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This is Africa. A long safari through the heart africa through the eyes of a GoPro

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DeJagermeister
Posts: 5 - Karma: 12
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The beauty of Africa in it's most natural state. A one-week safari journey through Botswana and Zimbabwe, through the salt pans, african savannah, Okavango Delta, Chobe National park, Victoria Falls and much more. Using a Toyota Land Cruiser and Toyota Hilux in some of africa's greatest 4x4 paths in the thickest sand and the deepest ravines. From sunrise to sunset, seeing the Big 5 animals in their natural habitat and witnessing the world's largest waterfall; This is Africa.

Shot on Location at:
Nata, Botswana
Baines Baobab, Botswana
Maun, Botswana
3rd Bridge, Botswana
Moremi Game Reserve, Okavango Delta, Botswana
Savute Safari Lodge, Botswana
Kasane, Botswana
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Tuli Safari Lodge, Botswana

Shot, Produced and Edited by Chris De Jager

Shot 100% with a GoPro HD Hero2


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Oct 6 2012 2:35PM
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BA.berger
Posts: 300 - Karma: 300
The was actually pretty good for a gopro edit, especially for a ''landscape'' movie!
The song soo sick,(Off topic) but since I first saw it in the art of flight intro, I always expect some super sick cineflex footage from a heli or something for some reasons, and that was a little problem for me while wathing this..

First: The timelapse shots of the elephants, boats and some timelapse shots (also the first one of the sunrise) should have been recorded instead of timelapse mode, that would look a lot better since there is happening alot of movements between the pictures

Second: Some of the shots was a bit shaky, one easy thing you could have done in post is to use a ''smoothcam'' filter as its called tcp or ''warp stabilizer'' in premiere pro, I dont know what program you are using but you should definitely check if it has an effect like this..

Third: You should drop those digital zoom shots, If you want those to look good you should have used a tripod, shot in 1080p (what frame size did you shoot at?) and then zoom in, that would look alot more professional..

But I also got to say that there was some very impressing stuff in there, like the waterfall shots.. They where amazing!!
Overall a great film, thanks for posting!:)
Hope this was helpful!!:)
Oct 6 2012 4:02PM
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DeJagermeister
Posts: 5 - Karma: 12
Hey, thanks a lot for the feedback, it is always deeply appreciated! The only reason why I opted to go for time lapse instead of recording it is simply because of 2 reasons. 1) the program i use for editing (iMovie) doesn't allow a fast enough fast forward option with videos, so the full moving effect of the sun or elephants would have almost looked as if they were standing still. 2) travelling on the roads of africa with only one fully charged GoPro battery and one fully charged laptop , i did not have the luxury of an electrical output to charge them, as we were camping 6/7 nights. So surviving an entire week off just the battery life i had was difficult and since time lapses take up less memory and battery than full recordings, it seemed like the only option at the time.

It's actually quite ironic because the clip stabilizer on imovie actually made the one shot of the savannah tree even more unstable than it was originally. I did not notice this until after the video had been uploaded.

And yes I agree, the digital zoom shots were a bit tedious but unfortunately I did not have a tripod handy at the time.

Thank you very much for the feedback and im glad you enjoyed the shots and the video. My favorite part of putting these kinds of videos out is hearing back from the people who enjoyed them, and gaining tips on how i can improve next time.
Thanks!
Oct 7 2012 6:20PM
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DeJagermeister
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bump
Oct 15 2012 6:14PM
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will_powder
Posts: 3194 - Karma: 5,445
Couple of things

Colour...some shots were okay but most had a really bland almost over exposed feel to them. When I think of Africa I want something more rich. imovie's colour correction tool isn't terrible but I definitely recommend FCP7, especially if you want to make more of these.

Music...The song has been used in Art of Flight and various Red Bull commercials. Plus I didn't really think it added to the video. When the song was climaxing it would have been more effective to use quicker shots, not a shot of cars crossing a bridge which was super boring. Plus when the music goes quiet after the first part its awkward. I think you could have picked something better.

Please don't slap "GoPro HD Hero" everywhere. I hate when people do this it just looks amateurish.

The video was pretty long and redundant as well. There were some awesome shots of wildlife and such (that monkey who picked up the baby monkey), but lots of shots that were really boring and kept appearing. To cut down the video you could have started from the end of the first part of the song and made shorter cuts to fit more footy.

Word.
Oct 15 2012 11:40PM
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DeJagermeister
Posts: 5 - Karma: 12
bump for africa
Oct 21 2012 1:49PM
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DeJagermeister
Posts: 5 - Karma: 12
one more bump
Oct 28 2012 7:40PM
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DeJagermeister
Posts: 5 - Karma: 12
bump for J Dilla
Dec 14 2012 12:19AM
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Bateman
Posts: 8590 - Karma: 8,605
i spotted sarah jessica parker
Dec 14 2012 3:39AM
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