help me explain by making video of trip

[martyboy]

If you want your video to tell a story of your trip, a bit of planning your clips will be needed, a video of just the road ahead shot from your helmet or bike will soon bore your audience. So lots of clips of the the scenery, villages and the bikes plus a bit of commentary or voice over, a few selfies to the camera at various points of interest all adds to the mix. Remember the audio, as it is essential to a good video, if your talking, get the cam in as close as you can, this helps isolate the voice from the background noise, better still get a tie-clip Mic and plug it into your cam (if you can). I use a gopro hero 3 to good effect, stick it on a monopod and it's good for walking around with, mostly people don't even notice you filming and the audio is not to bad with the open back housing (no mic input though) it can also be mounted just about anywhere you fancy from a tripod to a suction cup.

[brendanhall]

there are some really good video's on u tube!

The commentary is excellent too! and some of the are captioned.

also some of the overland travel blogs are well written!

boilsoft make some nice easy to use software too!

[g6snl]

I found what I needed to make it all fall into place windows movie maker ! It's perfect for me to get started. Now I think I can explain this adventure stuff to my friends.

Had a play with some video footage from a short trip to Croatia last year, there were lots of short clips as it was unplanned. But I can see, with careful thought of what to shoot it can tell a good story. Cant wait for next trip to try it out.

I can see lots of late nights with this.

you can have a laugh at my expense by viewing my first effort > www.timag.co.uk/vid/croatia.wmv

[g6snl]

Ok so far the stuff I have together consists of the following:

Bullet cam HD1080
Handy cam small cheap Panasonic HD1080
Telescopic stick thingy ( mono pod?)
Mini flexible tripod
String / big piece blue-tack / Gaffer tape.
mem cards - lots!
USB charging cable for cams - can charge off bike.

For when I get back:

PC with windows "movie maker"

All the stuff is quite inexpensive and I believe that is enough for a first effort, and hopefully the sound will be ok when required.

So am I missing anything?

[Arizona_Elwood]

Originally Posted by g6snl

Ok so far the stuff I have together consists of the following:

Bullet cam HD1080
Handy cam small cheap Panasonic HD1080
Telescopic stick thingy ( mono pod?)
Mini flexible tripod
String / big piece blue-tack / Gaffer tape.
mem cards - lots!
USB charging cable for cams - can charge off bike.

For when I get back:

PC with windows "movie maker"

All the stuff is quite inexpensive and I believe that is enough for a first effort, and hopefully the sound will be ok when required.

So am I missing anything?

Looks like you are off to a good start..

I would suggest though.. That if at all possible.. Use 2 cameras of the same type. Although both are 'HD' cameras.. the video from each will look different. Sure.. it will be a bit more trouble to stick another Panasonic cam to your helmet.. the end results will look more consistent..

A couple layers of cloth over the microphone on your helmet cam can help the wind noise problem you will have.. You will have to experiment with what type & how much.

Don't bother with doing 'voice over' commentary as you go.. Unless it is just for personal notes.. Even a bad microphone.. at home.. with a blanket over your head ( & the mic ) ( think of it as a sound tent ) will sound TONS better than voice over recorded with the cameras mic while on the road..

"B Roll" Need lots of B Roll. As discussed above.. Need video of road signs, panoramas of places you stop at.. Exteriors, interiors, traffic going by.. Anything that is of interest..

Even if your shots have just a second.. or even less of something interesting there will be times & places where you can cut & combine a lot of these little b roll snippets into something cool.

& finally.. be sure to post a youtube link so we can check out your trip!

[twowheels03]

Good audio is very important, wind noise is always a problem with any built in mic. Look at the Sony blue tooth Mic - It's very good. Or the ZOOM mini is ace for around £100. You do want plenty of face to camera stuff with clear audio. As mentioned, B roll is important - you need loads of it to string the better pieces together. Film every thing - If you don't film it, you can't use it !!

Two hard drives minimum as back up - WD fail but the Lacie rugged is good, The 1.5t work well.
Editing takes loads of time and effort, a day for a 10min clip, Final cut Pro for Mac is the industry standard and cheap now but takes time to learn and If you are on Windows it's not worth swapping to Mac unless you plan to make money from your output.

Look for different angles to shoot from, perspective can make a bland piece interesting, never pan or zoom but it's great to have something moving in the shot or through it.

The main point is - let me know when you upload your work, I'd like to see it.

Cheers

Paul