Sometimes you have projects that just never seem to get done. Mine…. putting together of a “little video” that captures the spirit of our favourite flying site in Mansfield Washington.
I had plenty of excuses that contributed to not getting the project done. Thing is, I truly believed we had something worth showing off and sharing with the flying community but I could never satisfactorily capture it with the quality it deserved.
Then along came the GoPro sports camera. A filming tool for idiots. Quite frankly, its an amazingly simple piece of video equipment. Just turn it on and “roll camera”. Its strength is the high quality wide angle image that is captured by this simple point and shoot video camera. On the other hand, It’s only weakness turns out to be its high quality wide angle image! (IMO), the wide angle field of view is pretty much the sole purpose of this camera. Well this image can be breathtaking…. after a while it becomes boring. Kind of like riding a roller coaster? Once a year is a thrill?……. continuously, over and over? becomes a bit fatiguing. So, how to use it and take advantage of its strengths? Keep it short, keep the tempo fast, and never dwell on any given shot for prolonged period of time.
With lots of material hogging almost 40gig on my hard drive, I still had one more excuse/hurtle to overcome. I need a computer that would not spit sparks trying to render the massive files that the GoPro produces. It was time for an upgrade. Dell XPS15z, Intel i7, 8gigs of ram and 2gigs of dedicated video…. bundled with Adobe video editor (simple enough that even I could figure it out!).
To inspire a tight script I decided on a sound track that doesn’t give the viewer time to think… just enjoy the view.
In my opinion 
…. it appeared to work. (BTW, the title?…”Go to Cruise”?….. it is the first command the pilot uses to begin the take-off roll…..)
To view the film, please go to my Vimeo link to watch in HD.
Cheers
