January 2017 Video Contest Winner And Review
WINNER CHOSEN AND REVIEW BY SCUBAVERSE.COM’S EDITOR-AT-LARGE AND RESIDENT UNDERWATER VIDEOGRAPHY EXPERT JEFF GOODMAN
Winner: Fascinating Cuttlefish – a peak into mating behaviour by Khaled Sultani
Winning Video:
January nearly over all ready. Good to see this month’s entries and as usual there was quite a mixture of style and technique.
In general please do have a look at the best settings for YouTube uploads because the quality in some entries was quite poor, which is such a shame after all the hard work of doing the film in the first place. Crazy to fall down at the last hurdle.
Anyway, here are this month’s entries:
Fascinating Cuttlefish – a peak into mating behaviour – Khaled Sultani
Watch Khaled’s video here.
Well done. Great film. You brought the video images to life with the informative and clear graphics. All nicely shot but when editing do have a look at exposure and contrast just to try and improve an otherwise milky picture. Good music.
Shark Porn – Kissed by a shark – Khaled Sultani
Watch Khaled’s video here.
You set up the story really well with good topside images and then well shot underwater sequences to follow. Wonderful sharks and well done for the smooth follow shots as well as the diver cut-aways. What an exciting dive. Once again we see that sharks can be gentle and sensitive animals and don’t lead their entire lives in a feeding frenzy.
Got Muck? – Khaled Sultani
Watch Khaled’s video here.
Lembeh, what a place! Great collection of close-up critters and all beautifully shot. Music fits really well and the pace of the film is just right.
Similans – Andreas Fiskeseth
Watch Andreas’ video here.
Nice short and well shot film that really did give a taste of the diving on offer in the Similans. Good music, opening graphics and aerials. Some nice camera moves in there too.
Manta Rays North Male atoll Maldives – Haisham Rasheedh
Watch Haisham’s video here.
Beautiful animals and nicely captured on video. Good steady camera work and the music suited the mood well.
Friends and Anemones – Wendy Northway
Watch Wendy’s video here.
Like the way you have treated this with the smaller video frame size and the graphic information below. Very stylish and easy to read. The video images themselves are very good. I found the music to be just a little too heavy for the otherwise informative feel to the film.
Showreel – Klemens Gann
Watch Klemens’ video here.
A collection of superb images but for me the very heavy music track was very distracting. It shouted ‘danger’ and ‘panic’ were as the images themselves had a very peaceful feel. Quality of the images was really good and the framing of each animal spot on. As a show reel it was good to let us see the good quality and variety of what you have done but as an entertaining video it was too clinical.
Noonu Atoll Maldives – Harmonies in Blue – Juergen Selig
Watch Juergen’s video here.
Loved the opening shot which was followed by excellent underwater images. Good emotive music as well.
Sardine run – Milton Westy
Watch Milton’s video here.
So good to see that many fish in one shot. Must have been a thrilling dive.
And the Winner is….
All were very good videos but as I have to pick a winner and I have gone for Fascinating Cuttlefish – a peak into mating behaviour by Khaled Sultani. Not the best shot or edited film, but the addition of the graphical narration was excellent. Very clear precise information about the mating Cuttlefish kept my full attention right through to the end.
I would like to give special mention to Friends and Anemones by Wendy Northway. She just went that little bit further in post production and produced an informative and well shot video.
I look forward to February’s entries – good luck to you all.
[hr style=”single”]Scubaverse.com’s February 2017 Underwater Video Contest is now open! Enter here.
