Far Reach Voyages YouTube--New Videos

[John Stone]

Hi Cape Dorians. I completed editing the five videos that chronicle our first voyage to the Virgin Islands. The first three are now posted in HD 1080p on our YouTube channel Far Reach Voyages. Episode 2 contains video of our mid ocean swim and is a life highlight for me. I have a lot to learn about editing and filming so I am interested in feedback and constructive criticism that can improve my skills.

Anyway, this link should take you to Season 1, Episode 1. Hope you like it.

https://youtu.be/NCQNHC7X3Oo

[wikakaru]

Hi John,

I enjoyed the videos! Well done! I liked seeing Far Reach in motion and getting to see her from all the different camera angles. The videos gave me a much better appreciation for the boat and for what sailing aboard her is like. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and likewise a good video is worth a thousand pictures.

One very minor suggestion I have is for the maps showing your track. I like how you include them at strategic points to show your progress. I found the red arrows pointing to your current position a bit overpowering, though. A simple large dot or bullseye with a text label for the day of the trip might be a better method of marking your current position. I like the way Erik Aanderaa does his: https://youtu.be/ch1RCwl_jQ0?t=681 though I'd leave out the whole the sonar "ping" effect.

I look forward to seeing more videos from you!

Smooth sailing,

Jim

[John Stone]

Hi John,

I enjoyed the videos! Well done! I liked seeing Far Reach in motion and getting to see her from all the different camera angles. The videos gave me a much better appreciation for the boat and for what sailing aboard her is like. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and likewise a good video is worth a thousand pictures.

One very minor suggestion I have is for the maps showing your track. I like how you include them at strategic points to show your progress. I found the red arrows pointing to your current position a bit overpowering, though. A simple large dot or bullseye with a text label for the day of the trip might be a better method of marking your current position. I like the way Erik Aanderaa does his: https://youtu.be/ch1RCwl_jQ0?t=681 though I'd leave out the whole the sonar "ping" effect.

I look forward to seeing more videos from you!

Smooth sailing,

Jim

Jim, that's a great video. Thanks for clueing me in on the red dot technique. I have no idea how to do it but I'll investigate. I spent some time trying to figure out how to do what is probably a simple animated Google Earth route so many people use but it made my head hurt and I went with a manageable simple crayon method. Still a Neanderthal when it comes to technology. Should have it figured out by the time I get 190,000 subscribers. LOL.

One of my goals is to approach the videos the same as I approach sailing--keep it simple and manageable to avoid it becoming a distraction and a burden. I tried to do minimal talking in the videos as I get annoyed if people yammer too much. I used subtitles instead. So, I am interested what others think about that approach. I am not sure what the balance should be.

All input is appreciated.

[wikakaru]

...
I spent some time trying to figure out how to do what is probably a simple animated Google Earth route so many people use but it made my head hurt and I went with a manageable simple crayon method. Still a Neanderthal when it comes to technology. Should have it figured out by the time I get 190,000 subscribers. LOL.

One of my goals is to approach the videos the same as I approach sailing--keep it simple and manageable to avoid it becoming a distraction and a burden. I tried to do minimal talking in the videos as I get annoyed if people yammer too much. I used subtitles instead. So, I am interested what others think about that approach. I am not sure what the balance should be.

All input is appreciated.

Hey John,

My caveat here is that the medium I like to produce is still images not videos. However, I am an avid viewer of sailing videos, and I've seen a lot of what works and what doesn't.

I have mixed feelings about Google Earth zoom-in routes. For YouTubers who are sailing around the planet, who change locations frequently, and who sail to places that may not be readily recognizable, they can be helpful. For your trip from the US East Coast to the Virgin Islands, I think the effect may be less helpful and perhaps more confusing. Anyone who knows anything about geography will immediately recognize the east coast of the US on a map and understand where in the world you are; anyone who doesn't recognize the east coast of the US won't be helped by a zooming map anyway. There is nothing wrong with a simple screen grab of your track edited with a simple image editor. (I like Paint.net for such jobs.) If you want to get into moving maps, you might try TravelBoast instead of Google Earth. TravelBoast is a cool little moving map video generator designed for just such a purpose. I believe that it accepts gpx route files like those exported by OpenCPN, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get your actual navigation data into the app.

Like you, I get annoyed at YouTubers who yammer endlessly at the camera. They are in fabulous places doing interesting things, but all you see is their faces telling you how beautiful it is or what they are doing, instead of showing you the beautiful places or the interesting things they are doing. That said, there is nothing wrong with judicious use of a voice-over. My suggestion would be that to establish general information like date/time/location use a text caption, and to tell the story begin with a brief face-to-camera that transitions to judicious use of a voice-over. I realize that you are working with old footage right now and haven't filmed that way, but it is something to keep in mind for the future.

One of the YouTube sailing channels that I think does a good job with video production is called Sailing Fair Isle (https://www.youtube.com/c/SailingFairIsle). The woman is a former BBC announcer and the man is a former BBC cameraman, so unlike virtually every other sailing channel out there they actually had experience in video production before becoming sailing YouTubers. They do a good job of balancing face-to-camera, voice-overs, location footage, and maps all while telling the story of their travels. Their face-to-camera is invariably written out (or at least outlined) in advance so they don't tend to yammer on making things up off the tops of their heads like most YouTubers do.

Again, I look forward to future installments.

Smooth sailing,

Jim

[John Stone]

...
I spent some time trying to figure out how to do what is probably a simple animated Google Earth route so many people use but it made my head hurt and I went with a manageable simple crayon method. Still a Neanderthal when it comes to technology. Should have it figured out by the time I get 190,000 subscribers. LOL.

One of my goals is to approach the videos the same as I approach sailing--keep it simple and manageable to avoid it becoming a distraction and a burden. I tried to do minimal talking in the videos as I get annoyed if people yammer too much. I used subtitles instead. So, I am interested what others think about that approach. I am not sure what the balance should be.

All input is appreciated.

Hey John,

My caveat here is that the medium I like to produce is still images not videos. However, I am an avid viewer of sailing videos, and I've seen a lot of what works and what doesn't.

I have mixed feelings about Google Earth zoom-in routes. For YouTubers who are sailing around the planet, who change locations frequently, and who sail to places that may not be readily recognizable, they can be helpful. For your trip from the US East Coast to the Virgin Islands, I think the effect may be less helpful and perhaps more confusing. Anyone who knows anything about geography will immediately recognize the east coast of the US on a map and understand where in the world you are; anyone who doesn't recognize the east coast of the US won't be helped by a zooming map anyway. There is nothing wrong with a simple screen grab of your track edited with a simple image editor. (I like Paint.net for such jobs.) If you want to get into moving maps, you might try TravelBoast instead of Google Earth. TravelBoast is a cool little moving map video generator designed for just such a purpose. I believe that it accepts gpx route files like those exported by OpenCPN, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get your actual navigation data into the app.

Like you, I get annoyed at YouTubers who yammer endlessly at the camera. They are in fabulous places doing interesting things, but all you see is their faces telling you how beautiful it is or what they are doing, instead of showing you the beautiful places or the interesting things they are doing. That said, there is nothing wrong with judicious use of a voice-over. My suggestion would be that to establish general information like date/time/location use a text caption, and to tell the story begin with a brief face-to-camera that transitions to judicious use of a voice-over. I realize that you are working with old footage right now and haven't filmed that way, but it is something to keep in mind for the future.

One of the YouTube sailing channels that I think does a good job with video production is called Sailing Fair Isle (https://www.youtube.com/c/SailingFairIsle). The woman is a former BBC announcer and the man is a former BBC cameraman, so unlike virtually every other sailing channel out there they actually had experience in video production before becoming sailing YouTubers. They do a good job of balancing face-to-camera, voice-overs, location footage, and maps all while telling the story of their travels. Their face-to-camera is invariably written out (or at least outlined) in advance so they don't tend to yammer on making things up off the tops of their heads like most YouTubers do.

Again, I look forward to future installments.

Smooth sailing,

Jim

Thanks for taking the time Jim. I watched one of their videos. Wow. Professional documentary level stuff. That's way beyond my skill or time I would want to devote to something like that.

I am focused on keep it simple sailing. Less production. No music. Less talking. I guess I described it poorly. I agree with you on Google Earth zoom-in. I meant animated route. I'll take a look at Travelboast you mentioned. But maybe I'll just use a map. Or stick to my crayon method. I'd like to avoid another program to download. All the tech becomes the antithesis of what I enjoy.

In the end, I guess these videos are for me...maybe my kids too. When I am too old to sail and I have taken up the rocking chair I can look back at my adventures and remember how exciting they were. So if I can capture that for a few other kindred souls then perhaps that is enough.

You are spot on that I have what I have video wise for now. In my second trip I purchased an active microphone for the GoPro. It has a built in wind shield. It is a huge step up in sound quality. So for the first voyage I am having to do a helluva lot of post production with the audio, like sound loops and all kinds of stuff to deal with a squeaky camera housing and massive wind buffeting. And iMovie is pretty simple. But it comes at a cost. It will only let me do so much. Thankfully.

But let's see what develops. Got lots more to edit and upload. Priority is to make it home from the the first voyage and survive Tropical Storm Bonnie. How is that for a teaser? LOL

John

[wikakaru]

Thanks for taking the time Jim. I watched one of their videos. Wow. Professional documentary level stuff. That's way beyond my skill or time I would want to devote to something like that.

I am focused on keep it simple sailing. Less production. No music. Less talking. I guess I described it poorly. I agree with you on Google Earth zoom-in. I meant animated route. I'll take a look at Travelboast you mentioned. But maybe I'll just use a map. Or stick to my crayon method. I'd like to avoid another program to download. All the tech becomes the antithesis of what I enjoy.
...

Sorry, John, I don't think I described it well either. I understand you are trying to keep it simple. I didn't mean to suggest you try to emulate the production quality of Fair Isle; I was trying to give an example of a channel that has good proportions of face-to-camera, voice-over, maps and graphics, and sailing/scenery footage. Striving for a good balance between those elements is something that you can do even if the only tools in your kit are a GoPro and iMovie.

Nice job on cleaning up the sound on those videos. I look forward to the ones with the separate microphone.

I'm like you in that I take photographs for "Future Jim" rather than for others. As I age and my memory gets worse I find that the best way to remember past events is to look at the photos I have taken. One of my credos is, "if there isn't a photo it didn't happen". Regrettably, because celluloid film was so expensive to shoot and develop, it's as if a lot of my early life "didn't happen". Perhaps these days I'm swinging too far the other way and too much of my life is pixelized, but at least now I can throw out the shots I don't want instead of not having enough to begin with.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your memories.

Smooth sailing,

Jim

[John Stone]

Concur Jim.

With all that said what I am interested to learn from others is how was the volume? How distracting was the wind buffering? Was there enough continuity between the clips? Was the camera work too jerky (I edited out a lot of shaky filming). Are the captions long enough. White seems to work best. I tried other colors but they seem distracting. Is the font big enough?

IMovie only gives me so many choices for transitions and captions.

The last two parts for the voyage down are uploaded but won't go public for a couple days so I am working on the voyage home. I have a lot of video though much of it is just sailing. Do y'all like longer cuts of sailing or more short cuts? Longer clips of sailing interest me because I like to see and sense the boat moving through the water but I am curious what others think. I can add a little more vice over explanation if it's useful and better explains what's happening. But there has to be value in it. My thinking was less voice over marathon and let people figure it out. Like they are observing. Let the images tell the story. IDK....

A second camera on a chest harness would be helpful and might be on my Christmas list but that's no help for the first three voyages. That video has already been taken.

These questions might be better asked on the CD Facebook page but I don't have FB.

John

[Dick Kobayashi]

John, I can't thank you enough for sharing your experiences on these pages and now on YT. I am informed, entertained and grateful. I don't have much to offer by way of technical comment except to say that the captions are an excellent way of displaying factual information without breaking the flow of the story. Maybe it is on an episode but a little more data on FR and what you did to her would be informative for the casual viewer. And if it is already in the can perhaps a link to this basic info would be helpful to viewers.

[John Stone]

John, I can't thank you enough for sharing your experiences on these pages and now on YT. I am informed, entertained and grateful. I don't have much to offer by way of technical comment except to say that the captions are an excellent way of displaying factual information without breaking the flow of the story. Maybe it is on an episode but a little more data on FR and what you did to her would be informative for the casual viewer. And if it is already in the can perhaps a link to this basic info would be helpful to viewers.

Dick, thanks for the feedback. Very helpful. I will have a couple walk throughs at some point I think I did one I. 2018 and again in 2022 so they will be posted at some point. Also I can put together a longer "build" episode but it would be mostly slides.

[John Ring]

One of the YouTube sailing channels that I think does a good job with video production is called Sailing Fair Isle (https://www.youtube.com/c/SailingFairIsle). The woman is a former BBC announcer and the man is a former BBC cameraman, so unlike virtually every other sailing channel out there they actually had experience in video production before becoming sailing YouTubers. ...
Jim

I'm looking forward to lots more videos on your new channel John, well done!
I've always enjoyed making short videos based on sailing adventures, but good film work has a real learning curve to it. Every time I think I've learned something slick, I see a someone else's video showing how much more I have to learn.
I agree with Jim - FairIsle does a great job leveraging their professional backgrounds into a great YouTube sailing channel, the most elegant sailing channel by far. I also agree the simple phone app called "travelboast" is a great (but pricey) animated mapping video tool for sailing channels. It's really easy to use too.
However, the best sailing videography I've seen by far has to be "Tupaia", a young French couple (Lauric & Nao) on an old Dufour 35 showing us all how to do it right & film it well.

Check out Lauric Thiault's filmwork on their recent Hebrides trip: https://youtu.be/-FfNWXUHl0Q

Tupaia channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/lauricthiault

Cheers,
John Ring
CD36 Tiara
www.youtube.com/svtiara

[John Stone]

One of the YouTube sailing channels that I think does a good job with video production is called Sailing Fair Isle (https://www.youtube.com/c/SailingFairIsle). The woman is a former BBC announcer and the man is a former BBC cameraman, so unlike virtually every other sailing channel out there they actually had experience in video production before becoming sailing YouTubers. ...
Jim

I'm looking forward to lots more videos on your new channel John, well done!
I've always enjoyed making short videos based on sailing adventures, but good film work has a real learning curve to it. Every time I think I've learned something slick, I see a someone else's video showing how much more I have to learn.
I agree with Jim - FairIsle does a great job leveraging their professional backgrounds into a great YouTube sailing channel, the most elegant sailing channel by far. I also agree the simple phone app called "travelboast" is a great (but pricey) animated mapping video tool for sailing channels. It's really easy to use too.
However, the best sailing videography I've seen by far has to be "Tupaia", a young French couple (Lauric & Nao) on an old Dufour 35 showing us all how to do it right & film it well.

Check out Lauric Thiault's filmwork on their recent Hebrides trip: https://youtu.be/-FfNWXUHl0Q

Tupaia channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/lauricthiault

Cheers,
John Ring
CD36 Tiara
http://www.youtube.com/svtiara

Thanks John. Wow. That's some impressive sailing in some difficult places. Nice to see a moderate sized monohull for a change. Nice filming and tight editing. More music than I care for though. Music is so subjective. I'm trying to avoid it instead incorporating the sounds of sailing when possible. It's all a trade off.

I've thought about a drone and watched a few videos of how to recover one on a sailboat. Not easily done underway especially by yourself. Seems there is a fine line between just enough and too much drone footage. I remember the old days when aerial footage for sailboats was captured by hanging a camera on a big kite flown from a sailboat under way. My how times have changed!

Thanks for the input.