https://3speak.tv/watch?v=namiks/agjbtnlu
I have been shooting a ton of things around Tbilisi for a few weeks now with the drone. It has been an absolute blast. And with a few of the clips I have taken, I felt it would've been fun to put them together and create a little reel. It's nothing particularly special, more a test to see if this song went well enough with the clips. I think it turned out well enough; and with a bit more footage compiled and some more creative editing, I think I could turn this reel idea into something more of a film. Each of the videos was shot in Tbilisi, from the industrial landscapes to the residential. A bit of everything. Though with some similar perspectives on things. Small panning shots or rotating.

These also document some of the travels I've been having. The fun adventures I've been on throughout the harsh summer. Finding unique spots in the city, even if they end up bringing me to the very edge of the city under that heat. These few clips are the outcome of a month's worth of adventures. Of course it's not all of them, but a lot of work goes in to finding the locations, testing, and really running around. Hope you enjoy them!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=namiks/gwjdhyjl
This is a pretty experimental, almost documentary styled film shot during one of the last days I had in Armenia. I shot it on the Sony A6000 which isn't great a shooting video, shooting at 25 FPS and at 1080p. But this wasn't about the quality of the potential short, but instead more a moment of me just standing on the balcony on a windy day, placing the camera on the side, and just recording the simplicity of the life from above. This was the first location I had discovered in Armenia, a residential area called Ajapnyak, a beautiful area full of Soviet era apartment complexes, the very stereotype of Russia that I had ever heard of and seen, pretty much. I fell in love with this place and the people around it. It was a cozy area, full of unique places that I once roamed throughout the days, without any Internet and just holding the camera. It was here where I spent most of winter, the cold nights that I hold dearly. The changing of the leaves around. The snow that fell from above as I waited for the bus. Memories I'll never forget. On cold nights I'd sit outside with a blanket and tea, and talk with one of the first Armenians I met, about life and philosophy. I told myself on that balcony that if I ever returned to Armenia to live, it'd be to live there in that area.

I'm not sure what made me set up the camera and just start shooting, I knew it wouldn't amount to anything of quality. But it matches how I see the world. How I love to just sit and observe, watching the many moments of life go by. The changing of the sunlight, the people crossing the street, and the little light as apartments suddenly begin to glow. Cars moving to and from. Dogs in the distance bark. The sounds of children laughing and people talking in the street below can be heard. You sit there, watching from above, and think of how weird and beautiful life is. To get that perspective on how fragile it all is, while also having that question of "Just how did I end up here?". I came from a small village in rural England, now sitting at the top of a Soviet era building in Armenia, appreciating the simple moments of life. And now I type this from the comfort of a small apartment in Tbilisi, Georgia. All these moments, the things I've seen within the past year. I long for it. I love it. I can't imagine doing anything other.

So, perhaps this film is a bit too experimental for some. For me, it's a capture of life itself. Nothing fancy about it, just moments passing by. Isn't that something quite beautiful?

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=namiks/vreaonbv
I have been wanting to get back into filmmaking on a more independent scale as of late, and Armenia is riddled with interesting landscapes and locations that make for some really cool videos. I now have my drone with me here and it's something that completely opens up all possibilities. Though there are some limitations given many locations are close to military bases or major airports. But out in the nature, this thing is a blast! I have a Macbook Pro that I purchased specifically for this sort of thing, making sure it was something a little more future proof in regards to shooting and editing 4K footage. So all of these drone shots are in 4K, 30 FPS. I have had to switch to Davinci Resolve as my primary video editor though as I just couldn't get into Final Cut, and Adobe Premiere is just annoying to deal with. I'm not sure how I feel about Davinci Resolve just yet, there's so much I feel I need to get familiar with, but in many cases it certainly does a lot right.

I've wanted to update my gear a bit though, the DJI Mini 2 camera is getting a bit old now, and the dynamic range just isn't the best. I would like something capable of shooting portrait too so that I could appeal to the masses of social media and stock footage that are thirsting for more short-form, cinematic content in portrait. Though, this is a little test with Davinci Resolve. No major editing, just some copyright free music and some clips thrown together to see how it all formed. I think it all went well, and certainly will have me testing the waters a bit more with more colour grading, LUTS, and general editing techniques as I continue to dive into the capabilities of Davinci Resolve. Though that UI feels so technical sometimes. Probably the main thing I don't like about it just yet. Anyway, enjoy this little cinematic reel! A 5GB filesize limit seems challenging for future content though here on 3Speak. This reel itself at 4K came to just under 500MB! Editing feels like something I have to relearn, something that I feel I've forgotten a lot about. It could be the fact that I have to relearn an editing software though. I do slightly miss the ease of Premiere Pro.

It feels good to be back in the Drone community though, perhaps I'll have more to share here again at a later date!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=namiks/zaoetufe
Armored Core 6 has been producing a lot of disruption around the Internet since its release, with newcomers and existing fans of the Armored Core franchise clashing over the supposed difficulty of the game. To begin with, this really does seem like a brutal, unforgiving game as it throws the most chaotic bosses at you, to which many fans of From Software's Souls games have been saying are much worse than what they have known. At first, I felt the game was quite difficult when it came to these fights, but the more I played and tested, familiarising myself with the weapons and parts to build my own AC, I realised much of this difficulty isn't really there. It's more a lack of knowledge of the game's potential builds and how to go about using them as an advantage.

I wanted to mix things up as I usually do when playing the game, testing what I can come up with and what works and what doesn't. This isn't my first rodeo with Balteus, and it also won't be my last. But I made a build with just pistols and some regular shoulder missiles and decided to see how they'd go up against just one of the bosses that are causing people to request refunds, or find the strongest possible builds to soak up the sheer damage output you're faced against.

With this build, I went for as much speed as I possibly could. Focusing on the parts that gave the most agility and flight time, allowing me to spend lengthy periods of time in the air and dodge without the need to constantly wait for energy regeneration. I honestly expected to get absolutely slammed with this build. I knew speed would work to my advantage, but the default missiles and pistols? I figured that would not even put a dent in his constant shields. I've already tested this build with Balteus, and this is actually one of the less clean runs I've had against him. But the only one I felt like recording.

This boss can be a bit unforgiving. Sometimes he's easy to dodge, sometimes he catches you with one hit, to which a combo follows and wipes your health, you can see it in the video. And it definitely had me a little spooked.

Dear God, this game is so fun sometimes. These challenges and unknown expectations going into fights is what makes it for me. Customising and constantly changing things, and taking advantage of the fact you can always go into a fight and learn something new from it. The pacing that changes as a result, the total mashing of keys that can come from managing the few cooldowns and endless necessary movements to minimise damage you take. I haven't had this much fun with a game in years. I've already managed to put in 25 hours... And it isn't stopping there.

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=namiks/qoltdwcf
I have been having an absolute blast with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. As someone that stopped playing games a while back, I have wanted to try to get back into them, only to be met with either boredom with games just not quite hitting the mark with me, or an incredibly annoying motion sickness that makes me spending more time in the menu going through settings, than actually playing, only to end up quitting once nothing works. I have had this weird feeling towards games for a while now, where I feel I'm more just wasting time and not really enjoying them, and I honestly thought this might be the case with Armored Core 6 when I pre-ordered it about an hour before it released. I had many concerns about the game, but wow, I was completely wrong. This game has made me feel like a kid again. I just do not want to stop playing.

A lot of the fun for me is customisation, earning new weapons and AC parts and mixing them up to build something that vastly changes the play style. A lot of Armored Core is this very concept. And the appeal of the game is to repeat missions over under these various unique play styles in order to earn more currency to spend, as well as go for S Ranks. I think much of my play time is spent doing this, rather than progressing through the story. Currently, I have just started the second chapter after about 12.8 hours of total play time. I really have a ton of fun going through the Arena and trying different builds. And since I rarely post any videos to Hive, I figured this game might be what starts to make me do so. I didn't add any voice to the gameplay, in fact, I wasn't even sure the recording would be able to be used. I was a little concerned over performance with my Stone Age era computer which requires coal to be shovelled in every 15 minutes to power. Quite surprised at how fluid the video ended up being, and some great assurement that I can do more.

So, this gameplay is also a bit of a test. Some light recording of a few Arena rounds in the game while testing out some builds. I added some music from the game which I think was a really cool addition and made the fights more interesting to watch. I had to get back into using OBS and making sure the settings were right, as well as dive back into Premiere after a little bit of a break from video editing. I'm looking forward to getting a bit more creative with these going forward! So, if you are on the fence about getting the game, you can see a little bit of gameplay and get a bit of a feel for what the pacing can be like, maybe this is what sells it to you, or perhaps what makes you stay away, haha.

For these Arena matches, I went for something lightweight and fast. I love these speedy builds that are all about the chaos. Insanely fun, but also a bit challenging sometimes given your fragility compared to what you may be up against. But the challenge is all part of the fun! Fortunately, for these Arena matches, they're fairly quick if you're using the right sort of builds. Which means these matches can be quite forgiving if something doesn't work out, compared to going into longer missions. You don't get a whole lot of currency in comparison, but 20k for just testing things out and having a bit of fun is a decent way to earn while testing, without getting absolutely destroyed halfway through a mission.

Also, I'm really digging this all white paint. Super cool. Messing around with the paints is definitely something I want to do more of going foward, creating my own designs rather than relying on the default ones provided by the game; though those aren't too bad either. Either way, I love this game so much. It's such a shame I need to eat and sleep.

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=namiks/ubedgtfh
I realised today that I was very bored, feeling a creative need burning from within as I looked beyond my computer's monitor and out into the gloom that is often the English weather. It hit me that I had a ton of drone clips that I had shot over the past year of owning my DJI Mini 2 drone, and that I had done absolutely nothing with those clips. Many were rather lacking and just average clips of flying around the sky in the countryside, but I found a lot of really unique moments that I never would have witnessed and experienced had I never made the purchase in the first place. This realisation led to me throwing a ton of clips into a timeline in Adobe Premiere Pro and slowly filtering the good from the bad and seeing what had potential. Ultimately a ton of clips got cut, but after a little bit of searching and trying different things; as well as remembering the stress of finding good music to use, I ended up with a little cinematic reel that I think is pretty neat.

Despite working as a 'professional' in the film industry, I find that my heart belongs more to the run-and-gun independent style of filmmaking. Roaming the land and simply discovering the world on my own and seeing what comes from it. Meeting new people as a result and simply enjoying being out and around nature and locations I otherwise would overlook. At some point I intend on building an FPV drone to take this beyond the limits of the DJI Mini 2 drone; I even intend on getting myself a new digital camera soon.

Anyway, I think there's a genuine lack of filmmakers here on Hive, and hopefully I can use some of my creativity and interest in creating little films to somewhat contribute to what is clearly a very small niche still. It'd be great to get something going and see more people creating little films specific and original to Hive. Particularly given the potential Hive offers in financially rewarding those ambitious creations that would otherwise make nothing on traditional media sharing websites.

I had a lot of fun creating this, and it was a nice reminder of a hobby of mine that I hold but have been neglecting for far too long for no real reason. Drones in particular are incredible tools for getting out and pushing yourself beyond into creative areas you probably had no idea you even had. Despite not really getting out much with it this year due to many unfortunate events unfolding in my life, I look forward to once again packing that little drone into my backpack and roaming the lands and even water.

Perhaps I will even write a little post, most likely in a different community given it probably wouldn't fit here, on the process of editing the cinematic reel. Oh! And the song used is an edited, by me, version of 'Pensees - Discomfort' that I hacked at and sliced together to make it more fitting for the clips and duration I had in mind.