Miami Aerial and Hyperlapse Video

[OliKMIA]

Finally, It was long and painful but I made it after 2 years of work. Here is my Miami video. Enjoy

Unlike cities such as New York, Paris or Dubai, no one ever did a real hyperlapse video of Miami so I had to fix this.

I started this project 2 years ago with hyperlapse experimentation. My first attempts were very bad and most sequence went to the trash bin. It took me a while to capture the hyperlapse sequence correctly (must be very very accurate) and then do the post-stabiliation frame by frame.
Hyperlapse is very time consuming. In average, one second of video takes 1 or 2 hours of work and I don't even count the failed attempts (either I fucked up, light was wrong or something/someone messed with my sequence on site).


Techniques:

The video is 75% hyperlapse, 5% timelapse and 20% drone and aerial (rented plane and helicopter). I had a massive volume of video and photo (RAW of course) and I only used the tip of the iceberg.
I failed many times during my learning process but I now master the most complex type of sequence such as HDR Hyperlapse of Holy Grail Hyperlapse.


Gears and software:

Here is what I used:

► Hardware:
- DJI Phantom 3 Pro with Mars Lite & Mayday Board
- TBS Discovery Pro with custom GoPro 4 lens
- Polar Pro Filters
- Dynamic Perception Stage One & Stage R with NMX controller
- Panasonic GH4, Lumix 12-35 f/2.8, Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 and custom made gimbal (Alexmos)
- Canon 6D, Samyang 14mm f/2.8, Sigma 24 & 35mm f/1.4 Art, Canon EF 50 f/1.4, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L,
- Cessna 172 & Bell-206

► Software:
- Adobe Premiere & After Effects
- Adobe Lightroom
- LRTimelapse 4
- SNS-HDR Pro


How many pictures ?

Honestly I have no idea of the number of pictures taken and I find this point completely irrelevant. The number of shots and TB of hard drive is not a good metric and does not give any indication regarding the quality of the final video.
What I can tell is that I finally achieved a good ratio of shooting attempts / keeper sequence. When I started hyperlapse I had to discard 80% of my sequence, now I can keep 70-80% of my clips.
I also have a lot of unused sequence that I shot but didn't make it to the final video. I prefer to squeeze the best out of my project and not fall into the trap of "clips stacking" for the sake of it. This video is already long with its 4 minutes duration.


Aerial Shots & Safety

I used a DJI Phantom 3 Pro for the aerial shots along with a TBS Discovery Pro fitted with a GoPro 4 black. I modded the lens in order to get a longer focal. Some shots were taken from airplane (C-172) and I also rented a Helicopter (Bell-206).
In terms of safety, the drone shots were line of sight only and below 400 feet following the AMA & FAA guidlines. 90% of the drone flight occurred over the water even if it's not visible because of the framing. For the remaining 10%, I flew over parks and empty area with the Phantom. I follow a precise scouting of the place before each flight and perform a thorough checklist.
And because shit happens, I also installed a Mars Lite parachute with a North UAV Mayday board (special thanks to Kyle) on the Phantom in order to prevent any damage/injury is something goes wrong.
Last, I had to notify the airport manager in some places before my flights and I stayed away from Class B airspace of Miami (I couldn't get clearance despite my request).

Special Thanks and Credits:

► Intro & Opening tittle by michaelcparadise.com/

► Music: Daft Punk - Derezzed (The Glitch Mob Remix)
theglitchmob.com/
facebook.com/theglitchmobmusic
instagram.com/theglitchmob/
twitter.com/theglitchmob
soundcloud.com/theglitchmob

► Special thanks:
It would be hard to detail the list of all the people involved in this video but here are the main one who inspired or helped me to make this project: Artem Pryadko / Zweizwei, Aaron Priest, Dimid, Gunther creator of LRTimelapse, Jeff Colhoun, Jay Burlage & Dynamic Perception, Marco from Timelapse Network, Team BlackSheep, Aufmschlau, b-zOOmi, Keith Loutit, Dustin Farrell, Rob Whitworth, Dominic Boudreault, Michelle, Guille, Mariana, etc.

You can also follow me at:
facebook.com/Oliver-KMIA-1622032868057530
instagram.com/oliverkmia/
twitter.com/OliverKMIA

Some behind the scene photo

 

[Fredrik Lyhne]

Amazing video! Perfect choice of song as well.

[OliKMIA]

Thanks Fredrik !

[tomekk]

On 6/30/2016 at 3:11 PM, OliKMIA said:

"I failed many times during my learning process but I now master the most complex type of sequence such as HDR Hyperlapse of Holy Grail Hyperlapse."
 

First of all, I love it, congratulations! :). Could you point to some resources that helped you the most with learning this technique?

[OliKMIA]

Hey Thanks. For hyperlapse, check a tutorial on youtube that show how to stabilize a sequence using the tracker on AE. For HDR I use a software called SNS-Pro because photomatix sucks big time at batch processing (generates bad flicker). Last, for the Hoyl grail, you'll need LRTimelapse.
The rest is a matter of practice and I hope that you have time because hyperlapse requires a lot of it !

 

 

[tellure]

 

Great video, some really impressive hyperlapses, and the drone shots were awesome.  Pardon my ignorance, but how do you get such long / rotating shots (there are tons of them in your video, but just to choose two examples, 0:25 and 0:30).

 

 

[OliKMIA]

18 hours ago, tellure said:

 

Great video, some really impressive hyperlapses, and the drone shots were awesome.  Pardon my ignorance, but how do you get such long / rotating shots (there are tons of them in your video, but just to choose two examples, 0:25 and 0:30).

 

 

Thanks. The sequence at 0:25-0:30 was a hyperlapse shot taken with a Canon 6D, Sigma 24 f1.4 Art and a tripod. I aimed at the building corner and move about 15 cm / 6 inches between each shot. I manually move the tripod between each shot and them re-aim at my target (corner of the building) as precisely as I can. Then I use the tracker in AE to stabilize everything frame by frame as seen in the youtube link above. However there is only so much the post-stab can do and a misalignment of a few degrees during the capture lead to an impossible sequence to fix. The capture phase is everything and you must be very very accurate (and fast..) otherwise you won't be able to fix it in post.

This sequence is the longest hyperlapse of the video and it took me about 2-3 hours to shoot moving over a distance of 200-300 meters (600-1000 feet). I then speed it up in post.
For the story, it is the second attempts because I failed the first one a few days before (I couldn't stabilize it perfectly because I failed to properly align a few pic during the capture).

Some of the sequence had to be taken 3 or 4 times until getting the perfect shot. That's why it took me so long to make this video !  Hyperlapse is a matter of patience and frustration !

[tellure]

Wow, very interesting.. so you literally just take a shot, pick up the tripod and move it 6 inches, repeat?  Again pardon my ignorance here but how do you get the framing to match?  Are you using a wider angle lens so you have room to crop/stabilize in post?

[OliKMIA]

Yes. I use the focus points in the view finder as a "crosshair" to aim my target or the grid on the live view . I aimed at the building corner and move about 15 cm / 6 inches between each shot. I manually move the tripod between each shot and them re-aim at my target (corner of the building) as precisely as I can. Then I use the tracker in AE to stabilize everything frame by frame as seen in the youtube link above. However there is only so much the post-stab can do and a misalignment of a few degrees during the capture lead to an impossible sequence to fix. The capture phase is everything and you must be very very accurate (and fast..) otherwise you won't be able to fix it in post.

This video explains the process:

 

[j.f.r.]

On June 30, 2016 at 10:11 AM, OliKMIA said:

Finally, It was long and painful but I made it after 2 years of work. Here is my Miami video. Enjoy

Unlike cities such as New York, Paris or Dubai, no one ever did a real hyperlapse video of Miami so I had to fix this.

I started this project 2 years ago with hyperlapse experimentation. My first attempts were very bad and most sequence went to the trash bin. It took me a while to capture the hyperlapse sequence correctly (must be very very accurate) and then do the post-stabiliation frame by frame.
Hyperlapse is very time consuming. In average, one second of video takes 1 or 2 hours of work and I don't even count the failed attempts (either I fucked up, light was wrong or something/someone messed with my sequence on site).


Techniques:

The video is 75% hyperlapse, 5% timelapse and 20% drone and aerial (rented plane and helicopter). I had a massive volume of video and photo (RAW of course) and I only used the tip of the iceberg.
I failed many times during my learning process but I now master the most complex type of sequence such as HDR Hyperlapse of Holy Grail Hyperlapse.


Gears and software:

Here is what I used:

► Hardware:
- DJI Phantom 3 Pro with Mars Lite & Mayday Board
- TBS Discovery Pro with custom GoPro 4 lens
- Polar Pro Filters
- Dynamic Perception Stage One & Stage R with NMX controller
- Panasonic GH4, Lumix 12-35 f/2.8, Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 and custom made gimbal (Alexmos)
- Canon 6D, Samyang 14mm f/2.8, Sigma 24 & 35mm f/1.4 Art, Canon EF 50 f/1.4, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L,
- Cessna 172 & Bell-206

► Software:
- Adobe Premiere & After Effects
- Adobe Lightroom
- LRTimelapse 4
- SNS-HDR Pro


How many pictures ?

Honestly I have no idea of the number of pictures taken and I find this point completely irrelevant. The number of shots and TB of hard drive is not a good metric and does not give any indication regarding the quality of the final video.
What I can tell is that I finally achieved a good ratio of shooting attempts / keeper sequence. When I started hyperlapse I had to discard 80% of my sequence, now I can keep 70-80% of my clips.
I also have a lot of unused sequence that I shot but didn't make it to the final video. I prefer to squeeze the best out of my project and not fall into the trap of "clips stacking" for the sake of it. This video is already long with its 4 minutes duration.


Aerial Shots & Safety

I used a DJI Phantom 3 Pro for the aerial shots along with a TBS Discovery Pro fitted with a GoPro 4 black. I modded the lens in order to get a longer focal. Some shots were taken from airplane (C-172) and I also rented a Helicopter (Bell-206).
In terms of safety, the drone shots were line of sight only and below 400 feet following the AMA & FAA guidlines. 90% of the drone flight occurred over the water even if it's not visible because of the framing. For the remaining 10%, I flew over parks and empty area with the Phantom. I follow a precise scouting of the place before each flight and perform a thorough checklist.
And because shit happens, I also installed a Mars Lite parachute with a North UAV Mayday board (special thanks to Kyle) on the Phantom in order to prevent any damage/injury is something goes wrong.
Last, I had to notify the airport manager in some places before my flights and I stayed away from Class B airspace of Miami (I couldn't get clearance despite my request).

Special Thanks and Credits:

► Intro & Opening tittle by michaelcparadise.com/

► Music: Daft Punk - Derezzed (The Glitch Mob Remix)
theglitchmob.com/
facebook.com/theglitchmobmusic
instagram.com/theglitchmob/
twitter.com/theglitchmob
soundcloud.com/theglitchmob

► Special thanks:
It would be hard to detail the list of all the people involved in this video but here are the main one who inspired or helped me to make this project: Artem Pryadko / Zweizwei, Aaron Priest, Dimid, Gunther creator of LRTimelapse, Jeff Colhoun, Jay Burlage & Dynamic Perception, Marco from Timelapse Network, Team BlackSheep, Aufmschlau, b-zOOmi, Keith Loutit, Dustin Farrell, Rob Whitworth, Dominic Boudreault, Michelle, Guille, Mariana, etc.

You can also follow me at:
facebook.com/Oliver-KMIA-1622032868057530
instagram.com/oliverkmia/
twitter.com/OliverKMIA

Some behind the scene photo

 

 

 

Footage looks "Next Level" definitely gratulations on what you achieved here, some if not the BEST footage I have seen in the past couple of years. Quality looks Insane, like near perfection........

 

I got tired just thinking of the amount on INSANE work that went into this, congratulations on your achievement and you should receive every award for it.

 

Bravo 9.9 out of 10!!!!!

[OliKMIA]

Just now, j.f.r. said:

 

 

Footage looks "Next Level" definitely gratulations on what you achieved here, some if not the BEST footage I have seen in the past couple of years. Quality looks Insane, like near perfection........

 

I got tired just thinking of the amount on INSANE work that went into this, congratulations on your achievement and you should receive every award for it.

 

Bravo 9.9 out of 10!!!!!

 

Thanks mate. Yes, that kind of work is rewarding when done but you must be very committed to finish a video like that. Sometime I had to spend 1 hours driving, then 30 minutes setting up and finding the shot, then shooting for a hour or two, driving back and spend hours in post-processing. All that to get a 5-10 sec sequence and it was when the sequence was good.
As for the quality I'm very demanding and many sequence did not pass my "quality control" level and went to the trash bin. I only kept the good one and re-shot if necessary.

 

 

[j.f.r.]

7 minutes ago, OliKMIA said:

 

Thanks mate. Yes, that kind of work is rewarding when done but you must be very committed to finish a video like that. Sometime I had to spend 1 hours driving, then 30 minutes setting up and finding the shot, then shooting for a hour or two, driving back and spend hours in post-processing. All that to get a 5-10 sec sequence and it was when the sequence was good.
As for the quality I'm very demanding and many sequence did not pass my "quality control" level and went to the trash bin. I only kept the good one and re-shot if necessary.

 

 

Honestly looks beautiful, but personally as of today I would never spend that kind of time...... Main reason I stopped editing and focused on other ways to generate income. Used to be a full time editor the past 4-5 years, but in a way just got burned out so I know when I see a quality piece and then all of the sleepless nights comes back to me........

 

So yeah, working a Federal job now but things like this do inspire me and maybe one day I may return as I honestly LOVE the final project. Inspiring and think you for doing this!

[OliKMIA]

You're welcome. Actually I totally agree, It would be hard to commercialize this kind of shooting due to the time it takes. I'll have to charge a lot of money for a very short sequence. But it's ok because I'm just an amateur. I don't do photography and video professionally, it's only a hobby for me. Just for for fun when I have time.
That being said, I think that I've now reached the level of "advanced amateur"

[AnthonyWithNoH]

On June 30, 2016 at 10:11 AM, OliKMIA said:

Finally, It was long and painful but I made it after 2 years of work. Here is my Miami video. Enjoy

Unlike cities such as New York, Paris or Dubai, no one ever did a real hyperlapse video of Miami so I had to fix this.

I started this project 2 years ago with hyperlapse experimentation. My first attempts were very bad and most sequence went to the trash bin. It took me a while to capture the hyperlapse sequence correctly (must be very very accurate) and then do the post-stabiliation frame by frame.
Hyperlapse is very time consuming. In average, one second of video takes 1 or 2 hours of work and I don't even count the failed attempts (either I fucked up, light was wrong or something/someone messed with my sequence on site).


Techniques:

The video is 75% hyperlapse, 5% timelapse and 20% drone and aerial (rented plane and helicopter). I had a massive volume of video and photo (RAW of course) and I only used the tip of the iceberg.
I failed many times during my learning process but I now master the most complex type of sequence such as HDR Hyperlapse of Holy Grail Hyperlapse.


Gears and software:

Here is what I used:

► Hardware:
- DJI Phantom 3 Pro with Mars Lite & Mayday Board
- TBS Discovery Pro with custom GoPro 4 lens
- Polar Pro Filters
- Dynamic Perception Stage One & Stage R with NMX controller
- Panasonic GH4, Lumix 12-35 f/2.8, Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 and custom made gimbal (Alexmos)
- Canon 6D, Samyang 14mm f/2.8, Sigma 24 & 35mm f/1.4 Art, Canon EF 50 f/1.4, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L,
- Cessna 172 & Bell-206

► Software:
- Adobe Premiere & After Effects
- Adobe Lightroom
- LRTimelapse 4
- SNS-HDR Pro


How many pictures ?

Honestly I have no idea of the number of pictures taken and I find this point completely irrelevant. The number of shots and TB of hard drive is not a good metric and does not give any indication regarding the quality of the final video.
What I can tell is that I finally achieved a good ratio of shooting attempts / keeper sequence. When I started hyperlapse I had to discard 80% of my sequence, now I can keep 70-80% of my clips.
I also have a lot of unused sequence that I shot but didn't make it to the final video. I prefer to squeeze the best out of my project and not fall into the trap of "clips stacking" for the sake of it. This video is already long with its 4 minutes duration.


Aerial Shots & Safety

I used a DJI Phantom 3 Pro for the aerial shots along with a TBS Discovery Pro fitted with a GoPro 4 black. I modded the lens in order to get a longer focal. Some shots were taken from airplane (C-172) and I also rented a Helicopter (Bell-206).
In terms of safety, the drone shots were line of sight only and below 400 feet following the AMA & FAA guidlines. 90% of the drone flight occurred over the water even if it's not visible because of the framing. For the remaining 10%, I flew over parks and empty area with the Phantom. I follow a precise scouting of the place before each flight and perform a thorough checklist.
And because shit happens, I also installed a Mars Lite parachute with a North UAV Mayday board (special thanks to Kyle) on the Phantom in order to prevent any damage/injury is something goes wrong.
Last, I had to notify the airport manager in some places before my flights and I stayed away from Class B airspace of Miami (I couldn't get clearance despite my request).

Special Thanks and Credits:

► Intro & Opening tittle by michaelcparadise.com/

► Music: Daft Punk - Derezzed (The Glitch Mob Remix)
theglitchmob.com/
facebook.com/theglitchmobmusic
instagram.com/theglitchmob/
twitter.com/theglitchmob
soundcloud.com/theglitchmob

► Special thanks:
It would be hard to detail the list of all the people involved in this video but here are the main one who inspired or helped me to make this project: Artem Pryadko / Zweizwei, Aaron Priest, Dimid, Gunther creator of LRTimelapse, Jeff Colhoun, Jay Burlage & Dynamic Perception, Marco from Timelapse Network, Team BlackSheep, Aufmschlau, b-zOOmi, Keith Loutit, Dustin Farrell, Rob Whitworth, Dominic Boudreault, Michelle, Guille, Mariana, etc.

You can also follow me at:
facebook.com/Oliver-KMIA-1622032868057530
instagram.com/oliverkmia/
twitter.com/OliverKMIA

Some behind the scene photo

 

Incredible work, thank you for committing to making this! I loved the skyline shots especially when they changed from day to night. I'm a Miami local who spends a lot of time in these areas shooting video... great to see it this way. I'm really amazed how much time must have gone into this, definitely something to be proud of on its own. The final drone shot with the plane flying in was a nice touch too. I do a lot of drone flying around downtown and Miami Beach, but would eventually like to do some aerial out of a helicopter... Any advice on that? Either technique or who to go with for the service. I have a ronin M for stabilization and a GH4 with a speedbooster that works out to a 1.5x crop... Not sure which focal lengths I would bring especially considering I wouldn't be able to rebalance midflight. Would  you need a special permit or training to film with this setup for non commercial purposes? Any help would be great, thanks... And once again, incredible job on this video. 

[OliKMIA]

22 hours ago, AnthonyWithNoH said:

I do a lot of drone flying around downtown and Miami Beach, but would eventually like to do some aerial out of a helicopter... Any advice on that? Either technique or who to go with for the service. I have a ronin M for stabilization and a GH4 with a speedbooster that works out to a 1.5x crop... Not sure which focal lengths I would bring especially considering I wouldn't be able to rebalance midflight. Would  you need a special permit or training to film with this setup for non commercial purposes? Any help would be great, thanks... And once again, incredible job on this video. 

I don't remenber exactly the name of the heli company but it was based at Opa Locka Airport. Since I don't do commercial work I just filmed from the windows/side/bottom. I built a little gimbal for my GH4 because the Ronin would be a little bit big for the heli/airplane. Cheers.

[tomekk]

On 7/4/2016 at 9:58 PM, OliKMIA said:

You're welcome. Actually I totally agree, It would be hard to commercialize this kind of shooting due to the time it takes. I'll have to charge a lot of money for a very short sequence. But it's ok because I'm just an amateur. I don't do photography and video professionally, it's only a hobby for me. Just for for fun when I have time.
That being said, I think that I've now reached the level of "advanced amateur"

I can't imagine how you wouldn't be able to earn money on your current level if you wanted. I wonder how much Rob Whitworth is charging then :O. Have you tried incorporating his technique?