Maverick 2007 Youtube Video

I don't normally do this, but I've been getting a lot of feedback off of my latest video, that I decided to put the link up on here. Also included is a quasi-tribute to White Water Landing. Footage was taken from the 2005, 2006, and 2007 seasons. Hope you all enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNVqqS6yz4M

thank you to someone else for realizing that wanted dead or alive by bon jovi is the perfect song for maverick

Very nicely done. I especially liked how you kept going back to construction footage, interspersing it with the ride in operation.

The way you constructed that, it almost felt like Maverick was haunted by the ghost of Whitewater Landing. Good job.

That video was pretty awesome. I also have to say it is a good choice of song.

No matter how much I miss White Water Landing, all I can think about is my first day off to ride Maverick this year.

The coaster nerd inside of me just doesn't ever go away. :)

Great Video! :) Also great song choice!

Well I also had a video up, and yes used Wanted Dead or Alive (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Vic52YuaA) Unfortunately my camera quit working about half way and i had to use some pictures and reuse some scenes. But I think it turned out OK.

Bon Jovi is a beast!

WWL was my dads favorite ride (with Cedar Downs being his absolute favorite, and yes he's old and hates rollercoasters) I used to ride it with him all the time. We miss it. But hey, this is about the Maverick video on youtube. I think that video was awesome. :)

I wonder if they'll use that Bon Jovi song in the Country UNLEASHED! show in the RGS this Summer, since they use "Lay Your Hands on Me" for the Monsters Rock! every year.

I've often wondered what the policy really is for using copyrighted song material for a home-made video. You see that, as well as old TV clips (guilty!), all the time on youtube. It seems like in the interest of community nostalgia, people look the other way, unless your company rhymes with CBS.

@BirdOfPrey00 - It's nice to see some WWL. I never got a chance to video tape it. It might also act as a video tribute to the fire hose over the pond. A ride op, while waiting out a rain storm in the station during ERT, told us that a Cedar Fair honcho got splashed by the hose. He told them to turn it off, is why we didn't see it on for the last half of the season.

I'm not the world's biggest Bon Jovi fan, but the water bombs worked well with this song. The "steel horse" lyric fits. You picked good shots for the video. A good one of Maverick going over the lift hill and past CP & LE RR. You didn't use a tripod on the train did you? LOL - contrary to what you say on your Channel description about tripods, I think hand-held can be done well. But a tripod was the best choice for this video of a roller coaster going against a slow song. Did you try a version where you didn't use a fade out after every clip? I know it's just youtube, but constructive criticism can be useful, even though "constructive criticism" is a foreign concept on youtube, which is why I keep comments turned off, but I don't take the time to edit videos either.

@ Morté615 - I liked yours too. I liked the views of the station and the layout from the unloading side.

All hail youtube. Even thought it turns material into low-quality Flash video for mass consumption on a computer, the mp3-quality sound is fine. Low-quality video and good sound is entirely watch-able, whereas good video with crappy sound is hard to watch, so I guess youtube got it right for what it is. Keep 'em comin'.

Update: Now I can't get that song out of my head :)

Sure hand held can be done well. I guess what I meant when I said in my profile on YouTube that I hated hand held footage, was footage that was all over the place. Obviously I'm not going to use a tripod on the train, and usually when I do follow a coaster train for some portion of the course, I will also use a hand held shot. I have found when using fade to blacks or fade to whites in my more recent videos, I have received more positive feedback from friends and family, as opposed to just using quick cuts.

In regards to your copyright comment, I do have two videos uploaded as we speak that have been identified by YouTube to have used copyrighted songs. I did further research on those videos, and while they were copyright protected, the copyright holder, in those cases, UMG, has allowed the use of their songs on YouTube, but attach an ad to that videos page.

Thanks for the compliments and constructive criticisms.

^^ Yeah I hate how You Tube cuts the quality down with flash, I do have a large version for anyone who is interested just send me a PM.
I am hoping to get a new camera in time for this summer so I should be able to redo the video the way I had originally imagined it to be :).

^ Why not use a tripod on the train, I have done it. Just be ready for the occasional jerk when the train is rolling. I think on something moving like the train hand held is better, if it is done right. You need to be able to move with the motions and still keep it smooth.

^^ I was joking about the tripod on the train :) But now that Morté615 mentions it, I can see how it could be done, or using a monopod. I know what you mean by most hand-held videos being herky-jerky. I can appreciate you going the extra yard to use a tripod, especially when it can be cumbersome to carry one around. I mentioned somewhere else along time ago, the park looks different as viewed thru the lens of a camera or camcorder, and can be an interesting experience in & of itself.

That's interesting info about UMG. It explains why some videos have ads attached to them. That's one thing I never looked into, as I hadn't bothered to put music on my videos. I like recording natural ambient sounds. You do see a lot of comments on videos asking what music is used. That happened to me on a Halloween video that had incidental music playing in the background. But I can't stand most of the songs in a lot of the youtube videos I've seen. I do like your two videos above with the Bon Jovi song.

^ The way I hold my Sony TRV-30 is in the palm of my left hand. It acts as sort of a steady-cam as "steady" as holding it in your hand can be. I can also pivot the camera more smoothly & quickly. As opposed to the way most hold a camcorder with their right hand inside the side strap. I have carpal tunnel, which shows up in certain situations, so my hand's actually been completely numb by the end of the Tell-Tale Heart and Monsters Rock! after the half-hour. I used a tripod once for MR! but I was too bored with the results for that particular application. It's not to say I won't use a tripod. I have a pretty nice Vanguard one for what it is. All non-pro equipment just to document the park to look back on it someday. It's just easier to carry the camcorder without one.

One trick that helped me steady the picture when walking hand-held, was to use a heavy wide angle lens. The wide angle hides the camera bounce and the additional weight steadied the camera. The weight of the lens broke my manual focus ring over time, which the lens screws into, so I can't do that anymore. When I taped a walk-thru of the entire park, holding the camera like a football, it was mid-afternoon, and the lens flare was really bad. Then I started to point the camcorder up too high - dooh! It was a hand-held experiment anyway. I'm just mad I can't do it again properly unless I get a new camcorder. This old one would be a pain to get fixed. It actually has a better lens and internal circuitry than most consumer HD camcorders do these days. It also does analog pass-thru and although it looks like widescreen it's actually is letterboxed, but that's OK, esthetically I like the 35mm aspect ratio regardless. The point being, it's a fun camera to use and I like the results, so I tend to take more video than I really have time for.

The other thing that comes to mind is video vs. still photos. I have a Nikon D-100 DSLR, but because of the dynamics of the park and the ambient sounds, I like shooting video instead. There's tons of nice user photo galleries online to view anyhow. With computers being faster, consumer-grade video software, cheap hard drives, MiniDV tapes & DVD-R's and high speed connections to upload video it's more feasible to shoot video than it's ever been. Being able to show & tell on youtube is a bonus.

I like how my video turned out for what it was, I just don't like the lack of video of the ride. My camera broke half way through so I don't have any video of the pond area, and I had some great ideas for shots too. I had to end up going in and filling the video out with pictures that I had taken earlier that year. I actually have another version up that was without the pics (link) it seems to go too long and a lot of the scenes go way to long without cuts. Of course it does not help that i chose a song that was over 5 minutes in length either :)

As for a tripod, I like to try and shoot the same thing multiple times, once using a tripod for the entire thing, and then handheld. So it looks like a multi camera shoot but is really just one camera. Actually all the video in my Maverick video was shot using the tri-pod. There are some plans online for making a steady cam out of some pipe and weights, I would like to try that and see how well it works, especially on something like the train with all the jerky movement. Of course it would get pretty heavy after awhile :).

For a look at some handheld from the train (link) this was done in one pass, this is where my camera started screwing up so I never got the other passes. Even trying to get from side to side is really rough.

That is a great video.! You should make another one Birdofprey00

^ I have about 20 videos up on YouTube as of right now. They include parks that I have visited over the past few years, including Walt Disney World, Islands of Adventure, Geauga Lake, and Cedar Point, amongst others. There area few other videos dedicated to specific coasters as well.

^..Yeah i checked those videos out to..they were very good also. nice

That Maverick video you made "BirdOfPreyoo" is awesome. I like it so much I put it on my myspace page. Haha

Wow, this was really great. The music fits so well, the footage is great, the tying in of construction, WWL footage, it is just all so perfect. In the begining, the way you layed out WWL brought tears to my eyes. Hands down a great video. Keep up the amazing work.