also posting battle video means at least one person has to not battle and instead film. I to would love to see mpre battle videos but I also dont want any skipper to have to miss out on the action. But what Tug says is the best answer
Battlin' Bob H had a head-mounted camera at some point in the past, I keep meaning to ask him if he liked the results and if he thinks it's worth doing. If it is, it'd be nice to have a few more captains wired for video at Nats
Even if he wasn't preoccupied with serving his country (Thanks!), videos take a lot of time and effort to put together. That is time and effort that isn't being spent on other things. Also understand that often videos aren't longer, because once you cut out the boring sailing around material a 20min battle is usually about 5 minutes long.
I saw some of the footage from that headmount camera, it was ok. I've played with other things such as setting up fixed location cameras on tripods that overlook the battle. The biggest problem is that without an active operator, the viewpoint gets really really boring. Having an active cameraman who follows the action, zooms/pans/tilts/etc as needed results in 100x more usable video than just about any other passive system - with one exception - the shipmounted cameras. Shipmounted cameras offer fantastic opportunities to watch a battle from a unique point of view, where everything is up close and personal. Still lots of editing required, and some planning, as well as a little extra staging (we intentionally let the Maru sink deep a few times to get better video shots). I wouldn't say there is a clear winner in shipmounted vs actively operated camera on a tripod, but bother can offer fantastic results. Probably more usable video from the active operator, but the ships vantage point is hard to beat in some situations.
I'm planning on a shipboard camera for the Brouhaha and other battles moving forward, those are fairly cheap and easy to do. I like the footage from the actively-aimed tripod, but I'm not giving up my ship to take the footage. So, if the head-cam was at least some useful, then I might look into getting a setup and forwarding the footage to the guys who are skilled at grabbing useful bits and making movies.
The ship cam that is on for 1 hour will yeild about 5 min MAYBE of good footage. You MUST have the tripod cam to bring it all together. Fixed shore cams are great but same problem the action moves and for 1 hour of video.. I got maybe 5 min of usable footage.. maybe. However when you cut them all together.. WOW.. Last year at the Brouhaha there was no active camera man.. so all we had were fixed shore cams and Bob's melon (head) cam. They were great and the melon cam had the best vantage point and the most action.. because he was looking at his ship while battling.. and others.. but the image was grainy. Give him an HD hero.. I bet it woudl be awesome. We really missed the zoom in/out of the camera operator and with out that footage.. the rest was ho hum.
Ship cam footage ratio seems to (and logically so) depend heavily on the mounting position, the captain, and the general flow of battle. When I used the Marucam I got a very good ratio on the battles where we really emphasized hunting the Maru down. On battles where it was present, but people got other goals in their heads, I got so little footage that I just piled it in the folder where I save things to use in small pieces later. I'd kill for a regular camera guy who knows what he's doing inside and out..
True, and it also depends on what you designate as action. If the video is long and I need to cut time out .. single gun 'plinking' gets cut before other stuff. I usually count 'eye candy' as good footage otherwise why watch it... right?
I also have a shipboard camera mount for the Bruhaha, but as said earlier its kind of luck to catch anything good. Sometimes the real action is on the other side of the pond, sometimes its just off camera. Still, 10 minutes of footage off the stern of Atago is fun right? Right?
Well Gunner, the simple answer is that making a video takes a lot of time, energy, and effort that I am currently devoting to other things, like the full-size navy. The long answer is I haven't stopped. I'm on hiatus from warship videos, quite possibly for a long time. But I'm not done making videos. They're just on different topics that are a little more accessible to me right now. Rise of Flight, a WWI combat flight sim, and FPV RC flying. So here's my question. Should I keep the youtube channel of Kotori87 limited to RC warship combat and post my new videos on a different channel, or should I just throw them up even though they're off topic? RE: some of the suggestions, capturing footage is only one of the challenges, but it is a big one. I have brought many of my friends to a battle, to help film. I have also lent my camera to other skippers whose ships were not working. 99% of that footage ended on the cutting room floor. A friend without knowledge of the hobby is unable to anticipate where the action is, and misses most of it. A skipper without camera experience and discipline zooms in too close or too far, shakes the camera, or forgets to start recording. A camera on a ship tends to get ignored unless all ships in the battle deliberately try to get filmed. Most of the footage you see in my videos was filmed by the same three people over a five year period. The biggest challenge we encountered? Every person who has the skill to use the camera well AND the knowledge to properly anticipate and film the action, ALSO has the skill and knowledge to build a warship of their own, which they do as quickly as they can. Then I have to find a new camera operator.
