Go Pro

The new gadget that every film maker seems to want to get their hands on is the Go Pro. The Go Pro camera, for those of you who don't know what it is, is a small compact action sport camera. It comes with a water proof case and there are a lot of different mounts you can buy or make to get various angles and perspectives. There is so much you can do with these little things.

A few summers ago I went to Hawaii for a soccer tournament and I figured the next time I will be going to Hawaii could be a while and I needed some sort of way to document my trip. What better way then with a Go Pro. So I went out and bought one and the capabilities of this camera are impeccable. You can record in 1080p, take pictures, create time lapses, record slow motion and so much more. I did a lot of snorkeling while I was in Hawaii and I got some pretty cool footage. But I was still wondering how come the commercials look so much better then what I'm shooting. After doing a bit of research I figured out that I have that full capability but it takes a lot of work. A lot of post production goes into the go pro videos. This includes color correction, image stabilization, and long hours editing to music cues. Another factor is that the resources Go Pro has as a company is much more then what I have. They can afford to go out to the best snorkeling area in the world and get those beautiful under water shots that are only going to be in the video for 15 seconds. They also have the access to more then one Go Pro so instead of just having a POV shot from a camera being mounted on a skiers helmet, they can place a camera on the athlete's chest, ski, pole, an helmet and really switch between those four different shots to capture the experience of skiing down a huge mountain. The commercials Go Pro produce are by far the most creative and beautiful commercials that air on television. Between the different angles the athletes get, the beautiful places the footage is shot, and the amazing editing the commercials are very enjoyable to watch. Below you can watch their newest commercial for the Go Pro Hero 3.

The video below is my own video that I filmed this summer of a sunset. I used the time lapse feature on my go pro and the video came out pretty good. This time lapse consists of about 3000 something pictures. My one complaint with this video is that the sun looks grainy, but I believe these time lapses will improve the more I do them.