My Red Arrows aerobatic display video

Recently I was in Devon (south coast UK) to watch an airshow by the excellent RAF Red Arrows aerobatics team. Conditions were damp and cloudy and it was touch and go whether they would be able to fly, but they found a slight easing of conditions, and gave what they term as a “rolling display”.

I captured the full routine on my Panasonic camera in HD and edited it into a 7 minute video using Shotcut.

99% of the footage is mine - however I used only two shots from other youtube posters from the same event - I think these two extra shots can easily be identified.

I edited using 18.09.16 and can happily report it was a joy to use, with no major crashes or issues apart from regularly not being able to drag clips from the playlist to the timeline (got the red crossed out circle most times) which was frustrating. Had to use the “plus” button instead.

I decided not to use many fancy transitions or effects - just let the planes do the talking :grinning::+1:… Transitions were almost all dissolves.

Two features (new in 18.09) which were highly useful to me were “Ripple move” (great for inserting space in a very full timeline) and the new “Open other>Text” feature which is brilliant!

Also, the updated “snapping” settings worked a treat when moving/aligning clips in the timeline.

My video is below. Note it is 7 minutes long. I would welcome any constructive advice, whither it’s creative and/or technical. And yes - I could have done with a tripod!! Thank you!

https://streamable.com/gmivp

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Well,
My tip to you is to disable autofocus and set it to infinity on such events.
You could cut out few of the zooms.
How about adding some text of what being said on the PA?
Why not add this “Conditions were damp and cloudy and it was touch and go whether they would be able to fly” on your first few shots.

my 2 cents

I thought we had fixed all of the triggers for this bug, but not. I need people to help locate timeline actions that trigger this. In any case, drag-n-drop into the timeline is the weakest form of editing accuracy available. You are better off using the toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts. Otherwise, I am glad to hear the positive feedback about v18.09.16. Getting the audio preview regression and some new ripple-related bugs fixed in v18.10 is going to be nice for people.

I think it needs to lose a couple of minutes.
Using so many dissolves does not convey the excitement of the display (I would have used cuts).
Include reaction shots of yourself (if your a good actor).
Pity it was such an overcast day.

Did you try using the stabilize filter?

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Many thanks to @asik1 and @emcsquared for constructive feedback!

Good idea for next time! Have looked in the manual and I can do that. Will experiment!

I agree. I was a little trigger happy with zooming while shooting! Problem was, though, that the planes were tiny without zooming in. Unfortunately the zoom button on my camera is very sensitive and fiddly… :unamused:

I like that idea. Thanks!

I agree, although I needed to include all routines so my family/friends could see the whole display. I might do a shorter version with less aerobatic routines, choosing some of the best shots.
If I get time I’d like to try a severely edited version with lots of artistic effects. I plan to compose some background music to it. Watch this space … :wink:

Good point. I did try doing some cuts - problem is that the planes regrouped after each routine, so the cuts made the display quite choppy. Will revisit that though and have another try. Reaction shots of me/crowd is a good idea to split up the action shots. Maybe next year…!

Indeed! it was about the only cloudy weekend in our long hot summer!! Big shame… :disappointed_relieved: I did shoot the same event last year though,when the weather was perfect, so I might try making a video of that too, taking on board some of your advice.

Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Jon

I would gladly help with this. If it happens again I will try to make a screen capture. Unfortunately I can’t pinpoint why it stopped working in this case. It happened after about 30 minutes of editing (maybe(?)).

Hmm, surprising - I like it because you can put the clip where you want it, rather than appending it to the timeline. I usually drag it to a higher empty part of a track, say V3 or V3, then drag it to V1 when I’ve made space. I was a sorely missed feature when it stopped working. Re-starting didn’t solve it.

I dabbled with this a few months ago but only briefly and it didn’t seem to work too well, but I had not much time to experiment. No I didn’t use it for this video. Will try to explore that (the shaky plane shots would be good to use for testing!) when I get a bit of time.

Good work, @jonray! I enjoyed the video. :slight_smile: I didn’t mind the length at all. It actually went by faster than I thought because I was enjoying the show. Everything you showed that the pilots were doing was great to watch.

The only thing I caught in your editing and it is nitpicking is that the white line underneath “Red Arrows” at about 1 minute didn’t fade out like the text so it sort of just lingered there. Don’t know if you intended it that way but I think it would look better if it would fade out along with the text. The only other thing I would suggest is to see how the footage comes out with the Stabilize filter that Dan suggested.

Thanks for sharing!

Well made video for what you had to work with. I do want to cut down that lamp that’s in most of the shots though (joking), as it was in almost every cut. Do you have any friends that may have got footage on the ground that you could have used parts of their footage?

For family/friends it’s a great film. For general public, I would have used some still images and perhaps some soft music in the background, photos of the event posters/advertisements. I would eliminate all footage of your roof.

Audio. Was the presentation broadcast on any FM channel? I would have got captured the feed from the FM channel or website, and eliminated all sound from the ground as it’s really hard to tell what was being said because of the sound bouncing off all of the buildings, major echo. Audio with any video will always be a major challenge, especially for outdoor events because you have almost zero control on how it’s presented. The use of digital audio recorders will help, this way you can breathe while holding the camera. The use of digital audio recorders can also help capture crucial sounds of the aircraft going by and could be placed away from the crowd where all it would pick up is the audio of the engines, then feed those sounds into the video.

I just posted a brief report on the stabilize filter Stabilize filter test - initial report

OOOOOH now that brings back memories :slight_smile:

I grew up in Devon and I’ve been to Sidmouth many a time in my youth. I’ve also seen the Red Arrows countless times so I couldn’t help feel a tinge of nostalgia there.

I’d agree with most of the suggestions above, particularly the tripod as you identified yourself. I’ve got a couple of decent full size tripods with rotatable heads that didn’t set me back much. One I got in Aldi in one of their specials a couple of years ago for about £25, and the other I got on ebay a few months back which is a bit lighter, but still solid and only cost me about £13 (direct from China). They both even use the same quick release plate which is handy.

I didn’t think the fade transitions detracted from it, but I agree that a few cuts and a shorter run time would make it a bit more dramatic for consumption outside of family and friends.

All this is nitpicking though - I enjoyed it as it is :smiley:

Thanks @DRM, @Hudson555x and @QDSOV, Many thanks to you all for your extensive replies - very busy day today so I din’t get a chance to reply in detail but I will try to grab a few moments tomorrow if possible. I appreciate your time and for giving some helpful advice and comments :grinning:

Cool, I’ll look into it too !

What Panasonic do you have?

Yes, I notice that too. That part of the video was made with 18.09.14 I think and there was a problem with the fade-outs not sticking which I understand has been resolved in 18.09.16. I didn’t notice it before I exported, otherwise I would have tweaked it. Thanks.

Thank you! Yes, definitely friends and family - I have no plans to go for an Oscar just yet :grinning:

LOL, I had a great vantage point (balcony of a hotel on the seafront) but yes, those pesky streetlamps did get in the way … Don’t think the locals would be happy if they were chopped down :grinning:

Great comments and advice on audio, @Hudson555x. I agree with all your useful advice. But this was just me and my little Panasonic HC-V160…

Yes, Sidmouth is lovely - especially when it’s sunny (not like the day I shot the video…)

Thanks for the advice - yes, I plan to try a shorter version with some edited action shots and specially composed background music. Watch this space …

HC-V160. See photo above.

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