Ok… Here’s my suggestion before you watch this video. If you have the Last Samurai soundtrack, then fire it up and play it simultaneously with the video. I’ve got a version of these shots WITH that track as a “placeholder”, and it obviously makes a huge difference.

I’m currently not happy with these first two shots. The first shot I’m happier with. I feel that the reveal of the footprints in the snow is timed well, and the camera moves (albeit CG, and requiring a “real-world” touch), work well. I feel the shot is strong because I staged and staggered the reveals with strong composition, and good tempo.

The second shot is where I feel it all fall apart. The reveals are there, (foot prints, stairs, vertigo from the height, the broken bridge, and the path to the Temple ruins at the mountain top), but they aren’t working. Here are my thoughts:

1) I feel there’s an issue of timing. The shot is too long. I want the first three shots to get shorter as we progress, then start to stagger my shot timing after, depending on the subtext established by that point.