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

Winner: Epic Double Poop Dive by Klaus Stiefel

Winning Video:

Hi everyone. So many good films again this month with a great variety of styles and techniques. Taking part in this competition lets you showcase your work and hopefully encourages further film making. Taking your camera underwater and showing people the wonderful diversity and beauty of marine life is a great way to promote and explain the need for conservation. Audience numbers may be as few as your immediate family or as many as the general public for a TV programme. Showing your film in a local town or village hall or perhaps your local dive club can make a difference. No matter who or what size your audience, get your film out there and let people see it.

This month the winner is Epic Double Poop Dive by Klaus Stiefel. It was a complete film, beautifully shot, excellent informative and witty script and good clear narration.

As usual, do have a look at my comments to films other than your own as there may just be something I say to help you improve your next production. Good diving and filming. See you next month.

---

Below the Surface of the Red Sea – exploring Sha’ab Abu Ramada East by Scubabeat

Thanks for the very informative written intro. Makes such a difference to know the background details while watching the film. Lovely opening shots, especially the reef edge. Good smooth camera moves around the corals. The on screen identification graphics worked well and the music was a good choice. A nice film.

Jellyfish Lake by Connor Finlen

Stunning animals and filmed really well. The music was perfect. Nice easy natural light makes such a difference and always looks good. I thought your steady camera work was excellent. Although a good relaxing film to watch, many of the shots were slightly repetitive. If through equipment limitations you were unable to get bigger close ups perhaps consider adding some interesting facts about the jellyfish and the habitat.

Into the light by Julian Moser

I love ice diving and I know the feeling and apprehension of loosing the escape hole to the surface. All down to planning. I assume from the image, the diver was free-diving which makes not loosing the hole even more crucial. Although there was only one shot in your video, it did conjuror up feelings of danger and mystery which was enhanced by the ambient sound track. Nice.

Similan Islands Abundance, Thailand by Skip McIlvaine

Nice opening. Love the quality of the images. Your camera work and lighting were excellent You certainly showed fantastic selections of wildlife which were a joy to watch. It’s a great film that celebrates the beauty and variety of the reefs but 19 minutes is a very long time to sustain audience interest without some sort of change of pace or added information. Without this, I felt the film could be cut down to 10 minutes with the very best images and still have had a great impact.

View from below by Maria Bereozka

Nice. That worked well. Why did the shot stop so suddenly? I wanted to see a bit more. The music also ended abruptly.

Hipnosis by Maria Bereozka

I Loved this. Fantastic shot with perfect music, but again it ended so abruptly. Perhaps a fade out for the image and music would work a little better. Unless of course I am missing your artistic intent and the film was meant to end in such a way as to reflect the fragility of the species and how quickly they could become extinct.

Stingray underwater dance by Maria Bereozka

Hi Maria, What a wonderful shot. Personally I would have ended the video just before you take another breath and dive again, as the image became wobbly and so slightly spoilt the magic spell of the first part.

Best Scuba Diving of the Pacific Northwest 2021 by Mark Hitchcock

Hi Mark, that was fun to watch. Just a little over-lit in places but that didn’t spoil the film at all. Nicely edited with a good pacey feel to it. Loads of great species.

North & Wreck Tour Egypt by Manuel Stucker

Beautiful opening shot and I really liked the slow and deliberate surface images. You captured some lovely images of the wrecks. Great lighting and camera work. I enjoyed the overall pace of the video and thought you edited it well with the music. Loved the dolphin shot.

Animal Encounters Marsa Alam Scubaworld Sol Y Mar December 2021 by Waldemar Moll

Excellent graphic for your name. Very original. First thing to say is, great quality and excellent camerawork. Loved the shoaling mackerel. Turtle images were superb. So much stunning wildlife.

Nightdive Marsa Alam December2021 by Waldemar Moll

Again, excellent camera work and lighting. Crisp and steady images.

Diving in Crete: The Italian Cave by Paul Donnerbauer

Liked the road travelling opening but I wanted to see a destination rather than going straight underwater. Nice caves. You filmed and lit them really well, The reef interlude was interesting. Although the images were good, I did crave for a little information on what I was looking at.

Diving in Egypt: The Deep South by Paul Donnerbauer

What a an excellent trip. Liked the topside introduction followed by beautiful underwater images. You are obviously a very good underwater cameraman producing well lit, steady and sharp images. Nice to hear your short commentary but as it was in German I’m afraid I didn’t understand what you were conveying. Perhaps some English subtitles would have been useful. While I can fully appreciate the amount of work you put into the film I did feel it was a little too long without a significant change of pace and some extended narration. Having said that, I thought you did a really good job with the editing and music.

Diving in Austria: Alpenaquarium Grüblsee by Paul Donnerbauer

That was different. Great land based images to start. Loved the tadpoles and the shoaling Char were wonderful. Good camerawork and lighting. Nice film.

Epic Double Poop Dive by Klaus Stiefel

Excellent narration and script. Very different and fun to listen to. I don’t think I have ever seen turtle  poo before. So much excellent information throughout the video and filmed really well. The wide angle shots with the big close ups worked perfectly. I feel like I have just attended a very good marine biology lecture. Great stuff. The Sea Cucumber poop shot and narration was quite excellent. Made me laugh, but in a good way.

Wreck Diving Course at Zenobia Shipwreck | Checking possible entrances for penetration | Cyprus 2021 by Markus Kaiser

Looked like a great dive and thanks for sharing. Interesting video and I am sure for those involved in the dive or the course itself, they would be very happy to watch it all. But, as a normal viewer I don’t think a video of the entire dive works too well especially for 28 minutes and with no narration or information. Having gone this far with the camerawork, try a little editing and script writing. It will make a huge difference to your video. It’s also great fun to do.

---

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