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Extreme Suckage

J

Monkey
Dec 7, 2003
437
0
San Luis Obispo, CA
Since you asked...

It's got some pretty decent riding but very crappy footage. Try standing closer to the trail/rider and not using the zoom as much. The best shots are made by placing the camera near the best part of the section of trail and leaving the zoom completely out while the rider passes this spot. Of course, you can always zoom in on the rider before they get to the spot and zoom out as they approach and then in while they ride away. Watching long, distant, jittery shots makes anything look lame, including your riding.

The editing sucks too, but it looks like a first try which means its not bad at all. Add some color correction and contrast and tone down the gamma. I also try to edit more to the song, meaning cutting clips on pronounced beats or, in your intro for example, when each title appears. Also try to line up sick shots with oppositely paced music. That is, if you have fast paced song that has a small slow paced section, line up some sweet slow motion shots with that slow part of the song. Sometimes slow mo goes well with fast paced tracks as well. A last word of advice is to try not to show a shot longer then 3 seconds, since by nature viewers get bored very quick. This rule can be broken if your film is a film noir piece (emo, non-biking films) thats trying to make a point. This same idea, however, can be used to make a point in your biking film too. (i.e. You want to show that a race takes a lot of careful prep by the rider, so you show one lengthy (lasting more than 3 seconds), sped up shot of a rider getting gear on). Even that example could get boring, so, if you desire, you could add a timed motion scale which will gradually and uniformly zooms in on the shot, and therefore also adding more emphasis.
:lighten:

Oh, and I almost forgot. NEVER speed up riding footage in a biking film. I didn't see a spot that you did, but I just like to remind people. The whole point is to show how fast riders can ride, not how the editor can do one lousy trick.

Your movie looks pretty alright, I just found myself bored really quick.
 
thanks for the advice man, i will have a bunch of stuff to work with in the future and will definitley take that to heart!

the only thing is that with the time we had availible to shoot most of the footage was very limited and we dont have a tripod, etc....
the footage of northstar was shot very quick by my uncle who was also amping to ride the trail, and there is a long story behind why we were rushed... TotalHeckler knows :busted:

i will definitley have many changes in my next video, but this one was just a compilation of our riding, not a special production by any means... "just messing around"
thanks though!
 

J

Monkey
Dec 7, 2003
437
0
San Luis Obispo, CA
thanks for the advice man, i will have a bunch of stuff to work with in the future and will definitley take that to heart!

the only thing is that with the time we had availible to shoot most of the footage was very limited and we dont have a tripod, etc....
the footage of northstar was shot very quick by my uncle who was also amping to ride the trail, and there is a long story behind why we were rushed... TotalHeckler knows :busted:

i will definitley have many changes in my next video, but this one was just a compilation of our riding, not a special production by any means... "just messing around"
thanks though!
I'm glad you took it to heart and I also realize this was just thrown together and by no means a professional vid. I bet its a sweet compilation to watch with your riding buddies though!

I understand how much it sucks to stop riding and start filming, thats my main problem. It's also a pain to carry video equipment without worrying about falling on it. :monkeydance:
 

PatBranch

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2004
10,451
9
wine country
Since you asked...

It's got some pretty decent riding but very crappy footage. Try standing closer to the trail/rider and not using the zoom as much. The best shots are made by placing the camera near the best part of the section of trail and leaving the zoom completely out while the rider passes this spot. Of course, you can always zoom in on the rider before they get to the spot and zoom out as they approach and then in while they ride away. Watching long, distant, jittery shots makes anything look lame, including your riding.

The editing sucks too, but it looks like a first try which means its not bad at all. Add some color correction and contrast and tone down the gamma. I also try to edit more to the song, meaning cutting clips on pronounced beats or, in your intro for example, when each title appears. Also try to line up sick shots with oppositely paced music. That is, if you have fast paced song that has a small slow paced section, line up some sweet slow motion shots with that slow part of the song. Sometimes slow mo goes well with fast paced tracks as well. A last word of advice is to try not to show a shot longer then 3 seconds, since by nature viewers get bored very quick. This rule can be broken if your film is a film noir piece (emo, non-biking films) thats trying to make a point. This same idea, however, can be used to make a point in your biking film too. (i.e. You want to show that a race takes a lot of careful prep by the rider, so you show one lengthy (lasting more than 3 seconds), sped up shot of a rider getting gear on). Even that example could get boring, so, if you desire, you could add a timed motion scale which will gradually and uniformly zooms in on the shot, and therefore also adding more emphasis.
:lighten:

Oh, and I almost forgot. NEVER speed up riding footage in a biking film. I didn't see a spot that you did, but I just like to remind people. The whole point is to show how fast riders can ride, not how the editor can do one lousy trick.

Your movie looks pretty alright, I just found myself bored really quick.
Shots can be much longer than 3s if they are dynamic and there's stuff happening or from far back with a tripod. In the collective for example, they have some really long shots. Especially with their use of zip lines. :D
 
^^totally, if a shot is dynamic or if there is alot happening throughout that whole shot i.e. the Isle of Skye(sickest) section in Earthed 5... if one can get a setup such as that and can broadside most of the trail(which i guess is also what a zip line does) from one spot, yeah, i guess one can put in a few considerably long shots, but personally, i think editing in the appropriate trail section to go along with the shot but right in the middle of a shot would be a nice touch...
idk if thats confusing, but just think of having a long broadside shot of a trail and then when the rider gets to a certain sick point in the trail, edit in a quick clip of the rider hitting that section but from a very close up angle... anyone follow me?

i'm just throwing that out because i think it might be a good idea to try in our next video because that vid may have some shots of a secret-ish spot that is pretty much bare everywhere (wildfire stricken)

tips?
 

J

Monkey
Dec 7, 2003
437
0
San Luis Obispo, CA
^^totally, if a shot is dynamic or if there is alot happening throughout that whole shot i.e. the Isle of Skye(sickest) section in Earthed 5... if one can get a setup such as that and can broadside most of the trail(which i guess is also what a zip line does) from one spot, yeah, i guess one can put in a few considerably long shots, but personally, i think editing in the appropriate trail section to go along with the shot but right in the middle of a shot would be a nice touch...
idk if thats confusing, but just think of having a long broadside shot of a trail and then when the rider gets to a certain sick point in the trail, edit in a quick clip of the rider hitting that section but from a very close up angle... anyone follow me?

i'm just throwing that out because i think it might be a good idea to try in our next video because that vid may have some shots of a secret-ish spot that is pretty much bare everywhere (wildfire stricken)

tips?
I think thats a great idea, makes it more interesting.
A tip- A rule (I think its called the 180 degree rule) when trying to connect shots with a common action is to never film from the completely opposite side of the action (or rider). Otherwise the viewer will get confused on how the actions link up. With your example, if filming from the rider's left broadside, cutting to a front or rear view close up of the sick spot would have continuity- and any shot 180 degrees between those two front and rear shots and shot from that same left side would still make sense.

... if that made any sense at all?

I use Premiere Pro but would use Final Cut if I had a Mac. I used Final Cut back in high school and liked it with a two button mouse a lot better the Premiere Pro.

About the 3 second rule, I agree with all of you. I guess I was more thinking about those random artsy movies I had to make in film class where you had to make something thats ordinarily boring/simple into something wacky. I realized that even in that bike movie I'm editing right now I have way long helmet cam footage that, for me at least, doesn't get boring. Zip lines are just baller status so you can do whatever the hell you want with those shots and they're always be interesting.:shocked:
 

bikenweed

Turbo Monkey
Oct 21, 2004
2,432
0
Los Osos
Mountain bikers really don't care much about watching each other's riding videos. Pretty lame, but also understandable since it's hard to make a high-quality MTB vid. BMXers, however, love to watch each others' vids, and put tons of effort into filming and editing. Skateboarders are the same way. It's an issue of accessibility; when you're driving to a lot of spots, and not riding long distances into the woods, it's much easier to get good footage.

Post a vimeo or youtube link if you don't have your own website to stream the vid from. Some of us don't have 50MB of harddrive space to spare for downloading a random vid. It's much easier to watch things that are streamed.

Tripods are cheap and easy to carry with you. I got one for $30 that I used for this vid. I just bought a fancy fluid-head tripod the other day, but the cheapo version that I can ride with strapped on my CamelBak is a heck of a lot better than no tripod at all. You can totally afford $30.

Keep it up, practice your techniques, apply the rules from still photography to your filming, and you'll be whipping out badass edits in no time. You guys have a lot of energy and enthusiasm, the two most important traits of any good producer.
 

J

Monkey
Dec 7, 2003
437
0
San Luis Obispo, CA
Whoa Josef, where'd ya learn all that jazz? You could probably teach me a thing or two.
I took two years of Video in high school and then a 3rd year in broadcast journalism for our school's "News" show. During that I did a few independent projects with my teacher as well.

Also helped film and edit a little bit of HubTV Episode 1 when it started up. I edited Taylor Calvert's section and was one of the camera men for Andrew Taylor's section. You can see the segments at this link. It's all about B-roll! Check out the other segments and episodes too if you got time.
http://hubtv.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=40

Sick film of ripper Dan's truck by the way! The bed shot is very well done with the arm from the bike rack adding angles.
 
haha, yeah, thanks for the info guys!!!

i'll try to get the vid up somewhere where its streaming... i may have to myspace it because its too long for youtube or photobucket.. i'll look into it and definitley do it next time if anyones interested...

and yeah, i understand exactly why other mtb-ers arent exactly amped to watch others videos because they may, tou know, kinda be dying to ride sick spots such as spots that may be in others vids... yeah, i totally get it.

and i use I-Movie HD as my editing software... schools computers!!! if i had 1700 bucks, it would be going straight into my bike and my cameras!!!!
 

TGR

Monkey
Jan 9, 2006
263
3
just finished watching it...
pretty nice job, northstar looks like an amazing place to ride (I hope I can make it down to b.c and california this summer with a friend...)
 

J

Monkey
Dec 7, 2003
437
0
San Luis Obispo, CA
and i use I-Movie HD as my editing software... schools computers!!! if i had 1700 bucks, it would be going straight into my bike and my cameras!!!!
It's all about getting a loaned student version from school! My video prod. teacher let us edit at home with school issued copies of Premiere 6.5 when it used to be the latest.