What "style" of edit is this ?

[ricardo_sousa11]

So, I discovered this video, and I find this incredible...the way its edited, the shots, everything is top notch...of course I want to know more about it, and how its done...

 

Is this a thing ? A particular style ? does it have a name ? where can I find more like it ?

 

[Chris Oh]

I can't answer your question, but if you like this style, also search for videos by Brandon Li.

Here's a short inteview that talks about how he creates his videos: http://www.mirrorlessons.com/2015/10/02/going-nomad-to-film-the-world-with-the-sony-a7s-an-interview-with-filmmaker-brandon-li/

[jgharding]

It's quite a 90s style edit with flinchy jump cuts, but these cuts are often facilitated her by modern things, such as stabilised timelapse and so on. So modern retro.

a very up to date post-modern classical soundtrack (like Einaudi, Max Richter, Clint Mansell etc, the music is almost interchangeable with them)

As a matter of personal taste this kind of thing gives me a bit of a headache as most of the images don't get time to breathe, but that's just me.

Like most such films the music does most of the work, if you put a different track on it wouldn't work so well, so to make your own start with a similar arpeggio or ostinato based track by Einaudi, Clint Mansell or Max Richter and cut away!

EDIT: Yes it is Einaudi i checked on Vimeo.

PS not a criticism of their music, more an observation of a genre style. I've seen Richter in concert twice!

[benymypony]

Isn't a kind of hyperlapse ?

[fuzzynormal]

Seems like Dziga Vertov style with modern production elements. 

The thing to consider about the fundamental element of the style --is to be aware of how the images and transitions lead the viewer's eye very assertively. 

[ricardo_sousa11]

I wasnt refering to the individual techniques he used (such as hyperlapse), but the actual "stiching", the transitions, he seems to use fast blur with sideways/up&down transitions, and masks, speed ups/downs. I do realise this style cant be used for everything, but for some stuff it really makes it look "magical".

[Zach Ashcraft]

Check out Matty Brown and Joshua Morin as well! Its a very cool style. Almost hyper-realistic 

[ricardo_sousa11]

I can't answer your question, but if you like this style, also search for videos by Brandon Li.

Here's a short inteview that talks about how he creates his videos: http://www.mirrorlessons.com/2015/10/02/going-nomad-to-film-the-world-with-the-sony-a7s-an-interview-with-filmmaker-brandon-li/

Im reading this, very very helpfull, thanks a lot  

This sort of thing is exacly what I wanna know, since im "amazed" by this sort of thing, I just want to understand how its done, and maybe try it myself.

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

That guy is God for me! I once found an interview with him, I am in a rush, Google his name! 

You can't make a feature film with that edit style, but for two-three minutes epic videos, it's incredible!!!

 

[ntblowz]

Actual interview for the author of Watch Tower of Turkey, look at his fcp timeline!

http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/articles/1582-watchtower-of-turkey-a-stunning-piece-of-cinematic-editing-and-sound-design-created-in-final-cut-pro-x-gets-nominated-best-of-vimeo-2014

 

[ricardo_sousa11]

That guy is God for me! I once found an interview with him, I am in a rush, Google his name! 

You can't make a feature film with that edit style, but for two-three minutes epic videos, it's incredible!!!

 

Of course a feature film with this style would be nauseating, but for smaller videos, it indeed an incredible style

[dhso22]

The OP video is made with a GH3.  

Quote from the interview ntblowz has linked to.  

Leonardo Dalessandri, on the gear he used in the making 
of Watchtower of Turkey:  

What equipment did you take on the trip?

When you are on the road shooting a personal project you cannot
bring loads of equipment.  Besides my two cameras, the Panasonic
GH3 and the entry-level GoPro3, I had my MacBook Pro 2013 and
two LaCie rugged portable 2TB drives.  I didn’t use anything else.  
No sliders, no mounts, no stabilizing gear.  I had a little tripod, but
I did every shot hand-held.  

I had three lenses on my GH3: a Lumix 12-35 f2.8, a cheap 14–140
zoom lens and my favorite: a Leica 42.5 f1.2 nocticron.  On the
screenshot you also see an old Sony camera that I did not use.  
Most of the footage in the video came from the GH3.  

I also took a little Tascam audio recorder.  It is very cheap but very
cool for what I need when I’m traveling.  We used it to record
typical ambient sounds at the places we visited: people, street noise,
water, a flock of birds flying by, a call for prayer, etcetera.  Those
specific little sound bites are extremely important in the final edit
because they can add a lot of impact to the visuals.  

The video footage was recorded in 1920x1080 format.  For the GH3
I used the all-I 25p, 72Mbps, H.264.MOV setting.  I also shot hyper
lapse sequences in photo mode.

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/articles/1582-watchtower-of-turkey-a-stunning-piece-of-cinematic-editing-and-sound-design-created-in-final-cut-pro-x-gets-nominated-best-of-vimeo-2014

http://blog.musicbed.com/articles/the-music-of-film-a-conversation-with-leonardo-dalessandri/20

[HelsinkiZim]

I am currently editing a video in this style so I can point you to a few links if you are looking for further inspiration.

24 hours in Ibiza https://vimeo.com/135852367

India Land of Kings https://vimeo.com/140850530

Roma https://vimeo.com/137925379

Tokyo Roar https://vimeo.com/129171397

The Norway https://vimeo.com/140960984

Amsterdam Music Festival 2015 (check this out to see it done with a bigger budget) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9xFVfERKUU

I think that should keep you busy for an evening.

PS:

My advice would be to screengrab them, pop them into your NLE and look at the transitions frame by frame.

Collect as many shots as you can, don't worry so much about how they will stitch together as it is more important to have options.

Watch this interview with the Vimeo pioneer of this style Matty Brown https://vimeo.com/138341824

Make your movements with the camera as slow and as stable as possible. Always look for movement in the shot so you can emphasis it with speedramping, even if its just a blink of your subjects eyes.

Try to get shots of birds, yourself as filmmaker (self reflexive shots of filmmaker in action i.e. your feet, your hand opening a door etc), water, people preparing food... just shoot everything you can think of. 

Try to tell a story.

As mentioned above, the style is montage which was propagated by Vertov with Man with a Movie Camera. Check it out on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z97Pa0ICpn8. However, I would call this a post modern treatment as it includes hyperlapse and special effects.

Don't try to make something as intense as Watchtower of Turkey unless you have at least 2-4 weeks of full time editing and effects available. Look at some of the other takes on this style which use the transitions, sound and movement a bit more sparingly to great effect, like some that I have linked to above.

Finally, learn how to use curves in After Effects if you want to have that off balance, natural swinging type of movement.

I am not an expert on this style yet, but hopefully when I am done with my cut i can offer more tips.

 

[Sekhar]

Lovely footage and grading, but the cutting seems crazy for anything longer than a quick (30 second max) promo...I wonder if some would even get seizures. Overall, looks to me like a cop out gimmick from having to tell a story. A shame because the shots are great.

[HelsinkiZim]

There is something else I would like to add...

I have massive amounts of respect for watchtower of Turkey because he couldn't crop 4k to 1080. The same goes for Matty Brown. They physically whip the camera away after they get the shot. What others are doing now is taking static shots in 4+K and panning and scanning. But keep in mind that this will only look natural if you use curves and expressions in AFX.
I have seen some videos where the filmmaker did not take this into account and their videos didn't resonate with the audience so well. I will not be linking to these out of respect for their effort.

 

[HelsinkiZim]

Lovely footage and grading, but the cutting seems crazy for anything longer than a quick (30 second max) promo...I wonder if some would even get seizures. Overall, looks to me like a cop out gimmick from having to tell a story. A shame because the shots are great.

I'm afraid you can't really ignore a DSLR filmmaker that has garnered over 500, 000 views and 1, 393 comments. It is safe to say that this 'gimmick' has inspired a lot of amateurs to get out and shoot, myself included. It is rare to see something inspiring that you could do in your hometown, on a shoe string budget, all by yourself. I would even throw it out there that it is the essence of what the DSLR community is all about.

[Sekhar]

I'm afraid you can't really ignore a DSLR video that has garnered over 500, 000 views and 1, 393 comments. It is safe to say that this 'gimmick' has inspired a lot of amateurs to get out and shoot, myself included. It is rare to see something inspiring that you could do in your hometown, on a shoe string budget, all by yourself. I would even throw it out there that it is the essence of what the DSLR community is all about.

May be, but the Pizza Rat video shot with cell phone has 8+ million views and caused an Internet sensation, so views mean squat. My point is, to use the cliche: content is king, and there ain't a story in this one.

The problem with telling a story is that it's hard, and like exercise folks will resort to all kinds of tricks to avoid it: slow-mo, time-lapse, drone shots, macros, crazy cutting, night for day, bizarre stunt go-pro shots, you name it. Basically do anything gee-wiz to distract the viewer from realizing that there is no story.

As I said, the footage is lovely in this piece, so kudos for that. But being great at shooting video is NOT the same being great at telling a story. And storytelling matters a lot to indie filmmakers here, much more so than the gee-wiz stuff.

[HelsinkiZim]

May be, but the Pizza Rat video shot with cell phone has 8+ million views and caused an Internet sensation, so views mean squat. My point is, to use the cliche: content is king, and there ain't a story in this one.

The problem with telling a story is that it's hard, and like exercise folks will resort to all kinds of tricks to avoid it: slow-mo, time-lapse, drone shots, macros, crazy cutting, night for day, bizarre stunt go-pro shots, you name it. Basically do anything gee-wiz to distract the viewer from realizing that there is no story.

As I said, the footage is lovely in this piece, so kudos for that. But being great at shooting video is NOT the same being great at telling a story. And storytelling matters a lot to indie filmmakers here, much more so than the gee-wiz stuff.

Lol @ Pizza Rat...

I was taking into account the fact that it was an amateur filmmaker showcasing his art, and in that respect that kind of response/ dialogue is what we all aspire to generate and I am sure some people here do on on a regular basis.

I get your point though. Right now more than ever, as video is everywhere and getting cheaper to produce, story is king. Effects don't age well. I don't really look at this style as something a serious filmmaker would want to be known for. I am sure they would prefer people to appreciate how they use the camera to tell a story. In that respect, this video is a bit 'gimmicky' as it is swapping storytelling for the 'geezus, how did you do that' appeal. If you read comments for some of the more recent videos imitators have made, you can tell that people are kind of getting tired of it already. Everyone now is trying to tell a bit of story, such as Brandon Li to great effect, check out some of the links I posted. 

But none-the-less, if you are going to make a travel video and you are on your lonesome with a camera and a couple of lenses, it is an interesting skill to master - and tell yourself youve been there and done that. It also teaches you some important skills with regards to composition/ framing, movement, sound editing, organising footage etc.

We must also remember that montage, or random shots put together, is a bona fide genre that has been around since the beginning of film. When done well it can have the same impact on the viewer as a great story.

 

 

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

Dear Sekhar, it depends what you define as "story". No there is no classic story. But thank god for it, we can't live forever with "a guy meets girl and fall in love" and/or "someone killed someone else, let's see who did it" kind of stories. 

As much as there can be non-verbal communication, there can be non-verbal audio-visual story. Watchtower of Turkey offers a glimpse of Turkey in 3.30 minutes and of course, it can't replace travelling and staying there! But for those who have never been there, I more than welcome to have seen it!