2011 In Retrospect: My Videos

2011 was the year where I really rekindled my love for creating videos. I could still remember from way back my college days where I would edit clips out of my mobile phone with 3gp native file formats on Windows Movie Maker. Most of these files went down with my hard drive that crashed, so I'm pretty much left with this one video up on YouTube from 2006, shot with a Canon home video camera on standard definition. This passion for videos came back when I made this video during one of my trips back to my hometown, Surigao City. And grew even more when I acquired a Lumix fz35 camera mid-2010. Came up with a few couple of videos that year - Ilocos trip, a weekend in Laguna, our trip to Cagbalete island, and my very first time-lapse clip with mt. Makiling. Lost my mojo for the first part of 2011 but I was able to pick up when I joined this outreach program dubbed Kariton Klasrum. Join me as I journey through the year that was in retrospect through my videos. My videos in 2011 after the jump, continue reading post.

As mentioned, the Kariton Klasrum - this was truly a humbling experience for myself. I was with my friend Khel Banzon who's into videos as well. He helped me in capturing clips throughout the experience. These kids go through a hard knock life and this program by Efren Penaflorida that I was able to take part in around May of last year was one I would cherish. Glad I was able to somehow document the entire experience. Although this is more like a music video than a shot at documentary, I'm proud with this one. 



Only my second trip of the many more to come to this lovely island of Boracay - hah! My first time was back in 2010, didn't bother to take photos nor shoot a video back then for I thought I'd just enjoy the first time experience and make the most out of my first time in the island. I was pretty sure that I will be going back and thought I'd definitely come up with a video by then, hence, this video right here.



Came up with a couple more videos from that trip to Boracay - a skimboarding clip with this local kid I met in station one, and from riding the ATV's. Before making this trip I wanted to venture on underwater videos, so prior the trip I acquired a GoPro HD Hero - with the capability of shooting videos in 720p resolution at 60fps, and of course 1080p at 24/30fps. Both video captured using this beloved toy.





My first trip to Singapore - such lovely place to be a tourist. To work or live there? I wouldn't know. I have friends who work there already, and I've heard a fair amount of pros and cons. :-) But anyway, this clip here is a time-lapse around sun down. I left my GoPro shooting behind the hotel window of our room at the Marina Bay Sands - such amazing structure to begin with. I can go on an on... I didn't expect much from it, I just thought of the idea as I was about to head out and meet a friend. And man was I surprised with how well it performed to capture images come sundown. The music here by the way is by tide/edit, a band I admire for the great vibe that their music has - one to look out for.



First trip to Palawan - yeah! I was really excited for this one, although Puerto Princesa didn't really live up to what I had expected. The tour package was alright, having the opportunity to experience the underground river which is now part of the seven wonders of the world was really exhilarating.



The Bataan trip, this was more of a photoshoot with my buddies than a video project trip. We visited Mt. Samat and the Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar. Shot a few time-lapse clips, tihs time I became more versed with the proper work-flow on rendering time-lapse videos - it's the start of something great for me - time-lapsing.



As I said, time-lapse has steadily grown in me. Watching videos online of the many time-lapse videos available, I was really inspired to produce more. "The Highlands" is a project I started last year on November. Started shooting for a couple of nights at the balcony of our hotel room in Tagaytay, roughly I captured somwhere around ten clips for those two nights - I barely slept, I was on a high. Most of these clips are on my hard drive. I intended to have it ready by this month, in time to kick-off the new year. But looking at what I have, I decided to make it a long term project. Gathering more clips and planning more trips to shoot from the highlands. This year I said to myself I will be hitting the great outdoors more, exploring the mountains - the highlands. So "The Highlands" project will not be released anytime soon. I look forward to capturing more clips this year, and hopefully be able to finish the whole thing - soon as I see fit. Anywyay, here are a couple of clips from last November, one using my iPhone, and the other my 60D with the supposedly (teaser). :-)





Spent a couple of nights at Marriott hotel some time in November. Our room had a great view of the Makati Skyline. I decided to shoot a short time-lapse reel of that view, hence, the video you'll find below.



The ISD band - this was in celebration of the Octoberfest. Pretty much filmed their entire set, I was excited having my new audio recorder at hand.



Stay Together

Love Song

Highway to Hell

No Touch

Huling El Bimbo

Singapura, once again. Yup, went to Singapore twice last year. This time I thought I'd come up with a time-lapse reel rather than a one setting full-length clip. Spent a good 30 minutes to an hour on one location just to shoot a clip. Nevertheless it was all worth it, and the cityscape never gets old in my book.



My first ever mountain to conquer. Despite not reaching the summit for the reason you'll see upon watching the video, it still turned out to be a positive climb for the group. Pretty much shot with my GoPro, I'm very proud of this video edit. After taking up a few class on digital video, I got to apply some technicalities on this one. The three-act structure, a bit of color correction, and playing around more with the sound. I'd say my best edit yet - haha!



And of course, my "Last Sunset of 2011" time-lapse. It's just a short clip. Didn't really turn out as I had hoped but, it is what it is. I got it right on January 1st though, first sunset of the year 2012. :-)



I ended 2011 on a high note, and I look forward to keep the pace for 2012. More trips, more plans - I'm really stoked! More videos, of course. I hope reading this post was worth your time, better yet if you watched all my videos - thank you very much. Still, I'm a novice shooter hungry for experience. I want to learn more, I want to produce shorts and all that stuff. I'll work on that this year, hopefully all will turn out well. I got future projects lined up, and please do follow me on Twitter to be up to date with my work. :-) Happy new year ahead, cheers!