January 2021 Video Contest Winner and Review

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

Winner: keep it clean by lutfu

Winning Video:

Hi everyone. Lots to look at this month with a huge variety of styles, topics, treatments and stories and great to see some new names. As usual I have written my thoughts on each film and hope you will have time to look at others as well as your own in case there is something I have said that may help you as well.

Standards are very high as usual but this month in my mind there was one clear winner for both quality and innovation. Keep it clean by lutfu. Along with a crucial environmental message  this was a visually inspirational film which asked the viewer to re-evaluate the underwater experience.

See you next month. Good diving.

Kingdom of the Jacks by Bryson Justus

Nice opening drone image with title graphics. Always good to see people going that extra bit further with their productions. Great travel shots and then a really effective water entry sequence with perfect music cut to the underwater Jacks. What spectacular fish they are. Good camera work and lighting and I liked the short addition of the ray. The only shot that didn’t work for me was the final drone image which was way underexposed. Better to have just left it out.

Green Sea Turtles of Indonesia by Charles Rousseau

Lovely. You opened your film with one of my favourite images. Green Turtle with Ramora on it’s back. Clear water, sandy sea bed and blue water. Perfect. A very simple film and very relaxing to watch. Excellent camera work and editing. Music fitted well. The Bat fish was a bonus.

Sipadan, one of the world’s top dive points by Chungjin Son

Pacey start. This style is quite hard to do well and often fails. But you got it just right with good images, fast editing and fast music. However, I felt the transition to a slower pace in the film was a little too abrupt. Perhaps a three or four second pause in the music would have helped. I liked the travel shots which gave a real feel good edge to the film. All in all a very different and new production style for this competition. It was good to see.

One summer day when fishes poured like rain from the sky by Chungjin Son

I really liked the use of slow motion images put to fast upbeat music. It worked extremely well. Good camera work and very interesting framing. The whole film was good to watch, but, for me personally, I was disappointed and saddened to see the triggerfish struggling for air in the boat.

Scubadiving in South Korea by Chungjin Son

Hi Chungjin, Very stylized video pretty well in the same style as your other two. I think I preferred the first two. On the music side, I love rock, heavy metal etc. but I’m not sure it fitted with your video. It felt like the music was fighting with the images for the viewers attention.

Ocean Dance by Armel Ruy

Wow! Loved the opening ocean shot. A very good underwater marine life film. The strong images and the fast pace kept me fully attentive as I didn’t want to miss anything. Had a really good energy to it. Not sure about the seal as it was out of place and you really didn’t need it as all the rest of the film was exciting enough.

Underwater Music Video “Skin” with Natalie by Marie-Luise Dienst

That was different. A beautiful lady very well filmed. Excellent lighting. What’s not to like. As you say in your introduction, a huge test for the makeup. Choreography is usually the hardest part of making videos like this and you did it really well.

The squid dance by Nanni Bassetti

Well done Nanni. Always fun to see squid at night. It was an enjoyable video but I would re-think the title if it were me, ‘The Squid Dance’ builds up a great expectation of seeing either a lot of squid moving gracefully through the water, or, a few squid doing some extraordinary and captivating movements. It was great to see the squid shots you had but the bulk of the film was of the reef. All good but just needs re-titling.

Reti ed axinelle by Nanni Bassetti

The hard life of axinellas sponges with the ghost nets. A good title! Thanks for the translation graphics at the bottom of the screen into English. You have showed well, some of the horror and impact of ghost nets on the sea bed. With such a strong subject I think I would have added some narration just to explain a little of what was going on. Well done for tackling such an important topic.

Isla Guadalupe 2019  by Alejandro Topete

What a trip!  Good to see the people in the boat saloon at what I assume was the dive briefing. Then straight into the underwater shark footage. Great. Perfect conditions. You filmed and edited it all nicely. Good to see shots of the island.  Liked the still photos at the end.

keep it clean by lutfu

I’ve run out of adjectives this month so I’ll start again. Love this film. Underwater art. The upside down shots are extremely well thought out and effective. The ‘waterfall’ and snorkeller shot is inspirational. The whole upside down treatment gives a completely new aspect to the marine world.  Music is perfect. I forgot to mention the globe in the plastic bag. Yes!! A perfect world with the ever present threat of plastic. As for the sinking globe in the plastic bag slowly dropping into the dark depths of despair……that was truly inspirational.

Comunicacion by Kiril

That was fun. Beautifully shot. Liked the effects of the small depth of focus between subject and diver. That worked really well. Very good macro shots.

Scuba diving Hitra Norway by Jesper Haav

I think you have captured diving in Norway perfectly. Good camera work and excellent lighting. The camera exposures were spot on and on occasion wonderfully moody. Music fitted well. The Angler fish caught me out. Wasn’t expecting that. Brilliant. Good to see the ‘live’ action shot for the end credits.

The Muck Chronicles by Dennis Deavenport

Perfect intro with video shots, graphics and narration. Your macro camera work is extremely good as is the lighting and framing. It’s a good story and you told it well, both entertaining and educational and I loved the behavioural images. Music was perfect in that it kept a good pace going without being obtrusive.

The invertebrates of Kapalai reef by Scubabeat

That was the longest written introduction ever. But it was good. Gave a real taste of what the area has to offer. Question is, was it backed up by the video. Yes it was. Perfect macro camera work and lighting and as promised, a fantastic selection of invertebrates.

Scuba Diving at Manta Ray Cleaning Station, Maldives by Daniel French

As you say in your introduction it was certainly a rare and incredible lifetime experience. Stunning opening aerial shot and then a perfectly matching underwater image of the divers, reef and manta. It seems there was little to do except sit and wait for all the action to come to you. How wonderful. The shots of the Mantas coming towards you across the top of the reef are magnificent. The shot of the shoaling fish revealing the manta above is even more magnificent.

Diving Tolo (Ol’Blue) on Bonaire by Scubabeat

Love your written introductions. They make me feel I know the place well. As I watched your opening shots and listened to the music, I felt a great desire for a rum punch and some sun tan lotion. Perfect. Beautiful wildlife shots and so good to have the names written on-screen.

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