I bought a GoPro hero 4 a couple of weeks ago and I’m looking for hints and tips on filming and editing.
I mainly want to film my kids playing and growing up.
I also bought a 5k Imac to edit the clips on so I’m also having to learn how to use that coming from windows.
At first I just took some random clips but soon realised that all they were were random clips and I couldn’t get anything good when I tried to put some clips together. I started watching other peoples and it became clear that you need clips that lead into each other such as filming from in front as she rides past and using this as the cutting point to filming from behind.
I havent spent much time trying to edit yet as im busy with other things but I have finally got a clip that feels like its heading in the right direction.
Bare in mind that she is only 4 and this took me about 10 minutes and was the only piece of music I had in itunes.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnMgbi-ZJFM&list=UUVV85qYsvQV1J9_hRvufsHA[/video]

I have bought a few mounts including, helmet, handlebar and a folding arm thing.

So any hints and tips or links to good resources.

Thanks

Andy

As a professional film maker, my tip is – keep it short as possible, and have some sort of a beginning middle and end. Record the event as though you were telling a story.

How short is short?

I think you’ve done well for your first video!

A short video clip should be around 60 seconds, according to research into our attention span on watching video clips. I try and choose a song, place markers on every 8 or 16 beats (4mins’ish) and cut my video into short clips then arrange them so they flow.

First thing, make sure you are getting the most out of your camera.
http://abekislevitz.com/understanding-video-in-the-hero4/

Different angles, different mounts, some people don’t like the same view on a whole video.

It really depends how much time you want to spend editing. A decent video editor like Final Cut Pro or Premiere may help in the long run, once you have learned how to use it.

Music is a personal choice, like Marmite, they love it or hate it. Color correction (use the american color as it returns a lot more tutorials) can also improve the video look quite a bit too.

Having said that these are not hard rules, I certainly do not follow them all.

Once you have a few videos/edits under your belt you’ll know what you want, what angles, which shots you want. 😉

I think all you need to know is summed up in the video How to Make a Sick Mountain Bike Edit

One thing I did notice was how much better changing to another clip looked when it coincides with the beat of the music.
Ill watch those videos later thanks.

The wife and I were having a discussion the other day about when video clips became know as edits. We came to the conclusion that it must be due to the kids nowadays having no clue what a video recorder is.

That abekislevitz web site has some really good information so thanks for that one.

The editing take way way longer than you realise. I put together a short edit for a lecture I went to, I probably had an hour of footage. The 2 mins film took all day to edit together and I never got the music right really.

IMO they are called edits as videos we used to take when my kids where young are just that, un-edited videos. As I posted above calling them an edit reflects the relative amount of work that goes into editing vs shooting the material !

I don’t mind the term edit. Certainly reflects the work gone into getting it from clips to an edited piece.

Short is a short as possible to keep your audience and still deliver your story. It’s a good place to start beginners in film making.

I.e a realtime helmet cam of Porcupine Rim doesn’t generally capture the feeling and emotion of riding the thing. In fact will mostly likely dull the spoon.

I have no intention of headcam filming myself going down trails. I can’t imagine watching anything more boring. There are some jumps locally that I want to try and piece something together on but I think having someone follow with the camera or riding infront with the camera pointing backwards make for more interesting footage. I’m also thinking of putting the camera above the jumps in a tree or in the bottom of the jump may be interesting. That’s my next project planned for when the weather drys up a bit.

Sounds good.

Try getting some candid shots away from the actual action. A few faces etc, something to perhaps attach the riding action too.

Sometimes what you cut-away too can enhance the main story – setting the scene etc.