Video editing rant

[RoadTrekker]

I am sure that many of you have trolled through many YouTube videos and watched many boring shots of bikes riding down a long road without anything interesting going on or any information. This gets tediouse and you soon loose interest.

Here are some suggestions for better videos:
1. Try placing your video camera in different positions on the bike, forward , backwards, sideways, low down near the road.
2. Try to avoid obstructions like the side of your helmet or your windscreen
3. Add a external microphone and clip it inside your helmet and do a presentation as you ride, about what you see and and are feeling.
4. Never make a single video clip longer than 1 minute unless it is recording something exceptional.
5. Get off your bike and record some footage of the sights around you.
6. Take a small gorilla tripod with you so that you can mount the camera on your bike , in a tree, on a fence to take that great shot of you and your bike.
7. Do not go crazy with using special video wipes and transistions they make it look amaturist.
8. Most of all decide on a theme for your video and keep to it and keep it short and to the point.
9. You can allways make a seperate video for your own use to include the special video clips that mean more to you than to a spectator.
10. Personnaly I do not like to include photos in a video as it becomes boreing especially without a commentary, plus the quality drops off as well.

Remember that the best video is the one that you have not taken yet!

[backofbeyond]

Originally Posted by RoadTrekker

I am sure that many of you have trolled through many YouTube videos and watched many boring shots of bikes riding down a long road without anything interesting going on or any information.

That reminds me, I've got a 10min video clip of riding along a featureless wasteland in Western Sahara that I must put up on YouTube. Should be riveting viewing

[Threewheelbonnie]

I have my epic "M-62: Goole to Manchester" in post production as we speak.

Andy

[twowheels03]

I'm just getting into video, learning about it for the next leg of our RTW.
Good tips/rant RT. I could do with help/advice on the tech side of things.

What format to shoot in?
Best compression for uploading?
Workflow tips?
Editing software?
Back up on the road, Portable hard drive and what else?

I emailed Oisin Huges, he uses a flip ultra and semi pro Cannon HD and had over 30,000 clips to make his series and edited it all himself.

Any more feedback on cameras?

I'm struggling with it - not the most tech sav person !!

Cheers Paul

Welcome to Two Bikes Running

Originally Posted by RoadTrekker

I am sure that many of you have trolled through many YouTube videos and watched many boring shots of bikes riding down a long road without anything interesting going on or any information. This gets tediouse and you soon loose interest.

Here are some suggestions for better videos:
1. Try placing your video camera in different positions on the bike, forward , backwards, sideways, low down near the road.
2. Try to avoid obstructions like the side of your helmet or your windscreen
3. Add a external microphone and clip it inside your helmet and do a presentation as you ride, about what you see and and are feeling.
4. Never make a single video clip longer than 1 minute unless it is recording something exceptional.
5. Get off your bike and record some footage of the sights around you.
6. Take a small gorilla tripod with you so that you can mount the camera on your bike , in a tree, on a fence to take that great shot of you and your bike.
7. Do not go crazy with using special video wipes and transistions they make it look amaturist.
8. Most of all decide on a theme for your video and keep to it and keep it short and to the point.
9. You can allways make a seperate video for your own use to include the special video clips that mean more to you than to a spectator.
10. Personnaly I do not like to include photos in a video as it becomes boreing especially without a commentary, plus the quality drops off as well.

Remember that the best video is the one that you have not taken yet!

[g6snl]

Originally Posted by RoadTrekker

I am sure that many of you have trolled through many YouTube videos and watched many boring shots of bikes riding down a long road without anything interesting going on or any information. This gets tediouse and you soon loose interest.

I could not agree more once you've seen one you've seen em all, and pretty much all don't give any clues as to where they are. Could be down a lane in Surrey somewhere ( which I think a lot are )
I wonder why most even bother to film it sometimes??? :confused1:


Personally I arm the misses on the back with a camera and tell her to take snaps of anything we see going along, or stop and take some. That way we cut out all the boring tarmac / gravel / sand etc..... That's usually more than enough to remember things around the fire at xmas time.

[Trix]

i think photos can work well in a video the biggest problem is making it interesting for people who were not there

this was one of my first efforts made with a friend of mine i like it

Donkeys in Morocco - YouTube

[danward79]

Nice Tips, I am trying to get the "hang of it" too. My editing and content gathering is crap!

I came across some good tips recently. They are here.

[Breezeflea]

I would suggest also doing a small trick of strapping a light camera (a decent smartphone these days can do the trick quite well too) onto a kite or a radio-controlled helicopter (just saw one at a local toystore on sale) and have that fly at an angle which is not to difficult to control by an eperienced passenger riding with you, or two of your fellows that are willing to land a hand and ride in a car for that exact one minute for the extraordinary

[haggis]

I've recorded much video from many trips I've taken. I have some fairly good footage from various places around the world but one thing is missing in many videos - the Story!

Any video has to be a story with a connection through it. I can't stand looking at "go pro" videos on you tube with rock music stuck in there for good measure, I'll give it 5 seconds before clicking on somewhere else. Bore me to death. Yes I've made them too.

I'm no speilberg either, I have plenty of crap but the one thing I have to say ... editing is where is happens, especially if you've missed bits or didnt get good footage or part of the story in the first place. Then you have to fill gaps with voice overs etc and I'm completely crap at that.

The time it takes to edit something decent is long. I've put about 120 hours labour into 90 mins of video so far of a recent trip. I still have to go back and fix the sound and script/voice over.

I reckon it will take me another 120 hours to complete a six part series. I'm not that slow anymore with the editing software either, I reckon I'm as fast as many now. That takes practice.

Will it be any good? I bloody hope so. I will go through the whole thing with an audience at the end and ask them to critique everything, any crap will be cut if it doesnt help or enhance the story.

So my advice would be.... make sure you want to. I have plenty of hours of video I still havent used from other trips. Simply because editing takes up so much time. If you are busy at work / home etc when you get back then consider time it takes. Alternative is to edit on the road but that can be difficult on a laptop at best of times.

As for back ups, I had solid state drive on main camera which held video until I got to somewhere where I could copy all files to small HDD and ship home. I also had contours which needed to be saved everday to a pc or similar. Then I collated the lot and sent home. Tapes are a pain but at least you can file them away, the flash drive method has to be backed up to another drive or pc somewhere eventually. Tapes can be stored for a bit.

I've a very rough cut of one episodes which was done a while ago. This has changed a fair bit in recent weeks but it gives you an idea. The voice over is an ad lib. The finished one will be scripted and done a lot better.

Anyway. Good luck in whatever you do!

[mundobravo]

I shoot my moto vids with a Sony CX 560 , a go pro, and my Iphone and a folding tripod. On rides of over a month I have a proratable hard drive. I edit in FCP on my Mac when I return. Using a "split screen" really helps with the "go-pro" footage. Here's a little sample I shot of a HU rally last year in Colo

[jazzzamb]

I have asample of someof the videosI put oninternet : Scooter:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnZA17mgJvk

[RoadTrekker]

Originally Posted by twowheels03

I'm just getting into video, learning about it for the next leg of our RTW.
Good tips/rant RT. I could do with help/advice on the tech side of things.

What format to shoot in?
Best compression for uploading?
Workflow tips?
Editing software?
Back up on the road, Portable hard drive and what else?

I emailed Oisin Huges, he uses a flip ultra and semi pro Cannon HD and had over 30,000 clips to make his series and edited it all himself.

Any more feedback on cameras?

I'm struggling with it - not the most tech sav person !!

Cheers Paul

Welcome to Two Bikes Running

I will try to give you the simple answers without going into too much technology jargon
1. The format I use is H264 as I use a MACBOOK Pro and Final Cut Pro X for all my video work. H264 are smaller file sizes but full HD so less MB storage which are then saved as .MOVIE files.
2. Uploading to Youtube is a nightmare as YouTube will lower the quality of your video with smaller bit rate to save on storage so do not get hung up on this plus the higher the definition will increase the upload time of your video with drop outs during upload. I find that using the old 720P gives the best performance with smaller video size but still good quality. So unless you intend to broadcast the video as a professional version why bother. I recently uploaded a 11 minute HD video to YouTube at 1080P and it took 6 hours!!
3. Workflow - The most important thing is to plan your video in advance as it saves time, so you do not forget to take shots and most important think of a theme do not just video going down a road following loads of cars and other bikers we are all too bored of watching these. Also experiment with placing your camera in different positions and angles to get some variety and interest going. If possible try to record some dialogue and banter going these make it more interesting together with maps to show the road trip. The worst thing is to find that you get home and missed taking some great points of interest that destroys the storyline.
4, Editing Software- This is where you can spend a fortune. It will all depend on how much you will use the camera and how serious you want to be about your final editing. A lot of the video camera manufacturers provide a simple editing software which is basic but might be OK at first. Soon you will want to do more edits and cross-desolves, special effects which means that you will need more specialised software. Much will depend on the type of PC, you use if it is Windows then I would suggest Movie Maker which is free or more advanced and cost Sony Vagus, If you are using MAC then you have iMovie which is free or for about 200 pounds there is Final Cut Pro X which is what I use. Whichever you use expect a lot of learning time mastering the software but its fun especially in the winter when you cannot get out on the bike.
5. Video BacK UP - Typically 8 hours of video could take up to 64 GB of video storage depending on the resolution and bit rate. So a 10 day road trip might require 640GB of storage. What I do is to copy all my videos onto a small laptop - EBook. Then back them up onto an external HD drive for editing when I get home. You should never read the video directly from the camera or its memory card as it will have frame drop outs(shots missing) this will be avoided using the external HD. Plus editing is faster as the software is not reading from the same HD.
6. Cameras - Well I was using a Contour HD for 3 years but they have recently just gone into liquidation so I have the bitten the bullet and got a GoPro HD Black 3. It is expensive but as I am really very interested in video and photography I just had to have one and have not been disappointed. When I go on long trips I still take my trusty DSLR with me to get great stills shots as it gives me better flexibility. Do not get suckered in, just spend what you can afford and if you enjoy it then upgrade and grow your system having the best kit does not make you the best photographer its all down your what you see and think as a story line.

Good luck and have fun

BTW. I have over 14TB of video backed up so as you can see I do loose a lot of my time editing and taking videos and photos.

I am still waiting for that special shot or video!!!

[noel di pietro]

Here is an example of a very good video about nothing, just some riding!
Makes you really wanna buy an Africa Twin

Ultimate Africa Twin Video Honda XRV 750 - YouTube

Fortunately I already have one
Cheers,
Noel

[RoadTrekker]

Originally Posted by noel di pietro

Here is an example of a very good video about nothing, just some riding!
Makes you really wanna buy an Africa Twin

Ultimate Africa Twin Video Honda XRV 750 - YouTube

Fortunately I already have one
Cheers,
Noel

Actually you are wrong the film does have a well produced plot. There is a lot of use of cut aways, multiple camera angles and good editing but at the same time avoiding long boring looking down the road views. The intro was well edited using sections of the bike. The main point here is the guy has avoided the deadly view down the road although personally I never like to use photographs in a video they end up loosing the flow of the video and the quality is different as well.

Its only a personal view and everyone to there own, lets just try to experiment more thats all.

[Gipper]

Anyone get any other recommendations for video editing software based on actually having used it.

I am using a Windows PC. Im at the point where I don't mind spending some cash for something decent, maybe $100-200.

thanks in advance