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abjectwoe
May, 2025

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ONE - Ethan Swadburg

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gravel
Posts: 5524 - Karma: 42,380
Hey NS,

Just wrapped up my first edit of the season besides my FilmerUnknown piece, really excited to present it. I've been changing up my technique drastically this year and am trying to get out of the Glidecam mold and explore other ways to get creative and technical with my filming.

Check it out and tell me what you think, especially how I can improve next time!



Thanks NS!
11 years ago
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zahava
Posts: 7791 - Karma: 12,039
Watch your contrast, other than that I enjoyed it, that kid is really smooth!
11 years ago
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gravel
Posts: 5524 - Karma: 42,380
Is it overly contrasty? Lately I've been getting in the style of crushing my blacks and brightening my whites with the luma curve.
11 years ago
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TaranItUp
Posts: 1313 - Karma: 802
Loved it Gavin, looks great. To be super picky, one thing I noticed that kind of stuck out to me the second watch through was the pacing of the shots. It was all slow-mo then transitioned to full speed with not much of a song change. But thats being really picky and I enjoyed it overall.
I am hoping I can make it up to Breck with Parker to do some filming with you guys.
11 years ago
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gravel
Posts: 5524 - Karma: 42,380
Thanks Taran! I hear what you mean. I didn't want to overload the edit with slow motion, realistically it already has a little more than I would have liked, but I think that was the biggest "transition" in the song, even though the pacing didn't change much, the tone did, which I found adequate to be the spot to shift the speed.

That'd be sick.
11 years ago
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eheath
Posts: 61955 - Karma: 126,724
One thing I noticed was your sound levels were inconsistent. One shot the landing would be super loud and the next shot the landing was super quiet, etc.
11 years ago
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gravel
Posts: 5524 - Karma: 42,380
I think I could have done a better job here, too. I tried keeping shots from farther away at lower levels and closer shots higher, just to give an impression of depth.
11 years ago
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rlee
Posts: 593 - Karma: 1,144
Loved it man. I really like the mix of angles, shots and the song but the one thing I wish you didn't do was crop it. I felt like some shots didn't need to be cropped and the skier would etch out of the frame just a bit. In my opinion I wish you would have kept the normal crop but thats probably just personal opinion. Nice stuff!
11 years ago
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gravel
Posts: 5524 - Karma: 42,380
I hear ya! Sometimes I worry if shooting crop has made me a worse filmer, as I know I can cheat the frame position in editing. Maybe one of these days I'll switch back to 16:9, but I don't think it's likely as I've shot everything this year with cropmarks and intention to crop the video.

Thanks for the feedback!
11 years ago
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Tyler.A
Posts: 164 - Karma: 338
I really liked the varieties of angles and shots you used, and i thought that the contrast in this case actually worked really well. That was a quality edit man!
11 years ago
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juicedrummer11
Posts: 1960 - Karma: 1,331
saw the video, came to m&a to tell you i really liked it. a nice change of pace from your normal stuff. couple things:

loved the tripod shots at the beginning and throughout. fit well with the pace of the song and i thought the slow mo worked well with the cuts you had and the music.

i was kinda hoping it would pick up a little more pace as you got into the glidecam stuff and rails. wasn't really a huge fan of the music because the riding really picked up but the song didn't sorta thing.

also i know its a little tough on the mountain where the sun is always changing but the first rail shot with the glidecam sort of took me out of the edit with your shadow. i know thats a lot tougher to control but just something to consider when planning your shots of that run.

but overall i really enjoyed it and the cuts were great.
11 years ago
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gravel
Posts: 5524 - Karma: 42,380
Thanks man!

I totally understand about the pacing. I feel that the song really didn't pick up to match the video's pacing, but I feel that it was more important to not be a slow-mo whore and really put some variety into the shots.

Putting more thought into my glidecam shots is something I'll certainly have to work on. It is difficult of course to shoot follows at Breck and Key because the sun is always to your back, so you have to get really creative to avoid the shadow. Definitely not an excuse, just something that I overlooked while filming that I'll try to control as I continue to get footage this season.

Thanks!
11 years ago
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juicedrummer11
Posts: 1960 - Karma: 1,331
yeah that makes it even tougher and really one or two shots isn't as big of a deal as a whole edit but just somethin to keep an eye on. still liked it a lot tho
11 years ago
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