how to make a good film out of your trips

[omar mansour]

Hi all
i hope that is not a repeated topic !!
most of us like taken good photos ,making good films show it to friends seen it after many years and remember the good old days
OK so now what is your recommendations to make good film out of your trip
how to mount action camera ? cameras on the bike ?
what is the good hints and tricks to make stunning film with your footage ?
for example my self i have 2 action camera ( drift with remote control ) that i usually wear it on helmet and an old go pro without any remote controls i usually mount it on front of the bike
so i always have almost same footage .....
any other places to mount the other the go pro and still can be able to witch it of and on while im riding ??
what is the best easy software to do editing for videos ??
thanks a lot and waiting for your feed back

[haggis]

Everyone these days has some sort of action camera. Millions of hours of on board stuff which might mean a lot to the person riding but can be rather boring when stuck together as 4 min piece with rock music or similar.

The problem is, we are all subjected to 2 second scenes on TV and film and audience bores quickly. Trying to make it interesting can be hard. However if there is a story then it becomes a lot easier. A story is what people want to see, even if the video is crap or the sound not so good, the story is the force behind it all.

If you can edit into a story with beginning, middle and end you will have acheived something interesting. Even if its just for yourself.

I have hours and hours of video from past 10 years, most is not really usable as I can't fit it into some form of story.

The edit does take a long long time unless you are lucky enough to have great footage in a nice logical sequence. Dont want to scare you but allow one hours work for 1 minute output. Thats how long it generally takes me.

I have 1TB of video from recent trip, it will take me 2 weeks just to sift through this lot, let alone put something together. Time consuming but rewarding in the end .... I hope

If you are looking for different camera angles and scenes etc, just watch TV and picture yourself behind camera, you can appreciate the amount of work that goes into even the most dull TV show.

As for editing, I use Sony Vegas, most professionals use Final Cut pro. There are several others out there but are all fairly similar. Even the very basic windows video maker thing can do.

I'm no expert but I've been editing for few years, not all great, but passable. I'm lot faster now and have learned a lot.

Good luck!

[Lonerider]

I know you said old Go-pro, but how old? Go-pro do their own editing software
http://shop.gopro.com/softwareandapp, I use it. But I think it can only be used on the Hero versions. You can do a lot with it but it took me some time to get used to it. There are some videos I edited using the software on my Thailand/Laos Ride report
Go-Pro also do an app for your phone to make your Go-pro remote controlled, again it is for the later versions

I would have thought that Drift would do there own editing software although I have not looked

As for mountings for the cameras, just experiment with different areas, Body harness, handlebar mount, mount to the side of the bike.

Wayne

[Blommetje]

I have a actioncam and recorded a lot in Italy when kayaking and canyoning.

The downside of my camera is, the shakyness. Most of the footage is not really watchable. It's shakes luke crazy. Specially when mountainbiking.

After this I make sure to record some things I like but also a lot of useless shit. Like boarding the plane, leaving the country, and of course the shit of you yourself riding towards the horizon. (Don't forget to go back and pick it up). It also feels lame, but place the camera in the fridge and grab a . Record yourself waking up. Making coffee (place it in a cupboard). All the shots from the helmet are nice , but it is crappy editing. The shots of daily life (pitching a tent, taking a shower). Make the video watchable.

I use Adobe premiere. A beast of program but I also "downloaded" a lynda.com tutorial about how to use it. This helps a lot! I did do this in the bosses time.. making it even more fun

But all the hours from Italy... the first video was 12 minutes and boring as hell. So the edit a major vacation in 2 minutes... is very very difficult.

Post the result though, curious!

Alex

[backofbeyond]

Originally Posted by omar mansour

what is the good hints and tricks to make stunning film with your footage ?

As others have said take a close look at how the professionals do it - Top Gear for example, or even Henry Cole's Greatest Motorcycle Journeys stuff. The first thing you'll notice is that the filming is everything. It's not a car / bike trip with a bit of filming done whenever is convenient, it's a film shoot done on the road.

You'll need to think about how you want to portray the journey in advance, come up with a story, a purpose, complete with highlights, low points, stress, conflict and (hopefully) eventual success. That'll mean filming in hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, at 3.00am, in pouring rain / sandstorms / breakdowns / when the police stop you etc. Only filming during the good times does, by and large, dull viewing make. If you're travelling with someone who doesn't share your vision or enthusiasm it can make for difficult times (a circle I'm trying to square over an upcoming trip at the moment)

Then give the footage to someone else to edit - because they won't have the same attachment to the footage you got round those wonderful bends just as the sun was setting. They might use some of the GoPro stuff you shot when the camera was attached to the spokes and which you thought was really arty but more likely they won't have the faintest idea what it's all about and dump it. If you really have to edit it all yourself you must have your original story in mind all the time and edit to illustrate that.

Good luck with it. I've blown hot and cold over how much filming effort to put in on trips over the last ten or fifteen years and not all of my efforts have been worth viewing. A couple of them still have the raw footage awaiting a start to any editing as I know how effort it be to get something decent out of it. To do these things well probably takes more input and thought than the trip itself.

[omar mansour]

Hello Steven
thanks for the reply
yes you are right ,,, i have morethan 10000 hours of filming from my previous trips ,but most of them look the same (at least to me ) most of them from helmet angel and yes it is boring ,
i will try to be more better and make a story and try to film it ,
will be happy to see some of your movies
cheers

[omar mansour]

hello Wayne , i have the old go pro i think hero only it is not close to me right not but i got it for at least 5 years now and to be honest i find it useless without any remote control ,and im sure it is not the one you can work it with the App perhaps it is time to get a new one ,but the tight budget is always a problem ,hahahaha
thanks mate

Originally Posted by Lonerider

I know you said old Go-pro, but how old? Go-pro do their own editing software
http://shop.gopro.com/softwareandapp, I use it. But I think it can only be used on the Hero versions. You can do a lot with it but it took me some time to get used to it. There are some videos I edited using the software on my Thailand/Laos Ride report
Go-Pro also do an app for your phone to make your Go-pro remote controlled, again it is for the later versions

I would have thought that Drift would do there own editing software although I have not looked

As for mountings for the cameras, just experiment with different areas, Body harness, handlebar mount, mount to the side of the bike.

Wayne

[omar mansour]

Hello Alex , thanks mate
would like to see your videos please

Originally Posted by Blommetje

I have a actioncam and recorded a lot in Italy when kayaking and canyoning.

The downside of my camera is, the shakyness. Most of the footage is not really watchable. It's shakes luke crazy. Specially when mountainbiking.

After this I make sure to record some things I like but also a lot of useless shit. Like boarding the plane, leaving the country, and of course the shit of you yourself riding towards the horizon. (Don't forget to go back and pick it up). It also feels lame, but place the camera in the fridge and grab a . Record yourself waking up. Making coffee (place it in a cupboard). All the shots from the helmet are nice , but it is crappy editing. The shots of daily life (pitching a tent, taking a shower). Make the video watchable.

I use Adobe premiere. A beast of program but I also "downloaded" a lynda.com tutorial about how to use it. This helps a lot! I did do this in the bosses time.. making it even more fun

But all the hours from Italy... the first video was 12 minutes and boring as hell. So the edit a major vacation in 2 minutes... is very very difficult.

Post the result though, curious!

Alex

[Blommetje]

Video's are not online so that's a bit difficult. Also, there not as cool as I hoped them to be. I do! Have a video online here; made with a friend of mine. I like it:
https://youtu.be/mXPoZWyHkEY

Also, I check the videos from some.of the sport events I do:
https://youtu.be/-NrP8Z5MiNI

There is endless footage out there to see what's cool.

On the other side... 10.000 hours is beyond handling in my opinion. Just shoot good, short footage. Don't record by simply turning in it on the morning and off when your to bed. Useless!

Alex

[g6snl]

Originally Posted by haggis

The problem is, we are all subjected to 2 second scenes on TV and film and audience bores quickly. Trying to make it interesting can be hard. However if there is a story then it becomes a lot easier. A story is what people want to see, even if the video is crap or the sound not so good, the story is the force behind it all.

If you can edit into a story with beginning, middle and end you will have acheived something interesting. Even if its just for yourself.

This to my mind is the most important thing if you want to subject others to your video. I spent hours and hours editing things only to be disappointed. Until I tried the above.

The motorcycle on the road stuff is hard to make interesting at the best of times, if that's all you film best keep it "offline"

I do it simply for personal consumption and to show friends what options there are available other than hotel/beach holidays. I am pleased to report I have converted a number of friends

I worked with two cheap HD cams and basic windows editing software and have been surprised at the quality of the results, even for a total beginner like me. I had never owned a video cam before and took off for a months trip and filmed loads. I think I had 80hrs and got 25mins of film edited down.

That first attempt taught me so much. Next time I will have a much better idea of what is required to make it more interesting.

Just go do some filming / edit it / learn from it. Do it again and so on....

[PaulD]

This is a film that I made for our Cairo to Cape Town trip.
Have a look and let me know what you think ???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7lnlhFyMYg

Cheers
Paul

[Ride Far]

Originally Posted by PaulD

This is a film that I made for our Cairo to Cape Town trip.
Have a look and let me know what you think ???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7lnlhFyMYg

Cheers
Paul

Paul that is absolutely fantastic... wow, awesome job!

What video editing software did you use? I'm a newb to video editing but am looking to put together some vids of upcoming Africa travels.

My only suggested improvement to your video would be to add place names... for instance, I was wondering the names of some of the towns where you got great footage of local celebrations and people... would like to visit those places myself!

[PaulD]

I used FCP X & Motion, I take on board of what you said....but I have a series of other films I made on individual countries that I have made or in the process of completing which are alot more in depth re: places & cultures etc.
That film I posted was more of a long trailer.
The festival was the Camel Derby in Maralal in Nth West Kenya (Lake Turkana area) The Bull jumping ceremony we just stumbled accross that in the Omo Valley.
Glad your enjoyed the film.
My wife & I are about to ride up the Cape Town to Spain now & we plan to film as well.

Cheers
Paul

[g6snl]

Paul I loved the Nepal film. So much so I'm going there in a few weeks hiring a bullet and doing it with the wife!


regards Tim sent by tapatalk

[ta-rider]

Great Video. True. But even if you only hve photos and no special effects just tell your friends about your trip and then record it to get a film of it. Specially in countrys like Germany your not allowed to use music from other people in your video

https://youtu.be/WkClxaL0Qn4