C-Forum

http://vimeo.com/28253855

Threw this together as I wait for the water to drop - good display of two good boats. See if you can notice the strong points in each boat - they are subtle - but noticeable. Both very enjoyable to paddle.

Hopefully this class II action gets ya'll east coasters pumped up to run some hurricane water.

A little less volume on the sound please. 1/10 on the sound bar is just about right for me... Even at 65, I still have my hearing.

This is a great video to show new paddlers. Ferries, eddy turns, cross strokes, leans, surfing, swapping boats -- working every little feature on the river.

Good instructional material -- thanks for putting this forward.

Rick

Great content... Teachability might be a little better without the Acid-trip edit. Oh well, I blame Irene. Hope ya'll come through safe and sound, and get after it starting tomorrow.

Nice video guys. There are too few of these kind of comparisons done like this and it is great to see. I can also agree that it would make a nice teaching/self learning clip.

Great work

I think it looks like a really sweet river, having lots of potential for this kind of video.

BUT

I also think it's a horrible edit. I couldn't watch it completely. Too many fancy effects on the video, semi-transparency just makes quite a few shots useless, just foggy and horrible to watch.

If you want to have a smoother teaching/comparison vid, just drop the effects only use short semi-transparency for smooth transitions between shots.

I know how hard it can be to edit video, and I know it's tempting to add a couple effects. But this one looks more to an video-editing-effect-tryout video then a video with canoeing as a topic... .

Just my 0.02$

" video-editing-effect-tryout video" - you are correct sir. I just got a power house of editing software in the whole Adobe suite.

Used Premiere to edit, and AfterEffects for the Intro - You are most likely going to have to endure a few more of these effect heavy edits until I get more acquainted with the software - just trying different things out - this is also why it is good to have input as I can hone in on different suggestions.

W/ the goal of producing a free instructional video on beginner-int stuff- through fullgnarlz - it is my goal that when kayakers find their way to the site - they can see how much fun we have in canoes on the class II-III stuff - something that alot of kayakers dont want anything to do with using training blades.

Nice paddling, horrible editing, great goal! I look forward to more of these sorts of videos, I think they will be helpful for ww canoeing.

Nice to see that you agree some good class II-III video can help convert kayakers and others, instead of just impressing them with your x-j, Gnarliness and roll after roll and trying to intimidate and shame them! I'm one who you mock for liking class II-III video - as I moaned about when you first put up video of you dropping waterfalls and rolling: cool, very gutsy, but seeing you tuck-drop-and-roll doesn't show how you actually paddle. These videos will be a nice addition, good on ya.

So, the pros and cons of each boat weren't obvious to me from watching the video.

Pat.

FullGnarlzOC wrote: W/ the goal of producing a free instructional video on beginner-int stuff- through fullgnarlz - it is my goal that when kayakers find their way to the site - they can see how much fun we have in canoes.

Amen, brother. But -- kayakers aside -- there is ALWAYS a need for promo/instructional stuff to attract and encourage the noobs and lower-ability C-boaters.

And if it's free, and as close as a link to Vimeo or YouTube, so much the better.

A great service! DO carry on!

Rick

Pierre LaPaddelle wrote:Amen, brother. But -- kayakers aside -- there is ALWAYS a need for promo/instructional stuff to attract and encourage the noobs and lower-ability C-boaters.

And if it's free, and as close as a link to Vimeo or YouTube, so much the better.

A great service! DO carry on!

Rick

Agreed. 2 years ago when I was just getting into this, I was scouring the internet for videos on strokes, rolls, etc. My favorite at the time were the videos by Bruce Lessels on YouTube (hosted by expertvillage).

Tommy, I forgot to praise you for the goal. There is a lack of good paddling on grade II - III sections. Showing the people there is lots of room for fun and high skill paddling. Great goal!!

Some tips on video editing
- make sure the core of your fragment is always good visible
- so don't do semi transparency over the core, but it's a great smooth transition
- eventually use a bigger part of the shot before and after to place effects over
- try to make it smooth
- your color filter stopped quite abruptly

It's good to experiment, but make sure you don't waste your great message with poor editing. You'd better have a simple edit with good paddling then a fancy edit where you can hardly see anything from the paddling. At least when your goal is to show paddling, not video editing software features.

Yeah, Tommy, I really liked the bit where you make the slalom-like moves on the class II-looking drop and then celebrate. That's what I try to do to keep things exciting while not getting myself hurt.

Shep

some nice shooting. I thought the layered video effects off the top were distracting and found myself really trying to look "through" the other layered images and view 'just' the video layer of the Mowhawk on the wave.

I think it's cool that you used that ECU of the top of the boat and your feet carrying it over rocky ground as a layered element, but with the duration of the shots being so long (and rightfully so to show the surfing/ferrying, etc...) the overlay/layered effects became distracting.

-now i'd like to qualify this opinion with 2 things... 1) i'm very much a purist when it comes to the long-shot (meaning duration, not distance) and 2) i'm a 20+ year post production video editor.

one thing you should keep in mind when you put together the opening sequence is that the rhythm and cadence of your visual cuts should somehow match the rhythm and cadence of your audio/music bed. that way you eye perceives the rhythm of the action in parallel with the rhythm your foot is tapping to.

when it comes to editing, I know it's cool to go through the effects palette and try out all the different effects, and layer it all together, etc..etc... but if the intent of your video is to allow people to view good technique and watch some excellent paddling, a good clean un-layered/un-effected shot that is simply cut (using cuts without dissolves) to the rhythm of the music will be much more visually impressive.

AFter Effects is an awesome tool... but it's a composting tool. If you're looking to create something as a teaching video.. best to keep the composting sequences short and at the very beginning/end of specific scenes.. that way they signal the view you are moving to a new segment/chapter/division etc.. etc..

-nice work though, please don't take this as a negative review at all... just needs a little tweaking here and there style-wise, and you've got a great video!

Thanks for takin the time to critique kev - You layed it out there how to do a instructonal video pretty well - I'm toying with how I want to do it - Will most likely use AfterEffects like you said, between segments - Also to stick to smooth transitions and no dissolves.

Your support is appreciated - this is a big step from microsoft movie maker.

Hey Tommy,

It's great to see you guys having fun on grade 2, I hope this inspires people to paddle OC1s.

I hope this doesn't sound too harsh but I am curious about something. I see two young paddlers, paddling modern boats using techniques that don't get the most out of the hulls. I realise that there is a lack of information out there on progressive technique and I'm curious about where widely used techniques originate from. I am guessing that a lot of people are self taught and techniques are learnt visually from other paddlers. Or coaching tips are passed down from paddler to paddler and many people have ended up using techniques that originate from paddling very different boats.

I am not saying that the paddling techniques used in your video are incorrect, only that there are things that you could add to progress your paddling.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

Keep up the good work,

Kelvin.