Quadcopters anyone?

There is. Extract the audio from the phone video and apply it to the footage from the SD card.

 

Been flying the hell out of this little guy...

 

I'll have to figure out how to do this tomorrow. Just finished my first shittly edited video with the best editing software known to man - windows movie maker

 

That's all legal. Helicopters are not required to remain above 500'. Unless a local law prohibits helicopter operations in the city limits it is legal to land just about anywhere.

 

Here's my first video with the Mavic. It's not great, but I did this relatively quick and on windows movie maker.
https://youtu.be/sdGsz5iVZoQ

 

Not a bad video for a first attempt at a first video. If I may give you a small bit of constructive criticism. Once you get used to the controls it will get much easier to control. One thing that is an option is to slow down the stick movement which will make your shots more consistent and less jerky. Also if you can try to limit the time between shots. People tend to lose interest if the shot is longer than 10-15secs at most (unless you find something that is very interesting) instead of one long continuous shot. This is exactly why I use tripod mode often as it slows down the controls and gives you a little more control over your shots especially what you were shooting. Please don't take this as a actual criticism as for your first video. One thing to remember is to keep the audience engaged in your shots and if they are jerky they will translate into the film. Editing in post and choosing when to cut out certain scenes is key. I realize Windows Movie Maker is kind of slim with what you can do so there was nothing you could do about that and since you used it, it's commendable that it turned out that well.

I'll give you an example of what I was talking about. This was a short video that I pieced together over a weekend vacation so I didn't put a lot of effort into it other than a little bit of color grading. Forgive the music as I was looking for something that would match the length of the final video and just randomly picked a royalty free song off of youtube so the song is the one thing that brings it down. I'll change the music at a later time.

 

I was hoping you'd chime in with advice haha. I know exactly what you're talking about with the jerky motions. I didn't get a lot of good clips and had to end up using some of them against my will as I thought those had the best footage despite the movement. That was my first actual attempt at filming a moving subject and flying, it started coming together a lot better towards the end of the day. just gotta get more practice. The stick sensitivity is helpful, i changed the gimbal speed I'll have to change the sticks speed next time I fly.

I'm looking in to either a used MacBook or possibly upgrading my video card on my desktop to one more capable of video processing and software for that. Going to try the GoPro software later today after work as well.

 

You did really good on your first shoot. If I'm honest mine looked similar to yours when I first picked up the Inspire 1 (which that video was shot with). The shot of the dam close to the end of the video is where I started to lose video feed and had to bring it back with the map function. I slowed down the stick movement in the app and that helps tremendously for smooth shots. The GoPro software will certainly give you more options of cutting and splicing but is very limited on color correction. The only way you are going to get really good color grading is with a program such as Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe has a much steeper learning curve though so I would recommend Final Cut Pro X if you get a MacBook Pro. As mentioned before my wife's MacBook Air "will" handle the post production process but much more slowly. But if you decide to go the PC route then make sure you build it for video editing. That said I'm not an expert on building a PC that has a capability of doing that so someone that has been able to do that will surely chime in with better information than I can give with regard to that aspect.

This is when I brought is back and scrubbed the flight because of the interference that I was picking up on all channels. Better to be safe than sorry and drop a 5k craft in the lake that I was flying over at about 3' during some of those shots.

Sorry for the shitty iPhone pic.

 

I'm going to do some more research on PC vs Mac for the editing. I know final cut is expensive and I know adobe products are always absurdly priced so that will also be a factor. I have a PC built for gaming that i built a few years ago. I likely could just get a new CPU and video card geared towards video processing but kind of want to get the MacBook or air just for portability. It'll be a few weeks before I pull the trigger on any new PC though

 

Something else you might consider once you get more familar with your craft is taking bracketed photos (HDR). You can choose between a 3 / 5 / 7 bracket photo. But you will need a program with Adobe Lightroom for that. But it will make your shots look amazing. I realize that there are some out there that do not like HDR photos and I certainly understand as it isn't a true representation of the actual photo but it sure brings out the ability to make the shot your own

untitled-36-HDR by T Productions, on Flickr

On this shot the clouds looked NOTHING like this. They were just white clouds and through the magic of Lightroom they ended up looking ominous.

HDR Cloud 3 by T Productions, on Flickr

 

I know my gaming PC sucked when it came to video rendering. It had the latest (and best at the time and it's only a year old) video card and it couldn't handle it. Macs are just optimized for that type of work.

 

I was just doing some light reading in between meetings. Some say the CPU is more important for video processing than the actual gpu. My laptop, also gaming, rendered the video fairly quick last night although only using movie maker. I'll have to go back a few pages but there was some other programs people recommended for PC. Ideally I'd like to get a Mac, but they're so damn expensive so we'll see what happens

 

A little bit off the subject but this is an ungraded timelapse that took 45 mins to complete. On this shot I screwed up and did a 3 sec interval (which made the waves look like they were coming in faster than I wanted) when a 5 or even a 10 second interval would have turned out better. It's a case of trial and error and you (and I) will learn as we go along.

I didn't bother grading it in post since I wasn't happy with the results. I "could" slow it down a little in post but I just didn't feel like it since I didn't like the shot. It didn't help that I accidently bumped the tripod which in turn gave a bumpy shot in the middle of the video. So I scraped it.

 

They are that. I've got over 5k in mine including all the software I use. But, and this is just my opinion, there are very few machines beat a Mac when it comes to video editing. And Final Cut Pro X is $299 on the app store which is a steal considering it used to be well over $1000.

 

Ya I'm really leaning towards a Mac just for final cut. But hot damn they are pricy. Do you use an iMac or a MacBook Pro? What specs do you have on it?

 

When I do timelapse videos I always use my slider as it provides a more stable platform to shoot off of.

This is one of the mounting heads I use to take regular video without the slider.





The slider is made out of carbon fiber and will extend to twice its length with the extra tubes attached.
Here is a video of how the slider works



And the slider in action

 

Macbook Pro with every option available at the time of purchase in early 2016.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
Processor 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7
RAM 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB
1TB PCle (SSD) drive

Then I have 2 LaCie 1TB external SSD drives at $800 each that I actually post process off of since the transfer rate is the same as the internal drive.

 

And as it stands right now getting ready for the solar eclipse. I've also a solar filter for it so I can take a slightly longer exposure.

 

Ok enough of my stuff. Quadcopters is what we're here for.

 

Cool. I'm looking on craigslist right now for a late 15 or 16 model. Preferably pro. I can (and likely will) switch out the ssd in it if I get one. So many option. Can't decide what to do