How can I condense my holiday video within a short amount of time?

The first few weeks of 2016 involved soaking in the Europe and Dubai winter breeze. Other than enjoying the holiday itself, I wanted to find a way to reminisce on the trip through a short length video, rather than procrastinating on flicking through over a thousand photos once I returned to reality (for my own sanity). Ultimately, this burst of motivation originated through my acceptance into the RMIT Media course, and partially because I wanted to also reignite my creativity and refresh my post-production skills.

So I ponder on how can I actually condense my holiday video within a short amount of time? That’s when I realised that my main focus was the visual aspect itself. A lot of thoughts can occur during a sixteen-plus hour flight. One of those happen to be having the subject doing a simple movement while everything else in the background changes. I drag my brother to be the subject and basically having a static shot of him walking forwards.

Through post-production I realised the importance of a tripod and lighting. It became a tedious task in which I would use the “motion” setting in the effects control section to give the illusion of him walking in a consistent straight line. Like a photograph, I would analyse each frame to ensure that flows well with the next through the use of symmetry (ensuring he was the centre for each frame). As I replay the video, I recognised how the lighting differs in certain frames that even colour grading wouldn’t fix it, and how the position of his backpack changes. These factors contribute to not getting that full illusion. Next time, I wish to recreate this video with improving these factors. Maybe across a different continent this time?