Winners – Underwater Videography Contests

December 2020 Video Contest Winner and Review

Published 5 years agoon January 1, 2021

WINNER CHOSEN AND REVIEW BY SCUBAVERSE.COM’S EDITOR-AT-LARGE AND RESIDENT UNDERWATER VIDEOGRAPHY EXPERT JEFF GOODMAN

Winner: Out Of The Ordinary – A Wonderpus Poem by Catrin Pichler.

Winning Video:

Hope you all had a very happy Christmas. Shortest day gone so spring and summer on their way soon.

Five entries this month and all lovely films. David, one of the nicest films I have seen from the Cove. Daniel, a real feel good video to remind us of some of the beauty of the underwater world. Catrin, as always very professional and well done with the narration. Kiril, Wow, my eyes were wide open throughout. A very stylised film. Betsy, once again a wonderful video.

I have to pick a winner but don’t want to lessen the amazing quality of the others.

Apart from all the technical aspects of making a good video, one of the most important elements is the enjoyment factor of the audience and this can be quite subjective. People will forgive many technical errors if the story is captivating. All the films this month were technically excellent and so it came down, again, to the one I enjoyed most and on this occasion it was. Out Of The Ordinary – A Wonderpus Poem by Catrin Pichler.

Please read my comments for each film in case there is something there that may help your own films in the future.

Down in the Cove by David Gwyer

Nice. Thanks for the written intro. You use the same system as me. GoPro5 and Premiere Elements. Cost effective but does the job really well. Good opening with perfect music and very good narration. Great camerawork and lighting. You must be pleased with the film. You created an interesting and eerie mood to the dive. The wreck images were sharp and well framed and the perch were a nice touch.

Maldives Underwater by Daniel French

Good to see all the technical details of the camera and light being used. Beautiful opening shot of the turtle with excellent music. The lighting was perfect and just how I like to see it. Subtle in terms of exposure but very effective in adding colour back into the scene. The whole video had a nice easy feel to it. Very relaxing with a steady pace. Lovely shoaling fish.

Out Of The Ordinary – A Wonderpus Poem by Catrin Pichler

The Wonderpus Octopus is both charismatic and mostly unafraid of cameras and you captured it on video perfectly. Extremely good camerawork and lighting. The narration was both well presented, informative and easy to listen to. You then seamlessly migrated the narration into a poem which added a complete new dimension to the whole film. Loved it. Image quality was outstanding.

Jellyfish and Free Diver by Kiril

Wow, that was exciting. I don’t recommend anyone doing the same unless they are very confident and knowledgeable about this deadly little animal. The images were extremely good with beautiful lighting and framing. I liked the ‘static’ effects which gave an even more menacing feel. It was fascinating to see the jellyfish react so definitely to the close hand in front of it.

Box jellyfish have 24 eyes made up of 4 different types. Four of them are much like our eyes (image forming) and the other 20 are light/dark sensors for obstacle avoidance. They can make out shapes and distinguish between prey and predators quite easily. https://lifeincairns.com/box-jellyfish-facts/

Symbiosis by Betsy Beasley

Very good!…..As well as the usual high standard of videography, the narration and script were wonderfully informative and easy to listen to. The music was perfect and very well blended with the narration. It just goes to show that what at first seem to be ordinary wildlife images can, with a little research, become interesting and fascinating behavioural clips.

The January competition is now open for entries. You can enter up to three videos by clicking here.

Jeff Goodman

Jeff is a multiple award winning, freelance TV cameraman/film maker and author. Having made both terrestrial and marine films, it is the world's oceans and their conservation that hold his passion with over 10.000 dives in his career. Having filmed for international television companies around the world and author of two books on underwater filming, Jeff is Author/Programme Specialist for the 'Underwater Action Camera' course for the RAID training agency. Jeff has experienced the rapid advances in technology for diving as well as camera equipment and has also experienced much of our planet’s marine life, witnessing, first hand, many of the changes that have occurred to the wildlife and environment during that time. Jeff runs bespoke underwater video and editing workshops for the complete beginner up to the budding professional.