This is a 4K remaster of my short film “Koh Yao Noi”, which I originally released 10 years ago.
This version has been upgraded from 2.7K using Topaz Video AI. I’ve also used it to solve a lot of stabilization/rolling shutter issues caused by drones. I tweaked some edits and used Film Convert Nitrate to lower the grade of the original. I also added film grain and a bit of diffusion using its Glow add-on.
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I’m still happy with the original edit; it will always be the main version. I just wanted to make it look better for the tenth anniversary, and I feel like I’ve done that. It’s one of the films I’m most proud of. With the drone we have now, I don’t have to do all the work to make it look better, and I don’t have all the technical issues. Drones have come a long way in ten years! Here’s some more info on gear and shooting: Koh Yao Noi is a small island in Thailand.
I shot this video while on vacation there. Originally, I was just going to use the drone footage with the GH4 lenses, but the footage was so unique that I edited it independently. I used two DJI Phantom 2 and a GoPro Hero 3+ to shoot at 2.7K, connected to the drone via a Zen Muse 3-axis gimbal. Video quality isn’t great, as many shots suffer from rolling shutter ripple. Surveillance footage is also very difficult. One Phantom 2 has a terrible FPV display and I can barely see anything, while the other has nothing at all, so I’m flying purely by sight, which is tricky with composition! I had to do a lot of work in post to fix things and make it as good as possible. The film has received an overwhelming response and has been viewed 759,000 times on Vimeo to date.
There is a lot less content on this channel on YouTube, but GoPro has also uploaded it to their channel, with 1.2 million views. One day I hope one of my videos on this channel gets over 1 million views! The film also helped me get the CNN TV series The Wonder List, which I shot all over the world for the first two seasons. Then, during the filming of series three, I seriously injured my back, which meant I couldn’t continue filming. In March 2015, I entered the film into the first New York Drone Film Festival, where it won the “Best Travel/Landscape” category. Thanks to all the judges who voted. Music from Music Bed http://gopb.co/musicbed Gatlin Elms “For we never knew your beauty.”
