We are the Night

[ironroad 218]

I just completed another video as part of my series XI (eleven) Part 11 Charlie titled We are the Night.

 

This video is a bit degraded in quality for several reasons:

 

First, it was filmed during DCS night hours and capturing night scenes in DCS is a while different beast in terms of quality when comparing to daylight hours. *To get "clearer nights" for your rendered video it is better to film during dawn or dusk hours and then place a "virtual" pseudo filter on the clips during the video editing process. However, in this video I wanted all the night distortions to be intact. I wanted it to try to simulate the level of strain that comes with looking through NVGs, and the particles, debris, fog, etc. that gets stirred up in the late night and early morning hours due to atmospheric effects.

 

Second, to do some of the effects for this video (i.e. night vision, FLIR, etc.) I had to switch video editing programs and use a program I am unfamiliar with called Lightworks. Lightworks is a powerful tool and I would rank far ahead of windows movie maker (but still far behind Sony Vegas) in terms of abilities and usability. On the plus side. there is a completely free version of the program available and there are no trial or rendering time limitations. Unfortunately Lightworks is not intuitive, has a steep learning curve, and the free version has some rendering limitations (i.e. file type and quality).

 

Finally, Youtube kills uploaded video quality. You can capture, edit, and render clips with a moderate level of quality and ok framerate and they will look decent on your machine (or if transferred via physical media). However, upload them to Youtube, or a similar mass sharing online streaming service, and it is like cooking prime rib in the microwave. I understand that things have to be compressed to be effectively uploaded and shared online as space is a premium and servers don't pay for themselves. So when creating a video I always capture and render it at the highest level of quality possible, even it means dropping the frame rate drastically. You can easily get away with 24-30fps and still have a smooth and "cinematic" looking video.

 

*This is my first ever video were none of the flying is done by me. All AI sycophants.

 

Edited November 7, 2015 by ironroad

[+Dave 2,322]

Outstanding Ironroad. I take it you are very good with the mission editor?

[+Dave 2,322]

You know what the music reminded me of? Remember the old Wings Over series from the 90's? It reminds me of the montage music they used.

[ironroad 218]

Outstanding Ironroad. I take it you are very good with the mission editor?

I'm ok I guess, I really haven't gotten into the scripting aspect of DCS's editor like I did with Operation Flashpoint, ARMA, or JANE's F-15 and F-18. I really wish DCS had a better AI logic, in the sense of being able to have, or at least script, large flight packages like in Falcon4, GCI/IADs in Jane's, or having truly reactionary forces like in Op Flashpoint.

 

As for the music, it was probably used in one the many military documentaries shown on TV or cranked out on VHS in 1980s or 1990s.  I remember hearing in a few documentaries on Operation Desert Storm. The composer is a UK guy by the name of Alan Hacksaw. He and a lot of his contemporaries cranked out volume after volume of generic corporate/documentary soundtrack music during the 70s-90s. Most of it was used for news shows in the US or UK, sports films, or military documentaries. Thankfully Youtube's content ID caught it and gave me the information on the copyright holder. I always try my best to get the original composer or the rights owner info and make sure my videos don't get monetized.