<i> ( music playing )</i> Ooh, that was
a long flight. 17 and a half hour
flight. - I'll tell you it was worth it,
though.
- Definitely worth it. We're on top of the Marina Bay
Sands hotel in Singapore. Believe it or not,
we're not just here
on holiday, we're actually working
very hard. 'Cause it has one
of the highest rates
of lightning strikes in the world. And it's currently in November
at the time we're recording
this. Which is the most active month
for lightning strikes. It should be a very interesting
subject to film. I've never filmed
lightning. It's incredibly fast,
incredibly unpredictable. Also very dangerous.
Which makes you wonder
why we're on the roof. Yeah, well, thankfully,
there's no storm in currently, but why don't we set up
the Phantom in a nice,
safe location and wait for a storm
to roll in. - In a bit.
- In a bit. Ah! <i> ( music playing )</i> Here we are in a hotel room looking out
at the Singapore skyline. Today, we're using
a Phantom v2512. We often use the 2511, but this has much more
internal memory. 288 gigs. And we can usually record what,
like four seconds with the-- - Two seconds.
- Two seconds. This will record almost eight
at 28,500 frames a second, but we're gonna be running
this slightly differently
to how we usually shoot. In that, I'm gonna firstly
partition the round
into multiple segments. And I'm also gonna use a feature
called Image Based Auto-Trigger. What do you know
about it? It sounds like 'cause it's automatically
triggering it that you're out of a job. ( laughs )
Well, sort of. Let me run you
through it. So the first thing
I'm gonna do is we typically only use one
partition in the memory. We can record
for the whole thing. This capacity allows us
to record for almost
eight seconds. And because of the duration
of a lightning strike
you don't need eight seconds. So essentially
more beneficial if we say get eight
different partitions. Giving us a round a second
for each capture. So what I've done is
I've set this little area,
this little box. - See the red box?
- Yeah. And then I can set how often it
checks and the sensitivity of how big the pixel
change has to be for it to register
a trigger. And then I can position this box
wherever, so I gonna point it in the sky. That way anything down here,
you know, people taking pictures or anything like that
shouldn't affect it. But if lightning comes down
through the top it should trigger
the camera, automatically save that point
nine seconds into the mag, and just immediately
go again. So you're saying that if it sees
lightning it'll save it - for you.
- Yeah. And now in theory,
if I change-- if I mimic some
lightning here... - Yeah.
- What it'd do? Immediately triggered
and then stopped
and it's recording again. It went in a solid circle
and then it started
recording again. So it went one and then
when I turned it off
it went another one. And you can see now
it's immediately recording
into the mag. Oh, yeah. So--
'Cause it was so quick. When you did it
it went two, three like that. - Yeah.
- It was immediate. Wow. So this is pretty much
set up now. So now what we need to do is
wait for it to become nighttime or wait a lightning strike and it should capture
and save automatically until it's completely full. So now we just wait. But wait if it does
everything automatically, should we...
should we just-- Pub? - Pub.
- Pub. <i> ( music playing )</i> ( thunder roaring ) Go! Go! Go!
My God. - ( laughs )
- Watch out, watch out. We're on the wrong side
of the hotel. Gonna miss all
the lightning. My shorts are falling down. Gotta be striking
on the Bay side. The oceans have got nothing
on this end. ( indistinct chatter ) - We're the opposite.
- We were so well set up in
there. - Go ahead.
- Ooh, ow! Sorry. All right. This is good. There's no glass
over here. ( thunder roaring ) ( lightning crackling ) <i> ( music playing )</i> - Oh, wow!
- The whole sky lit. Throughout the whole ocean. It just knows
lightning might be there and so I can always focus. Yeah, it's lightning. ( laughs ) Yeah. Dan: Oh, wow! Wow. Well, that was some absolutely
beautiful footage. I'm so relieved
we got it. I'm just so relieved
we actually had
a lightning storm. 'Cause imagine coming
all the way to Singapore
for no reason. - That would suck.
- That would've been the worst. I also have a massively
newfound respect
for lightning. I mean, I knew
it was dangerous, right, but it made those ships
look like little toys - in like a bathtub.
It was incredible.
- It was so scary. I was so fascinated
to see the difference in speed between all the feeler forks - compared to the big,
bright strike.
- Yeah. Absolutely insane. Completely blew it out,
didn't it? Oh, that was a really fun
video to make. Hopefully,
you enjoyed it. Feel free to subscribe.
Check out part two where we're gonna learn
more about lightning and Dan's gonna
get shocked. - What?
- What?
I feel like I haven't really heard Gav talk about his work on Planet Slow-Mo much, which is surprising to me because it's been an absolute knockout. Each episode is unique and totally separate from something they could film in Gav's backyard. The footage has been breathtaking, while the side episodes-- where they explain the science behind what they filmed-- are all interesting and entertaining. Furthermore, they've obviously got a nice budget and a production crew with them, but it still has that same feel to it as when it's just Gav and Dan.
I really hope this format is going to stick around. I'd love for another season of this.
Got the nice set up and everything then bam! Other side of the hotel.
Does anyone know if when planning this they specifically had crew make sure they got a room looking out of both sides to make sure they would be able to set up if the lightning is on the other side?
Also seems less than ideal to have the side of lightning also consist of filming what looks like an outdoor balcony. Does it not rain when it lightnings there? Seems like it could have walloped the camera at any point.
Planet Slow Mo is exactly what the SuperSlowShow should have been. Them going to places and filming stuff that they wouldn't typically be able to to.
Loving these recent episodes :)
Just out of curiosity, what's with the product placement message in these videos lately? I think I remember watching a Tom Scott video once explaining how you have to have those messages for British TV or something like that, but what IS the product placement? Is it the Phantom cameras themselves?
I wonder if Gavin could get in touch with someone from a utility company to film the arc that's created when they disconnect those giant electrical breakers, like seen in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW90XX7rjbc
I used to work at the very spot of that ocean! During those stormy strikes, the sea state becomes your worst nightmare. You won't be able to see anything except the flashing strikes every once in awhile. Plus with the whole boat rocking from one side to another.
Man I wish we could get an exact date on when it was filmed. I may have been in that shot that Gavin filmed!
i don't get it, i've always heard that lightning strikes go from the ground and up (which i honestly had trouble understanding to begin with).
but here it seems to definitely start from the clouds.
That was fun. High speed photography of lightning is always neat to watch. Also, nice choice of music.
Dan just looked so lost when Gavin started being camera smart.