June 2022 Video Contest Winner and Review

Congratulations to all who took part this month. Great films and all worth mention. Please read my comments to each film below. It’s a tricky business film making. So many facets to look at and get right. Story telling, filming abilities, sound tracks, editing skills and on top of all that the luck or patience needed to see and film beautiful marine species.

If you did not win this month it is not because your film was not as good as the winner. It is all subjective to the eye of the beholder. Me. Every film was worth a mention and I hope you are all pleased with your work.

Oh boy!!! This month, at first, there was one film that just edged ahead of the others. The Corona Chronicles Curacao by Oliver Knopken, It was a lovely film with great sentiment and very well filmed. BUT….then there was a very late entry by Maria Bereozka – Remora attack me! Scuba diving at Shark & Yolanda, Sharm el Sheik. Although the wildlife images generally weren’t as good as Olivers, the film was very well made and thoughtfully produced and sat comfortably with me as a viewer with a great story and perfect music for the mood. Very well filmed and edited and just had the edge over Oliver’s film.

If you are keen to advance in your film making skills, don’t forget to look at my book https://www.divedup.com/shop/action-camera-underwater-video-basics-the-essential-guide-to-making-underwater-films/

Looking forward to seeing more next month.

BDE Liveaboard 2022 by Angieseamisstress

Looked to be a great trip. You have put the story together really well. Lovely wildlife shots. The music fitted well and the editing was good. There were just a few shots that were a bit soft and out of focus which didn’t spoil the film at all but it is always a good idea to cut them out unless they are a crucial part of the film.

Meet the reef Egypt by Domenico Pertschi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-d5YyiTkEs

Lovely images. Lots of colour and variety of animals. Nice steady camera work and lighting. Music worked well.

Dance of the Squid by Pim van Schendel

Thanks for setting up the film with the written introduction. Stunning images and all well filmed with excellent framing. What amazing animals. I did like the long developing shots. And eggs to boot. Great. The music worked really well. You were certainly in the right place at the right time.

Searching for happiness by Angiesea

Love the sentiment of the story. Very nice surface introduction. A real feel-good film. Thanks for sharing it.

Divers Go! by David Gwyer

Hi David. More UK diving…Please…….Great beginning. Just a quick comment from the start. Have a look at balancing your narration with the music in terms of volume. The music is quite full on while the voice-over is very quiet. It does get better as the video goes on. Nice descriptive narration and great mixture of archive images with the modern day church footage. A very good short story. The intervening storm was a good addition. Real UK diving. A well told story with good camera work and editing.

What do you want to see? by Maria Bereozka

Excellent. Just the right length to make an impact. Powerful images and good music to make the point of the video. This should be shown on all flights to diving and holiday destinations and tourist boards should be showing this or similar along with their normal advertising.

The Corona Chronicles Curacao by Oliver Knopken

Great opening sequence. One quick comment for the first coastal shot – please try to get the horizon horizontal. Always drives me nuts to see dipping horizons on TV and films. You can correct this easily in editing. Love the narration and the story. Great sentiment. Well shot and edited.  Music works really well. You have some superb wildlife images in the video.

Freediving with spotted eagle ray in the Red Sea by Maria Bereozka

Hi Maria,. Another great film from you. So peaceful to watch. Beautifully filmed and I simply love the long single developing shot. Colour correction looks good. Music works well. Your timing to freedive down from the surface was perfect to catch the ray coming up over the reef and give another perspective.

Remora attack me! Scuba diving at Shark & Yolanda, Sharm el Sheik by Maria Bereozka

Thanks for the written intro. Nice opening sequence and I think the narration was very good but as I think I may have mentioned on a previous occasion, as your voice is quite soft spoken I think you need to give it a bit more volume in the edit. Just to make it stand out from the music. The script content was very nice and told a good story. Very well filmed and edited with many lovely wildlife images. Loved the Remora.

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