Goa. The dream holiday destination for any Indian student. The land of sin, dreams and all that lies therein. Ironically, Goa is also the butt of many jokes since Goa plans never actually materialize.
Having turned 21 and being in the final semester of college, me and my friends made a plan to go to the forbidden land. We had been talking about it for 6 months. When another group of friends went, we finally bit the bullet and booked tickets. The dream had become a reality. Goa was finally happening!
I was doubly excited for the trip since this was my first trip with my new Sony A7Sii, and I couldn't wait to break it in! We set off on the trip and I started shooting right from the railway station, armed with the elusive Mitakon 50mm f/0.95 lens.
When it came to the water scenes, I shifted to my GoPro Hero 4 Black. Here's the funny story about the opening shot: The first day when we reached Goa, we went straight for the beach. I didn't bring any mounts for my GoPro and I was holding it in my hands. But the tide was picking up and a big wave hit me and I lost my GoPro in the ocean! All of us searched for 5 minutes but the waves just kept getting stronger. After 5 minutes, I had started to lose hope, when my friend Snehar emerged from the water waving the GoPro and screaming. That was truly a miracle and I couldn't imagine a better way to start my video than with that shot.
The Sony A7Sii shots were shot in Full Frame 4K at 25fps in SLog2 profile and the GoPro shots were shot in 2.7K at 60fps. A few scuba diving shots were taken on a Nikon underwater camera which was provided by the scuba crew. Not sure of the model or settings though. The trip was for 4 days and I made sure I had the camera on me at all times for anything interesting.
The video was entirely edited using Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017 and I took my sweet time, editing it for a week. For some reason, I am averse towards using After Effects, but I really wanted to mask the backward walking shot. So I learnt masking in Pr. I used RE Vision's Twixtor Pro for the slo-mo shots. I wanted to experiment with transitions rather than just use the same transition throughout the video, and I learnt some of them on YouTube. My Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2016 Semifinalist video, Insti Wali Holi, had really good shots but the transitions were simple cuts since I wasn't as well versed with filmmaking back then as I am now. So I decided to take it up a notch this time with good shots and some sublime transitions to keep the vibe going. I graded the A7Sii footage using Magic Bullet Looks and Premiere Pro's built in Lumetri Color.
Personally, this video is very close to my heart since it's the only trip I've made with my closest friends and this video is what will be my most treasured memory from college.
