Taiwan Travel Videos

[quote=“hannes”][quote=“Mucha Man”][quote=“hannes”]Longshan Temple

Used to live in the area around the temple. Never liked Wanhua, old and dirty. Once in a while I go back. This time I found Longshan Temple quite nice, actually.

This was fun. Did you use Hyperlapse?

Some captions would have been nice. :wink:[/quote][/quote]

Thanks MuMan! Yep, walking around making a shot every second. Captions would be nice, but in order to do that I would need to know things about the temple, and that would require work… :ponder:

I’ll do more of those “walkthroughs,” maybe I mix in some text, some sound, some real footage.[/quote]

I am thinking about doing some walkthroughs with text captions for Taiwan Temples.

Not exactly like your tour videos, but here’s a video I made from a bike ride last weekend with a few other members from the forum.

I do apologize for the video sound meshing with the music (and not adjusting the shaking). I usually try not to put too much thought into the video otherwise it would probably take me countless hours to create and perfect a video. I did that with a few of my old video/trips with timing/transitions/editing, by the time I finished with the video, my friends were already done hyping the awesome trip we had. I later decided to create the video the same day of my rides with just some cutting and added music. Hope you guys enjoy!

Here’s the route we rode and the write-up I did of it in the cycling sub-forum.

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Cool, I know the area well. But from hiking, not cycling. I often walk on minor roads and think, that would be a great route for cyclists. There are so many good routes off the main highways, too.

Thanks hannes, I’m trying to make improvements to the videos each week. Friends are telling me my editing is getting better. I had about 40 minutes of footage of people’s behinds and cut it to most of the “action”.

I really want to get in some interaction amongst the members when we stop for coffee or having a quick bite to eat, but it’s tough when my camera is mounted to my handlebar and taking the camera in and out of the case is annoying.

Any constructive criticism?

Thanks hannes, I’m trying to make improvements to the videos each week. Friends are telling me my editing is getting better. I had about 40 minutes of footage of people’s behinds and cut it to most of the “action”.

I really want to get in some interaction amongst the members when we stop for coffee or having a quick bite to eat, but it’s tough when my camera is mounted to my handlebar and taking the camera in and out of the case is annoying.

Any constructive criticism?[/quote]

First thing I would do is figure out how to mount the camera (gopro?) in a way that you can detach it easily and mount it in different places. Then I would try all sorts of angles. Pointing backwards. Pointing at your feet. Put it on your helmet. Point it at your face. Hold it in your hand. Show more of the scenery. Then I would figure out how to get rid of the noise. If the noise can’t be avoided, probably turn down the volume or mute it altogether. Just some suggestions. Even better, watch how the gopro pros film action and try things out. The more you experience the better you get.

[quote=“hannes”]
First thing I would do is figure out how to mount the camera (gopro?) in a way that you can detach it easily and mount it in different places. Then I would try all sorts of angles. Pointing backwards. Pointing at your feet. Put it on your helmet. Point it at your face. Hold it in your hand. Show more of the scenery. Then I would figure out how to get rid of the noise. If the noise can’t be avoided, probably turn down the volume or mute it altogether. Just some suggestions. Even better, watch how the gopro pros film action and try things out. The more you experience the better you get.[/quote]

THanks for the feedback hannes, much appreciated. Will definitely look into more angles.

The audio from the actual video was a mistake I made. I was physically tired and mind was turning off when I did the final cut, I usually turn the video audio down to about 25% and the music at 50-75%.

I watch a lot of gopro videos from the cycling pros when they have grand tour races, but the production value on those video is ridonculous. However, good videos to learn from.

Thanks hannes, I’m trying to make improvements to the videos each week. Friends are telling me my editing is getting better. I had about 40 minutes of footage of people’s behinds and cut it to most of the “action”.

I really want to get in some interaction amongst the members when we stop for coffee or having a quick bite to eat, but it’s tough when my camera is mounted to my handlebar and taking the camera in and out of the case is annoying.

Any constructive criticism?[/quote]

I liked it but too long, not enough variation. A minute of riding would have been better.

If you want to go longer maybe use text to break up the scenes: The Climb: The Plateau; The Stop; etc. Give some purpose to the ride, even a made up one, or some kind of narrative. The ride can be an example of a classic Taiwan mountain ride; this ride came after a long spell of rainy weather. Or use text to describe what we are seeing: name the mountains, the villages, the vegetation. Etc.

If you want some interaction when you stop just record that with your cell phone. The quality will be fine for what you are doing.

It might be nice to also cut up the time sequence a bit. Have the voices from the cafe stop come in at the moment of the ride they are describing, then quickly splice to you guys talking at the cafe.

As for the camera audio, just mute it completely (as in don’t even turn it on when you are cycling) if you are using a music soundtrack. Or figure out the sound envelope tool on your software.

[quote=“Mucha Man”]
I liked it but too long, not enough variation. A minute of riding would have been better.

If you want to go longer maybe use text to break up the scenes: The Climb: The Plateau; The Stop; etc. Give some purpose to the ride, even a made up one, or some kind of narrative. The ride can be an example of a classic Taiwan mountain ride; this ride came after a long spell of rainy weather. Or use text to describe what we are seeing: name the mountains, the villages, the vegetation. Etc.

If you want some interaction when you stop just record that with your cell phone. The quality will be fine for what you are doing.

It might be nice to also cut up the time sequence a bit. Have the voices from the cafe stop come in at the moment of the ride they are describing, then quickly splice to you guys talking at the cafe.

As for the camera audio, just mute it completely (as in don’t even turn it on when you are cycling) if you are using a music soundtrack. Or figure out the sound envelope tool on your software.[/quote]

Thanks Mucha, I agree with your all comments, especially that it’s too long, I’m working at getting better at editing out long boring parts of people’s butts. It’s a little tough when 90 minutes of footage has to be cut down to 3-6 minutes, but I think adding in some variety and text/captions would definitely make a 6 min long video more enjoyable. I now have to find a fellow cyclist that is willing to get in front of the camera, which won’t be easy to convince them.

I really try to make it as if there’s a chronological order or story, but there really isn’t much dialogue in my videos to express that. The main issue for that is, the camera is mounted on the bike and must be taken out of the waterproof case for any kind of interaction with the group. I will highly consider this since, as you mentioned, is something missing.

As for splicing audio/video. I wish I was using good software to do that. You can probably tell that I’m just using crappy Windows Movie Maker to easily split and cut the videos and add music. I’m not proud of it, but the user interface on it is fool proof.

I think I will consider buying a HTC RE, it’s so much more handy to take out of my back pocket in the middle of the ride and take pics or a quick video. Taking out my cell phone, unlocking and finally getting to the camera, can be dangerous if road conditions all of a sudden change.

I think a video is never too long if it’s good. If viewers think it’s too long, it’s most likely because it’s not interesting enough (meaning boring). I spend way too much time on figuring out how to make videos shorter, but now I don’t care anymore about that and focus instead on making every second interesting. Cut out the boring bits and the repetitive bits and your video will become shorter as a matter of course. To avoid having too much uninteresting footage in the first place, be selective when shooting, only shoot the really interesting moments.

If people think your video is too long and boring, it’s also because there are gazillions of other videos out there with the potential to be more interesting, so in essence you are competing with the whole Youtube world and Internet content in general. Getting a lot of views is not an easy task, cause people are always enticed by something that might be more interesting and is only one click/tap away.

Here’s my video from the 2015 Wang Yeh Boat Burning Festival in Donggang, which took place earlier this month. This triennial event is my favorite of all of Taiwan’s festivals.

Perhaps more of a destination video than a travel video. But I did have to take a train and a bus to get there!

Cool. A bit surprising that during all the activities leading up to the burning it is noisy, and when the ship is finally burning, it’s eerily silent, despite all the people. No fire crackers, techno music…?

Cool. A bit surprising that during all the activities leading up to the burning it is noisy, and when the ship is finally burning, it’s eerily silent, despite all the people. No fire crackers, techno music…?[/quote]
It’s traditional for worshippers to leave before daybreak; supposed to be bad luck to hang around. As such, much of the crowd disperses. So those hanging around tend to be hardcore photographers, foreigners, and people who don’t buy into superstition.

Wish I had more footage of the actual burning, but my camera’s battery was critically low at that point; hence those really short clips at the end. The audio of the priest chanting at the end came from my smartphone recording.

I think a video is never too long if it’s good. If viewers think it’s too long, it’s most likely because it’s not interesting enough (meaning boring). I spend way too much time on figuring out how to make videos shorter, but now I don’t care anymore about that and focus instead on making every second interesting. Cut out the boring bits and the repetitive bits and your video will become shorter as a matter of course. To avoid having too much uninteresting footage in the first place, be selective when shooting, only shoot the really interesting moments.

If people think your video is too long and boring, it’s also because there are gazillions of other videos out there with the potential to be more interesting, so in essence you are competing with the whole Youtube world and Internet content in general. Getting a lot of views is not an easy task, cause people are always enticed by something that might be more interesting and is only one click/tap away.[/quote]

Thanks again hannes.

I rode out from home this weekend with a video card that was full and I eventually did not have time during the ride to delete everything. I plan to get a friend (or myself) to explain the route before we head out and at the top of the climb. Also get some interaction when we sit down for coffee or to rest.

That is a great idea.

Ok, so I have found out that it will be kinda difficult to record interaction amongst the group due to inadequate time.

I’m usually not the first one to the peak, so whenever I stop, it’s mostly to catch my breath and take in some water/food. So, taking out the camera to record thoughts about the climb is kind of tough. Also, by the time, I’ve caught my breath and can think about recording, we’re pretty much ready to go. I gotta find a way around this that doesn’t involve riding faster.

Here’s this past weekend’s video. It’s short, so not too much of people’s butts. I’m still working on adjusting settings for back lit parts of the video. If it wasn’t for a lot of dark backlit parts of videos, the final product would’ve been a good 2-3 mins longer.

The highlight of this week was bumping into our favorite dog near the Ping Ling police station. So glad I got it on video. :sunglasses:

Is the edit function disabled? Weird. I wanted to edit my previous 2015 Boat Burning Festival video post, because I have an updated version. But since for some reason I can’t find the Edit Post button, I will post the new link here:

EDIT: Weirder and weirder. This post has an Edit Post button, but it’s missing from my previous post.

Ok, so inadequate time was a poor excuse. I took your guys advice and started taking reaction videos after the climb while everyone was resting. If there was something interesting that happened I would also take a video of that. Most of the feedback I’ve been getting say that the videos are much more enjoyable with conversation as well as the subtitles. I initially put in the subtitles because I wasn’t editing with headphones on and speakers weren’t loud enough. I later realized that it was a nice edition to the video.

2 weeks ago

This past weekend

3 days in the northern part of Alishan.

  1. Day: Meishan – Taiping Village – Bihu Tea Plantation – Zhukeng River Trail/Longgong Waterfall – A-Han’s Homestay in Ruili

  2. Day: Green Tunnel (bamboo forest) – Youth Ridge Trail/Bat Cave/Swallows Cliff – Yuntan Waterfall – Lanhou Minsu in Laiji

  3. Day: Spending the last day in and around Laiji Village

Some nice scenery and lot of quiet moments. Not many people around on a weekday this time of the year. Great place to go for shorter walks or longer hikes. The food at Laiji Buluo Chufang is excellent!!

Hi guys,

I went to Tainan a few months ago for a weekend and made this video. It mainly focus on food and places I visited with my girlfriend. I captioned the places we went and the food we ate, so feel free to use it as a guide if you’re going there, although there’s a lot more to see and to eat there, but we didn’t stay long enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r56k99QAD6k

Enjoy the video and don’t hesitate to give me some feedback :slight_smile:

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