Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala [1080p HD via Sony DSC-HX5V]

Volcán Pacaya is an active volcano in the Escuintla department of Guatemala nearby Antigua and Guatemala City. Though the volcano had been dormant for over a century, it erupted in 1965 and hasn't stopped since. As recently as 2006, increased eruptions resulted in the formation of a lava river as you will see in this short film. When capturing the footage, the heat was so intense that I could only hold out for brief shots, needing to turn away regularly to avoid getting scorched. Rather than covering those reactions, I have retained them in editing, as harsh cuts at once stylized and truthful (or comical, if the idea of getting sizzled makes you giggle).

What you see, anywise, is a great example of the virtues that "flow" from ultra-portable/run-and-gun film equipment like the Sony DSC-HX5V that I used to shoot all this footage. I decided to post this onto YouTube, in fact, because numerous visitors to other YouTube test footage of mine asked for daylight examples using the highest bitrate available in the camera. So here it is, shot in AVCHD 1920x1080 at 60 fps interlaced (interpolated here to 30 fps progressive) at a 17 Mbps bitrate. For dramatic effect, my one post-production process that throws off otherwise reference results is the use of Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks, a suite of color saturation/contrast/diffusion/gradient effects that make the footage look more "cinematic."

A complete record of this hiking expedition was recorded via Android My Tracks at the following link:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103707818...

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Volcán Pacaya
• pacaya
• guatemala
• antigua
• dsc-hx5v
• sony
• volcano
• lava
• lavaflow
• lava flow
• lava rock
• molten
• 1080p

[Emmely454]

Wauw, that was amazing! But isn't it really dangerous to be so close to an erupting volcano?

[hpaulmoon]

@Emmely454 I suppose so! And it erupted really badly just a month after I shot this footage, causing lots of damage across a large region. That certainly shows the difference between the litigious protections of U.S.A. parklands, versus the "proceed at your own risk" spirit in Guatemala.

[Jonabaldi]

Thanks to this great quality of video and knowing which camera was use for it, I got my own. Now I have a question for you: I tried uploading a short video I recorded with it, and the result was bad. The image was good, but the video was played in slow motion, at first I thought it was my internet, but then I tried playing it with a high speed connection and the result was the same. Also the sound was only half way, the rest was completly mute. What would you recommend?

[hpaulmoon]

@Jonabaldi The file format of this camera's video footage is AVCHD, and as far as I know, that file format cannot be uploaded raw to YouTube. In the help section here, there are specifications on how to prepare your footage for uploading, but the short of it is that you need to convert the AVCHD file to H.264.

[Jonabaldi]

@hpaulmoon Thanks a lot for your promt response, I will look into it and see if I convert the video to that file then.. Is that what you did for yours, or you just edited?

[hpaulmoon]

@Jonabaldi Both, because the editing process completes with an export to the new file format.

[simysimss]

some really good stuff here

[Metalhead5310]

Hey! Now I'm proud to be from Guatemala city! (:

[luanmeurer1]

hum...

[TheJaraad]

@Jonabaldi I also recommend using the FLV format. AVC HD is compressed using MPEG-4 AVC/H.264  FLV is a Flash code also based on the MPEG-4 library of compression. FLV's are very lossy but they are very small in size. They render out full HD with great quality if you plan on using it for the web.

[jimmyrior]

Now Thats HD

[doom705]

wow the 11 people that gave this thumbs down must be brain dead retards lol

amazing footage