My goal was to come up with something that was upbeat and fun. This was my first attempt at a musical composition. My "birds" are aluminum, tube, and fabric.

http://uwolchallenge.com/challenge1/jm_friendly_skies.mov

Camera - Sony Z1

Very nice video Jim. It was fun to watch. I would have liked to see some footage from a plan - But that would more the likely be spendy.

Funny Idea, I wanted to do something like that here, but the weather just was not working, so I went for 'living' birds and snow..

Fun, creative, entertaining, nice editing, beautiful footage, good music, sounds like a good film to me! :D

Keep up the good/fun work!
~Gabriel

Jim,

Nice film man! My favorite shots were the ones at 49 seconds and at 1:36.
Good job on the music too. It fit the film. It would have been cool to get some aerial footage but the film still works without it.

Thanks for the comments. I was hoping to get some aerial footage but the weather conditions didn't work out. If you notice on the approach of the airliners they were adjusting for a pretty strong crosswind so I didn't get to take the Stinson up (that's it in the hangar).

For a first try at musical composition, that was great. It really fit the video. I liked all the angles of the planes- neat how you cut between them to give a real sense of motion and speed.

Ruth

Your footage has a very stylized look that I like. Many shots feel like they are from a 16mm training film. Was that achieved in post?

Very good composition of many shots. Fun and bubbly video.

All the clips were used in FCP straight with no post-processing. I do like the settings I have configured on the Z1 and achieved some footage on an Alaska trip last year that I'm pretty happy with.

Jim,

From someone with 20 years air force service that included 3 years of aircrew duty, I still feel that one of the most graceful sights is an aircraft in flight, taking off, or landing.

You got some beautiful shots with great skies showing the aircraft off.

And as a non musical talented type (if I try to sing in the shower the plumbing moans!) my hat is off to you for composing your own score.

It works.

Bruce Foreman

Jim, this was fantastic to view. In fact I like to do some aircraft-spotting from time to time. I'm living just 20 min. from the main airport in Oslo.

The first ting I noticed is the sharpness in the footage, stunning! Your pans is veeery nice. The edit was seamless and very nice, only thing I noticed was the windsock after one aircraft was approaching (at 00:58), showing tailwind landing ;-)

Keep up your good work Jim!

Jim, very nice video you have.
You did well with the music.
As an air traffic controller, I see departures and landings all day at work, but I am impressed with what you show us.
I especially liked the clip after about 45 seconds when you see the white contrails against the sky.

Jim, great video. I loved watching those planes come in. I have lived in Atlanta 24 years and never went to the airport just to watch the planes come in. Great idea. Bob

I love airplanes....this was very exciting for me to watch. Had the weather been nicer here I would have done something either with full scale aircraft or gotten some of my RC buddies to fire up and gone with that. Glad you were able to get such good footage.

Randy

Several beautiful skyscapes Jim.

Hi Jim, Nice work - though I'm a bit afraid of flying (my wings are too small)...
But I do like aeroplanes, watch them as they come and go. I think you've done a great job editing and these big "birds" are in some way, our way of keeping up with the real birds :)

Cool aluminum bird tubes! Yes...you can definitely see the wind was blowing pretty good that day. I really liked the #2 and #4 airplane shots. Those really stood out.

Looks like a nice small airport. Am I to understand that is YOUR plane (Stinson) in that hangar? I found myself hoping to go for a ride as soon as that hangar door opened.

Love that you composed your own tune "Friendly Skies" for your film. Nice job on that!

Best wishes~
Bradley

Thank you all for the kind comments.

Per - good catch on the wind direction!

Bradley - yes, that's my 1949 Stinson Voyager.

Thank you all for the kind comments.

Bradley - yes, that's my 1949 Stinson Voyager.

Wow Jim! Looks like a beautiful plane. May I ask how long you think it would take for an average joe to take lessons and get a pilot license? Most curious.

Best wishes~
Bradley

Bradley - what it takes to get started is mainly just heading down to your local airport and asking around to see who does flight instruction and start taking lessons. You could probably solo in about 15 hours, but the learning part is a lot of fun, so no need to rush it. If you're really interested in getting started and need help finding an instructor PM me and I'll point you to a few resources. It will open a new world for you to explore and meet a lot of interesting people.