I gave a blow-by-blow account, complete with heaps of pics and a generous amount of beta, from this trip back in September.
I had hoped to finish and release the accompanying video at the same time, but life got in the way of that objective, as it often does and should.
One very small reason for the delay was uncertainty with which direction to take production of the video. I had almost two hours of footage to distill down, which could have gone many different directions.
Many times in the past I've spent way, way, way too much time drilling down through the video, being hyper-vigilant about every detail along the way, to arrive at a polished end product that I was proud to share and happy to re-watch myself. Not possible to overstate the amount of time that it takes to do that, and the amount of additional time it takes to do it well.
One major consideration along the way: target audience. Sometimes it's just the people that were on the trip. Sometimes it's for a wider range -- like people that might consider repeating the trip. Other times it's for everyone: friends, family, small flightless birds. In distilling the clips down you've got that target audience in mind the whole time. Regrettably, you're also faced with the daunting reality that if your video encroaches on or exceeds ~4 minutes, probably no one is going to watch the whole thing.
Far too often I've busted ass to deliver a sub-4 minute video. In that process so much is lost -- so much of the story, the context behind it, the meat from the bones of what was done and seen and experienced.
I've also noted, when watching videos made by friends or peers of similar trips, that if the video ends at ~4 minutes I always want more, and the longer these accounts run the more I understand of the place, the route, the challenges. I always want to see more.
Thus, this time around I've simply said "no" to the endless and thankless process of getting under 4 minutes. I *did* winnow the footage from 2 hours down to 20 minutes. I included a handful of voice clips not because they're apropos of anything much in the vid, just because they help to share the mood and tone that accompanied our travels.
One detail that doesn't come through in the vid: How much it rained. I think this is because I simply didn't bring the cameras out unless it was only drizzling or less. Man did it rain.
Without further ado...