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

Winner: I Remember by Matthias Lebo

Winning Video:

A great month for entries, with 12 in total – and the quality of the submitted videos for the most part is very good. Let’s take a look at them:

Sand Tiger Selfie – Amine Lounes

Watch Amine’s video here.

Not sure what to say really. Interesting try maybe.

Dancing with Seals – Victor Hawk

Watch Victor’s video here.

Hi Victor. Looked like an amazing dive with the seals. Sadly there does seem to be a quality issue with the video. Not sure if that is in the camera, the edit or in the transfer to the web, but the images are very blurred and de-saturated of colour. Looking through that, the images were nicely framed and the music was good.

Playful Blue Grouper – Victor Hawk

Watch Victor’s video here.

What a lovely Grouper. Once again, well shot but there are quality issues that spoil the overall watching of the film. Maybe try adding an underwater video light to your kit and see how that improves things.

Dolphin Dive – Julio Cesar Pitombo

Watch Julio’s video here.

Excellent. Great opening with the wide shot and then just beautiful encounter images with the dolphins. Nice choice of music and perfect graphics with the spoken sentiments. Just the right length too. Well done.

The Odyssey Wreck – Julio Cesar Pitombo

Watch Julio’s video here.

Good opening shot and more dramatic shots to follow, but in all honesty it was far to long with many similar shots. Try to think about a variety of images both wide angle and closeup.

Underwater – Peter Salvatore

Watch Peter’s video here.

Some very nice individual images put into a catalogue type edit. Have a think about some narration on the next video, just to make more of a complete video.

I Remember – Matthias Lebo

Watch Matthias’ video here.

As always with your films Matthias, this was truly well conceived and planned. Beautiful narration and sentiments. Excellent choice of music and well shot. Just one thing though, I was expecting the diver to be a lady as the narrator was giving such a personal account. Perhaps the man’s voice would have been better with these images.

Manta Magic in Hanifaru Bay – Christopher Rodrigues

Watch Christopher’s video here.

Video is nicely shot and certainly portrays the elegance of the Mantas. While not technically the best manta video I have seen, what I do get is the feeling of excitement from you while you were with the animals and hence makes very pleasant viewing.

Kissed by a Shark – Khaled Sultani

Watch Kaled’s video here.

Great opening with interesting emotive music. Certainly sets the scene. Well shot with good steady camera work and all well framed.  At first I was a little apprehensive about the long length of the video but in fact the time past quickly with some beautiful shark behaviour and images.

Got Muck? – Khaled Sultani

Watch Khaled’s video here.

Beautiful aerial video opening followed by some fantastic macro filming all accompanied by very emotive music. The constant and steady pace of the film had a quality of it’s own which enticed me to relax through it to the very end. A very good video.

Jellyfish vs Anemones – Burlakova Lidia

Watch Burlakova’s video here.

Good music choice with out of this world images. After all, these animals really are extremely dramatic. All well shot with moody lighting and good framing.

Tuwanek – Burlakova Lidia

Watch Burlakova’s video here.

Excellent reveal on the opening shot followed by good establishing shots of the area. Then, straight into the first very dramatic underwater animal. All the following images were beautifully shot but I would urge you now to go a stage further in your films and add some narration to tell a story.

And the Winner is….

Toughest one so far as there were many very good videos this month. The overall standard is now so good with all entries being well shot in terms of composure, sharpness, exposure and content. Although not always, but often, the winners are the ones who go that extra mile and add a story or sentiment to their video to make it more interesting. This month is no exception to that and that is why ‘I Remember’ by Matthias Lebo is October’s winner.

I feel I do have to mention a few others who came very close and they were Got Muck? by Khaled Sultani, Dolphin Dive by Julio Cesar Pitombo and Jellyfish vs Anemones by Burlakova Lidia.

Please do read my comments to all the films and I hope this will help guide you to improving your own videos. Have fun with your cameras and I look forward to seeing November’s entries.

Scubaverse.com’s November 2016 Underwater Video Contest is now live! Enter here.