how to make a good film out of your trips

[mamboman75]

Originally Posted by backofbeyond

Having just come back from a month long trip on an classic bike where film and stills were high on my agenda, let me tell you how it went: badly is the one word summary.

Reflecting on it, a few reasons come to mind. Firstly I was travelling with someone else (on an identical bike as it happens), and recording stuff wasn't as high on their priority list as it was on mine. So inevitably that led to stuff I wanted to do being skipped.

Secondly, it's hard to ride and film at the same time if you're riding solo. I had two GoPros mounted on the bike and even with a remote to control them it's an awkward process. So road safety (inevitably) comes first and often opportunities were missed or took second place to survival. Going back to reride the same stretch of road but this time with the camera turned on mostly fell foul of point one.

Thirdly, equipment reliability. One of my GoPros developed a fault during the trip. It would record video fine when it was hand held and off the bike but with the engine running - ie on the road - it came up with an error message time and time again. Stills were recorded ok but not video. My guess was that it was the high frequency vibration from the engine at the root of it but there was not much to be done on the road other than try to work round it.

Fourthly - time schedules, even unofficial ones ('we ought to make it to X today') play havoc with trying to record your progress. If producing video was a major priority I could see 100 miles a day being about as much as you could accomplish. If you have a limited amount of time for the trip then making progress vs recording progress becomes a serious issue.

And all that is without working out why you're doing - having a 'game plan' and an end goal for the footage. The more I try to do this the more admiration I have for people who seem to do it well. I've yet to go through my raw footage and maybe the secret is all in the editing. I'll see over the next few weeks when I look through it all. Perhaps 'if you can't make it, fake it' is the approach to take. It is make-believe after all.

All good and valid points above! I went through several go pros (and other brands proved even less reliable). Riding with another rider who isnt into recording everything is always gonna be a problem. I think at the beginning of your trip you should decide: what is more important to you as the rider, having a smooth, fun ride, or stopping and documenting everything as you go, which adds enormously to the time spent getting to your destination. AND, remember you will also add even more time, multiplied by a factor of up to ten times, editing after your trip ends.
Ive watched quite a few "how to be a successful YouTuber" videos and the consensus seems to be the easy days of launching a channel and going viral have long gone, and in fact you'd be lucky to get real traction until you have posted at least 100 episodes, have 4000 hours of watchtime and 1000 subscribers. They set the bar high.
Some people, like myself, enjoy the doing it the long way. But not everyone does (or have the time to do so). You know some of the more famous YouTubers have editing teams doing the hard years for them... they just upload raw footage and let the pros do the editing. Fine if you can afford their services, but I would not like that way, firstly because its expensive and secondly you lose creative control and whatever they produce will be different to what you envisaged.
I would be hesitant about "faking it" - these days people can see through fakery pretty quick and you might lose a bit of credibility if it becomes too obvious. Maybe "fake it", but only as part of a self-deprecatory joke. Ed March is the master of that technique.
One other tip: dont rely on helmet cam footage alone, have a handycam with a decent zoom in your tank bag. You can capture things far away from the roadside without getting off your bike, which saves quite a bit of time.