Recently I got to work with “Yosemite Steve” Bumgardner on an episode of his series, Yosemite Nature Notes. He did a “One Day” project with 30 different filmmakers spread all over the park. It resulted in a large mix of cameras, formats, white balance settings, etc. Steve edited the piece in Premiere Pro from the native camera files. I tried to round trip this project to Resolve, but was running into issues with some of the codecs. So instead, we exported a NoGFX ProResHQ master that I sent to Resolve and used the auto scene detect to create an EDL. It was the first time I had done that and it was very easy. The auto detect only missed a few cuts and it was simple to add those cuts while I was grading. It did get tripped up on the time lapses though.
My favorite shot is the low angle POV of the hang glider. Steve told me that the pilot has a GoPro on a little wooden airplane that is connected to an winding dog leash. Right after takeoff, he lets the leash out and then pulls it back in right before landing. Very cool. I also really liked the lock off shot of the waterfall at the beginning. It’s a very high resolution shot that looked amazing on my grading monitor.
Cameras: Sony EX1/EX3, Canon 5Dmk2, GoPro Hero 2
Yosemite Nature Notes
Produced for Yosemite National Park by Yosemite Steve
Editing: Steve Bumgardner
Color: Eric Hansen
I love working with such beautiful footage and I can’t wait for the next project!
Mammoth Times article about “One Day in Yosemite”
Q&A with Yosemite Steve on REI.com
Very interesting! So you sent out a master prores file (one clip) and had davinci scene detect an EDL out of PP?
Yes. I only sent a ProRes file, and Resolve created the EDL from that. After the detection, I watched it through to remove the false positives in the detection. The time lapses would trip up the detector. I missed a few cuts and noticed them while grading. I was able to go back to the previous room in Resolve, add the cuts, and my grading timeline was automatically modified with new cuts. It’s similar to how the DaVinci 2k works, but WAY faster.
Love it. Keep up the rad work!