(upbeat bright music)
- What's up, guys.
Welcome back to our channel.
Yes, you may notice this is now the home
of Jake Rich and Anna Chah.
It's been a long time coming.
The two of us tirelessly work on producing the videos
for this channel,
so only fitting that both of our names
are credited in the title.
Now, today's video,
we wanted to spill the beans
on what makes an unreal cinematic sequence.
Essentially, what is our secret formula
to cutting GoPro travel videos.
You may think it's the gear,
and yes, we have used a Mavic 3 and GoPro Hero 10
to get all of those shots,
maybe a few accessories here and there,.
but that doesn't change the fact that you,
with your GoPro, can create these sequences.
So let's get stuck in to today's video.
(upbeat bright music)
If you guys have a pen handy,
I'd love for you to whip it out right now,
or open a note in your phone
and write down these four shots.
We are getting eight drone shot or a wide shot,
we're getting a motion shot,
or a moving shot, an action shot,
we are getting a selfie shot,
and lastly, we're getting a POV.
(speaking in foreign language) cut.
You need all those four shots to make,
you need spice. (chuckles)
Like, no one likes to eat just a bland bowl of rice,
you know, unless you're starving,
that can be delicious,
but you wanna add some sauce to it.
So if you only have one shot
when you go out to create a travel film,
you are gonna come back with a bland bowl of rice.
You need some soy sauce, some chili flakes.
You need to throw that in.
And that's when the selfie, the point of view,
and that motion shot come in hand.
Now, like I said,
you do not need to use a drone to capture that wide shot,
you can do that with the GoPro.
But the point here is you need a wide,
a motion, a selfie, and a POV.
All right, let's unpack these further.
(upbeat bright music)
If you guys are brand new to watching these videos,
then I highly recommend that you check out
this video up here,
because we spill the beans
and we talk a lot about micro storytelling
and the value of it.
Now, you will notice that this opening sequence
is a micro story in itself.
And what we mean by that is all of these clips
are in and around the ocean.
There is continuity with each clip.
Now, the beauty of micro storytelling
is you're essentially creating a little block.
You're getting your four shots,
you're building a block,
and then you're able to transition into another factor,
or another part, or another location or environment.
However, you don't have to always get all of those shots
from the one place,
but it is really cool if you do.
The point here is that the style of shot.
Each of these four verticals
is important to sit next to each other,
and to create harmony, and motion, and fluidity
with your edits.
So let's have a little chat about the shots
and why I think they are dope,
and why I think they're the secret sauce
to creating spicy edits.
(intense music)
Shot Number one, at the very top of the list,
we have a wide shot,
we have an establishing shot.
Now, this shot is so important
to give your viewers and audience context.
It allows them to understand
where you are in the world
and maybe what the hell you could be doing there.
Are you on a boat?
Are you riding a motorbike?
Are you horse-riding?
Are you skipping?
I don't know, but show me from a fast
or I can get some kind of awe inspiring sense
that I wanna keep watching your video.
Now, important that that shot flows into something else.
My sort of formula with this is wide, tight, wide, tight.
I like to really keep it simple.
Second shot then is a tight shot.
Now, you can do this in two ways.
It could be a selfie like this,
and there's a few things to unpack
when we're talking about the selfie.
Or it could be a point of view.
The point of view, which is like this,
cause I'm using my GoPro right now.
The point of view is also tight.
It's immersive.
It's essentially bringing your audience
from something like,
that they can rest on
and they can breathe a little bit,
hmm, to something like,
"Ooh, what's going on in there?
That's micro, that's like detail.
That's something that I need to get a microscope out
and have a look at.
And I need to see that next shot."
So what I'm doing here and why I think this formula works
is because you have this balance of harmony.
You have the breath, the wide,
be it the motion shot,
you know, someone running on the beach,
oh my God, look at that beautiful sunset,
or a beautiful drone shot,
big wide, look what's going on out there in the world
to, oh my gosh, there is something happening here
that I need to know more about.
And you're constantly,
if you think about the visual motion
and the visual continuity of these shots,
you're constantly sucking your audience in
and letting them breathe.
And if you do that with your cuts,
with (speaking in foreign language) cut,
you are gonna make something beautiful.
(intense music)
If you guys have been enjoying this video so far,
I would love it if you can punch that thumbs up button,
and I will continue sharing my absolute knowledge
and passion for action camera travel content.
So the next area that I wanted to talk about
are one of the most frequently asked questions
that I get in action camera videos is,
how do I know when to make those cuts?
Like, how do I know how to time it?
Now, we do this by bookending our edits.
By bookending, creating a timeline with music.
Now, you'll notice I've chosen that track
at the start it's "Cost Bay."
I just listen to the peaks and the troughs.
I listen to the beats.
You'll see them, their wave forms,
they peak up and then they go down.
And when I see those peaks,
that's my cue to get the scissors out
and slice up that cut.
Now, really important.
If you want to evolve your editing,
analyze that clip, test it out.
Have I gone two frames too far or two frames not enough?
And what I mean by that is,
stretch it out,
know that this is your bookend,
I've got two beats.
It's like kick, (upbeat music)
snare, kick, snare.
That's how much time I've got,
but shuffle it.
Shuffle it a little, a few frames to the left
or a few frames to the right
and see what it looks like next to the following clip.
I cannot stress that enough.
If you want to improve your editing
and you wanna go from intermediate editor
where you've just been,
you know, having fun with it
to like precise GoPro Million Dollar Challenge winner,
that's what you do.
That's what the guys do.
They sit down and they look at every single frame
and how that frame flows and blends into the next.
So that would be my major key tip
for those of you that are,
you know, really wanting to evolve your editing.
And the perfect way to do this is with reels.
Start making short form content.
Start making content where you analyze or overanalyze,
you surgically assess each cut.
And if you really want to get good,
that would be how I would do it.
So, how do you know when to cut?
Bookend with music.
How do you know if it looks good,
watch it back and back and back and back.
Watch it over and over and over again.
Another question you may have is,
do I have to follow this rigid formula?
Does it have to be in the exact same four-step process
that you're using?
Like, you know, wide, selfie, motion.
No, and this is the beauty of editing.
I'm giving you just a little plan here.
So when you come to edit your film,
you can think like this.
You can reassess your edit and go,
"Um, I've got four POV shots in a row,"
which can be awesome.
You can make match cuts.
If those four POV shots are,
you know, of completely new scenes,
then those match cuts will really hit.
But if they're very similar
or they're boring,
then why not think about moving from that POV shot
to a motion shot, which is wide or to a drone shot.
And if you keep this flavor,
and you keep adding these spices,
your edits are gonna supercharge.
Guess that's it from us.
If you have enjoyed this video
and you wanna learn more,
then definitely check out our action camera masterclass,
because we have 40 lessons
where we just chew the thought
on all the things that we love to do,
which is make these awesome videos.
Also, check out our other videos linked in the description.
And we'll see you guys in the next video.
Jam, peace! (upbeat bright music)