Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #86


Asia Cruise 2008:  Saigon



Our itinerary on Oceania's Nautica included a number of ports in Vietnam.  First of them was Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

We booked this one-day ship's tour that was informative and mostly fun -- but I have to admit that I was creeped out by the war exhibits.  I elected to end the narration with a more serious tone, and you'll notice that in some of the later chapters.

Listen closely to understand the tour guide; it's worth the effort.  Video quality is good, not very shaky.  In the Cu Chi tunnel our guide shot the video using my camera and a flashlight -- that crawl was not easy!
No professionally recorded music was used, just a few seconds from a live performance.  Chapter length is a bit long (7-1/2 minutes), but I took a risk since the subject was interesting.  I think I own this video too much, need an independent opinion on how I could tighten it up! 

Lessons Learned:
Ask a friend to preview the video.  Value their input regarding video length, pacing, narrative style, and script.

Suggestion:
Maybe use subtitles to assure the tour guide's words are understood.