skydiving movies

[superstu 0]

just out of curiousity what do you personally think makes a good skydiving video?

Slip Stream Air Sports
Do not go softly, do not go quietly, never back down

[dtpilot 0]

I watched someones video the other day and loved it. I consisted of just about every disipline. Exits and RW were my favorite. Mostly just little clips of landings.

anything is really cool.

"Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!"
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

[Zoter 0]

ditto....a drop of everything but mixed to perfection !
Vids that are edited well to the music track.....and especially where the music track 'fits' the content.

[br0k3n 0]

ive posted mine here http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1323817;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

let me know what you think...

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--+ There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't.. --+

[algboy 0]

My personal feeling is that most skydiving videos look like MTV music videos: jump cuts and very little feel for what the sport really is all about. That's why I think most whuffos don't have a clue about our sport.

I wish that more skydiving videos would spend more than five seconds on a scene and show more of the nuts-and-bolts stuff involved in the sport, like: getting geared up, boarding the plane, the ride up, chit-chat on the ride up, pin checks, opening the door, pre-jump anxiety, exits, deployment, being under canopy, turns, what the ground looks like from under canopy, setting up the approach, landing, gathering up the canopy, the post-jump rush, etc.

Most vids (that I've seen so far) just seems to focus on a quick exit shot, freefall antics, lots of one-second cuts and annoying music (aren't we so cool).

Instead of creating the impression that skydiving is nothing more than an extended Mountain Dew commercial, videographers might want to focus on the things that make this sport so unique, scary and beautiful.

But I could be wrong . . . .

[br0k3n 0]

The type of films that you are refering to are called documentarys and and require a lot more time, effort and knowledge to film and edit.

The montage (mtv style) is simple, all you need is a bunch of raw footage and a soundtrack. To edit a basic montage also doesnt require a degree in Film & video editing.

Also I would guess that most of these films that you have seen were not created for the purpose of educating wuffos, but to be appreciated by other jumpers.

There are a bunch of films here that might intersest you http://www.skydivingvideos.de/index1.htm

Hope this helps.

-Oli

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--+ There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't.. --+

[pilotdave 0]

I've seen a skydiving video or two...

My observation is that music and editing are important, but content is critical. Good videography makes up for bad editing any day.

But my favorite videos are the ones that draw my attention in and keep it in. 20 minutes of 2-way sitflying does nothing for me, no matter how it's edited. What keeps my attention is seeing things I haven't ever seen before. Interesting angles, unusual jumps, amazing moves, hilarious mess-ups. I like seeing skydivers doing things I can't even dream of doing myself... whether it is the videographer or the jumpers being filmed doing the amazing things.

Editing is definitely important. Selecting music that fits (but unique enough that not everybody would have ever thought of choosing that music), cutting scenes at a pace that matches the content and the music, not doing annoying things like showing exits in reverse over and over and over (yeah it gets old) and too many special effects screwing up the picture.

But I really think the most boring skydive in the world (is there such a thing?) can be turned into an awesome video by a skilled videographer, not by a skilled editor.

Dave

[royalskydiver 0]

I think skydiving movies are way too expensive for the small amount of time on the videos. If we are going to charge an arm and a leg for a 30min. video we need it to be a hour and a half at least. I know jumps, equipment and everything else in skydiving is so expensive, but it doesn't need to be. It is because we have made it that way. I know allot of you are going to take this the wrong way, like in my previous posts and I'm sorry but we need to make things in skydiving cheaper. I understand that people need to make money. I also understand that some of us in Skydiving magazine has said that skydiving was too expensive. Unless we change somethings skydiving is continually going to grow slowly. I agree with pilotdave that movies need to catch the eye and be edited good. I also think that we can do this with an hour and a half long video and keep the price where it is with a 30 min. video. I'm glad there is some long videos with a good price but it can be better.

RoyalSkydiver
Robert Hammond

[pilotdave 0]

Can't get cheaper than free.... hours and hours of skydiving videos available somewhere on the internet. Can't remember the name of the site... anyone know the one I'm talking about??

Dave

[bob.dino 1]

Dunno.

I think it's got something to do with skydiving and movies. Links to it are very common.

[firstime 0]

Good canopy control, I saw a video (cant recall) of a
guy swooping a small (maybe 10' wide) winding canal
He had to have traveled 2 or 300' about 3' from the water. That has to test ones skills big time.