. Much more engaging that the overly repetitive swill that many US cable outlets are pumping out these days. Distribution should be well within reach, and they should be lucky if you don't charge them too much for the privilege. There is definitely a market beyond your immediate community. I think the key to unlocking it is about perspective. Which of the following is true? - it's a community film about this Hawk Watch - it's a science communication film about conservation told through this Hawk Watch - it's a human interest film about the main guy - it's a social commentary film about volunteer work and the challenges to maintain efforts across generational divides - it's a motivational film about community during a time when loneliness is an epidemic Answer: it's all of these and more. I'm sure you have sound bites that would tell each of these stories directly. Weaving these threads together into a more nuanced view could be a way to get a tighter edit by putting more layers into it rather than cutting run-time out of it. I definitely agree with @mercer that a YT channel could easily be built around this, by providing snippets of the doc, behind the scenes instalments, equipment talk, bird talk, etc etc.

Absolutely wonderful! Without dialogue this is pure visual storytelling, not an easy challenge at the best of times, and your edit held my attention the whole time, which is something that very few non-professional productions do these days. Various technical aspects did pull me out of the experience from time to time, but as an early effort and with minimal equipment this has got to be top 1% of what people were doing in 2011 for sure. Wasn't it 2014 or so that the "my camera fell into a washing machine" style travel edits got popular? Yet, yours from years before is infinitely more restrained, mature, and layered. I'm always trying to tell little stories with my edits. Even simple sequences where I join two or three shots together to tell a little story or to make a comment or raise a question, and this edit was brimming with silent commentary amongst the ebbs and flows you created.

Late last year I saw Goodfellas projected on 35mm film. Absolutely incredible movie. I've been going back and watching more classics, some that I've seen a long time ago and some I've never seen. Lots to watch and enjoy if you zoom out and watch the best from the entire catalogue of cinema history.

One topic I find missing is discussion of the creative aspects of our own film-making. Maybe there are too few people shooting things, or too few that are willing/able to share, but to me this is the only topic worth discussing. We all know that the pros can take most equipment and create great images from them, proving that creativity and skills are far more important than equipment, yet the discussions focus on the equipment, the industry politics, the changing media landscape, and everything except what matters - the skills. As much as there are many reasons to hate on other social media platforms, there are many places out there where people post their own work and discuss it on both technical and non-technical levels, creating an opportunity for constructive feedback and creative growth.

Understand the genre you are making, what works in the edit and what doesn't. Most discussion of camera features is just noise coming from people that don't know what matters to them and what doesn't.

Starting edit for Experiment 2. First step is to apply a basic grade and get a tone for the project. It was hot as hell, humid as hell, and hazy, so the grade is in that general direction. Grade is mostly Film Look Creator and then ARRI709 LUT, with only basic contrast / exposure adjustments. I might try to cool the shadows a bit and balance off some of the brown, but it's a start. I compared it to some 200T scans and it's a lot closer than I thought it would be.

Thanks! This video was a proof-of-concept, as when I started I hadn't really used Logic Pro before, had never written a soundtrack / score before, hadn't used any of the dozens of audio plugins I used in Logic either, and didn't really know the best way to integrate Logic with Resolve. Needless to say, I have learned a lot and will do a bunch of things differently on the next one.

Also shot in 1080p! A camera that could shoot ISO one billion would be welcome though, as I could set it to 3200 and get cleaner images, then bring them down in post so that night actually looks like night. Thanks! Maybe a little, but much more influenced by Illkoncept, especially his Japan on 16mm Film, things like Man with a Movie Camera (1929) and also from Parts Unknown | Tokyo.

Visuals, music and sound design are all original.

It looks like the Studio version to me... Here's a grab from the video: The bottom connector on the OG BMMCC is a rectangular connector, but on the Studio version it's a round power connector, which is what this looks like. Considering this event would likely have many cameras all over the place, running back to a central switcher for them to record and switch and stream, the Studio camera is actually an excellent choice.. unlike using it as a stand-alone cinema camera out in the world.

Please don't. This is one of the main challenges for society - the people who care about truth enough to learn anything about the world self-censor when they realise they don't know everything or make mistakes. Meanwhile, the people who don't care about truth and don't know very much about the world continue broadcasting at full volume unabashedly.

I scored an awesome Black Friday deal on a music effects VST plugin. It was 40% off, but allowed coupons to be applied after that, so some quick googling and I got it down from $199 to $86! I've recently been getting the sound design and music side of things sorted out, so I'll be writing custom music and sound design for my videos as well. Remember - sound is 50% of the movie... at least!