WINNER CHOSEN AND REVIEW BY SCUBAVERSE.COM’S UNDERWATER VIDEOGRAPHY EDITOR JEFF GOODMAN

Winner: Manacles MCZ Needs your help – Tony Reed

Winning Video: 

Some great entries into this month’s contest. Here are my thoughts:

Hurgada 2016 – Andy Kent

Watch Andy’s video here.

Very nice all round film with good story opening and lovely underwater images. Music added a good pace and complimented the images well. It was good to break the film up into parts which kept it from becoming monotonous. Great dolphins and loved the bell on deck. I should think blue o two are delighted with what you have done. The one problem in the end was that it was too long and finally did start to become repetitive. But all in all the film was well shot and edited. Well done.

TRAILER Serie “Voces del Mar: Historias de los Mares Mexicanos” (2016) – Mares Mexicanos

Watch Mares Mexicanos’ video here.

Excellent trailer to the series. Just the right length and full of evocative images. For those who do not speak Spanish here is the translation for the written intro:

“Voices of the Sea” is a series of short documentaries that give life to the stories of 14 enigmatic regions of Mexican seas, where science and tradition come together in a desire to preserve marine resources. These inspiring stories, told by researchers and people from different communities, demonstrate that it is possible to live by the sea while protecting ecosystems.”

Scuba diving with Guillemots at St Abbs – S Mclaren Diver

Watch S Mclaren’s video here.

You brought back some wonderful memories for me of diving with and filming sea birds underwater. Thank you, Good music choice.

Scapa Flow the Movie – S Mclaren Diver

Watch S Mclaren’s video here.

First thing to say is to take the red filter off the camera for surface shots if you can, otherwise it was a good opening to the film and the music was a good choice to set the mood. Well done for putting the film together. If you get the chance again, I would loved to have known some facts about what you were diving on.

Cathedral Rock – S Mclaren Diver

Watch S Mclaren’s video here.

Nice idea taking a tour around the rock. Music fitted well. I think you have some great potential with your filming and would highly recommend you take an underwater video course if you can.

Twilight: Newman’s Wall, Roatan – Partial Pressure Productions

Watch Partial Pressure Productions’ video here.

Liked you logo/image intro. Beautifully filmed and edited with good music to enhance the feel of the images. Would liked to have seen a little more of the life the diver was looking at.

Mermaid swimming in Sea Life Manchester with Apneists UK Freediving school – Steve Millard

Watch Steve’s video here.

Great images put to very complimentary music. Nice to see an artificial tank being used to effect. I wonder, did you re-light the tank or just enhance what was already there? The video certainly showed the beauty and grace of free diving.

Harbour wrecks June 2016 – Chris Court

Watch Chris’ video here.

Nice video Chris. Particularly liked the opening. All well shot with good camera control on both exposure and steadiness. I do see a lot of these videos and while they are more than often very good, I would encourage you now to think about some information to go with the images. This can be in the written word or spoken narration. Just something to lift it above other films. One of the interesting points about narration is that it often covers, in the audience’s mind, what the eye cannot clearly see. So just talking about beautiful wildlife often compensates for not actually seeing it in detail.

Manacles MCZ Needs your help – Tony Reed

Watch Tony’s video here.

Hi Tony. You are certainly making use of template graphics for your openings. Loved the film. It had a story and strong aims. The graphic information on the screen at the beginning and end set up the video well and then your narration throughout kept me interested. All very well filmed with good camera work. Music choice was also good.

Croatian Classics – SS Baron Gaustch – David Purvis

Well done for doing the historic research on the wreck and the putting that information up as an introduction to the video. You certainly captured the mood and feel of the wreck. An excellent video for those who would like to dive and explore the wreck themselves as it gave a concise overview of where to go and what to look for.

Watch David’s video here.

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Winner

I’ve had to think long and hard about this month as all entries were very good in different ways. In the end I kept coming back to Tony Reed’s film and the one that held my interest the most. A good story, well interpreted, complimented by steady, well lit underwater images as well as topside. It was well edited and with a lot of thought and patience.

I think this is the third time Tony has won so perhaps his film is worth looking at to give you some ideas and thoughts for your own future productions.