Believe it or not, the average amount of footage collected for each YouTube video that I have published to date consumes about 215GB of data. Some of the longer trips have exceeded 500GB while some of the shorter videos barely used 10% of that maximum. Of course, it goes without saying that the longer a trip is, the more footage there will be simply from the fact that a camera affixed to the windshield will be recording everything it sees while the car is in motion. However, it has become increasingly clear over the past couple of months that having cameras record things willy nilly is no way to make videos that people want to see. There needs to be a little more thought put into the effort.
Generally when I am exploring the map in search of destinations, I make use of satellite imagery and street-views to plan stops. Parking lots will be marked, photo locations will be tagged, and basic ideas will be considered. If there are not too many people and the location is far enough away from buildings and airports, I'll make some basic plans for the drone. If the weather is forecasted to be nice, I'll find places where the 360˚ camera might be mounted to the car for situational shots. Will the walking path be interesting? That's where a gimbal will be used to reduce any camera shake that might spoil an otherwise unrepeatable moment1. The rough plan then sits in my head until we start reaching locations.
This has been semi-workable but, unfortunately, a number of shots tend to be completely forgotten about until after the opportunity has passed. This results in videos consisting mostly of dashboard footage, which is primarily used to convey a sense of distance and space to anyone watching on YouTube2. Something better is required.
While investigating various ways to improve the stuff I share on YouTube, I started watching videos from people who work with video professionally. Each one of them says the same thing: make a shot list.
While I have been doing this mentally, they strongly suggest putting it down on paper and writing out a sequence. This allows a person to look over the shots to ensure a consistent flow. If there is a story being told, doing this will also allow a person to consider whether a particular scene should be shot one way or another … or both ways with the final decision being made in post-production. These are perfectly sensible suggestions. So, with all this said, one of my goals for this month will be to make shot lists for all YouTube videos going forward.
There are some considerations to take into account, though. The lists need to:
- aim for at least 5 minutes of video
- dashcam footage cannot exceed 1/5th the length of the video
- there must be "action shots" of Ayumi doing her thing at each destination
- if the drone can be used, there should be at least one shot that could not be done with another camera (not just something recorded from "on high")
- at least two cameras must be used
This list will likely get longer as I continue to hammer down the format of the episodes, but it's a good place to start. There have been a number of times where I have kicked myself during the post-production process because there was a particular shot that I had made a mental note for but completely missed while at the site, usually due to some sort of distraction. With a written down shot list, there will be less risk of missing an opportunity to record something interesting. If I can maintain this for the month of January, there's a high probability that I will continue to make lists for all future productions, improving the quality of the videos that are shared online.
At some point, I will need to also make a plan for how to get better shots while using extension poles, as there's a lot of interesting things that can be done when you have a camera on a stick.
It's hard enough asking a person to do something twice. Good luck asking a puppy to repeat an action!
A lot of the dashcam footage is sped up and sliced to make it more interesting, but there's only so much of it that can be used.