Today we filmed the go pro shots that we were missing for the cross-country video. We then began putting together the full edit. Bo came in the afternoon and we were able to get some drone shots of the portion of the course that is above the headmaster's house. We spent a lot of time trying to find a royalty free song to use in the edit but it was really difficult and we still haven't found the perfect song. The Pix4D renderings of the Kohala property and IT building finished. The Kohala property looked really good with the added photos. The rendering of the IT building, however, looks terrible as something went wrong with either the photo taking or the GPS- there are two different 3D planes stacked on top of each other. We are going to have to completely redo the IT Building, although we don't mind because it isn't a very large building.

The Pix4D rendering of the coast finished last night and it looked pretty good. Today we finished editing and color correcting the Braithwaite video and titled it "To Go With Fergus". In addition, we began finishing the cross country video. We finished almost all of the aerial videos, but we want to re film the shot of the Taj.

We started the day off by going into the hills to film the ground shots for the Braithwaite video. Tania and Elyse came up to help, and Bo and I were able to get some really good shots. We then started to re-edit the video. We showed Tania and Elyse some basic editing techniques in Final Cut Pro. In addition, we showed them how to find royalty free music. We recorded Braithwaite reading a poem so that we could overlay the audio on the the video. After working on the video, we started shooting video and pictures of the IT building. Afterwards, we gave the girls a small lesson on flying the drone.

Today Schorn, Bo, and I met with Tania and Elyse to discuss our schedule for the next few weeks. Bo began sorting through Bernstein's footage. I started to render all of my previous videos in full quality 4K. We had Braithwaite come up to discuss how we can make the hill-hiking video better. We came up with some ideas and are going to try to finish it tomorrow. The GPAC rendering finished but the data wasn't consistent so the rendering came out terribly. We are probably going to have to just reshoot all of the photos in one go. We also began rendering the new coastal model. I uploaded the model of the Energy Lab to Sketchfab and Schorn and I tested how easy it was to embed the model to the HPA website. It was actually really easy, so we will definitely use Sketchfab to post our 3D models to various sites in the future.

Today we started by shooting more photos of GPAC to add to the Pix4D rendering. In addition, we shot a few photos and videos of the whole campus from a high altitude. We started the new rendering of GPAC but it didn't finish by the time we left. We were also able to make a trip down to the coast to shoot some Pix4D photos and some videos of the Kohala property.

Today Juan and I worked on the Pix4D model of GPAC. It looks really good with 735 photos, but it could look better so I will have to shoot more photos next time. I was unable to fly the drone after Juan left because my android phone broke and my iPhone 5C isn't compatible with the DJI Pilot app. I then wanted to re-shoot the ground shots for the XC video with the go pro, but the go pro was dead.

I ended up going through the clips we shot of GPAC on Monday and put together a small highlight video (in 4K):

I also organized our equipment a little bit and charged everything that needs to be charged so that I shouldn't run into any obstacles next time. In addition, Dr. Bill ordered an iPad mini 2 so that I won't be left without a device next time I want to shoot.

Today we spent most of the day working on a GoFundMe campaign to buy our own drone. GoFundMe.com/HiFlyers

For the campaign, we put together a really good highlight video of our best clips.

Today Juan and I began shooting GPAC. We shot some photos and videos, mostly focusing on the west side of the building where the solar panels are going up. We tried to get some cinematic shots in addition to some objective shots so that they can be used for multiple purposes. We are going to come back and shoot images for Pix4D when there aren't any cars in the way.

This week we were able to do some solid film work. We filmed most of the shots we needed from the ground for the XC video, and we were able to film Braithwaite's class hiking in the hill from the air. One thing we learned was that the wind is not our friend: it makes it very difficult to fly the drone precisely and smoothly, and it makes it very hard to use the extremely lightweight steadicam smoothee. Because the steadicam is so light, it just gets blown around by the wind, causing shots to either be unaligned or shaky.

Graduation is coming quickly, but we still have work to do. We need to edit the footage of Braithwaite's class, get additional shots for the Garden and XC video, and it would be awesome if we could make one more trip down to the coastline in order to improve the Pix4D model. This weekend there is a LAX tournament at HPA and we are going to try to get some footage of it. I don't know how I would be able to contribute because I am going to be playing, but hopefully Juan, Abe, or Nicky can get it done.

Today we went out into the hills behind HPA to film Braithwaite's class. We followed them with the inspire, and filmed them exploring and reading. The scenery was really beautiful. The only issue was the wind: the wind had to be around 30mph. The inspire had such a hard time flying against it and at one point it couldn't even move when flying at full-throttle because the wind was so fast. Also, the wind made the drone work twice as hard, which drained the battery very quickly. We were only able to get about 7 minutes from each fully charged battery. We completely ran out of battery before Braithwaite's class was done, so we were unable to get the shots of them walking back to campus. Despite the heavy winds, the weather was beautiful and we think that the shots we did get will turn out nicely.

Today Abe and I finally got a chance to film the XC course with the go pro and steadicam. It was really windy but the weather was quite nice. We ran most of the course, including the taj, before the sd card ran out of space just before the portion of the course in front of the Elab. We were able to look over the shots and they look pretty good considering how windy it was.

Today the weather was really bad. Because we couldn't film anything, we went over the shots that we had an realized that we need additional footage of Emmons' garden. Also, I got some practice with the steadicam smoothee.

Today the weather wasn't very good so we were unable to film with the drone.

Instead, I messed around with the steadicam smoothee and the GoPro hero 3. I shot in 2.7K and protune, and the footage looked really good. I tried running up and down stairs and it was still almost perfectly smooth. I think that the XC video will turn out great using the steadicam.

Today we had originally planned on filming the XC video, but the weather was terrible. I was however able to upload the Elab showcase video to youtube:

Today the weather wasn't very good again so we mostly worked on existing projects. I added some finishing touches to the Elab video and exported it, but I'll have to upload it to youtube next time.

Abe and Juan worked on the Pix4D model of the coastline and messed around with meshes and textures. It looks really good.

In addition, the GoPro steadicam came in and we are ready to film the XC video.

This week we were finally able to complete some solid work despite the fact that I missed Monday. The weather was very cooperative and we finished the Elab video and started to work on the garden video. In addition, we were able to help with the army recruiting video.

We still need to film and edit the cross-country video. Hopefully we can get a stabilizer for the go pro. Also, we were unable to get the sports practice video because we ran out of battery shooting the army video on Thursday. This might have been a blessing in disguise because the weather on Thursday was terrible and now we can shoot the video when the weather is ideal.

Next week I think that we should try to make a trip to the coastline so that we can improve on the Pix4D model of the coastline. In addition, I think that we should work on the model of the Elab and garden more if we have time.

Also, there is going to be a special event at Maunaloa on Thursday and we are excited to go shoot Maunaloa and possibly even Maunakea (and possibly even the TMT construction site if we are lucky).

Today the weather was bad so I used the time to work on the Elab edit. I was able to find a royalty-free song and finish the full-length and instagram-length edits and Schorn really liked them so I think we are finally done. In addition, we worked with a film crew to help shoot an army recruiting video. The shoot went well, and we even got the opportunity to witness a pretty cool experience: an owl started to circle the inspire and we were able to get some great close-up footage of it. It came pretty close to the drone a few times which was nerve racking but it never got too close. The footage looked really cool.