Video Catch-all: Cameras, filming, editing, and more

There are a few of us that just recently got HD sports cameras (GoPros). Having always been into photography, I'm ignorant when it comes to video work. Hopefully we can tips and workflow here.

As a start to a worthwhile OP:

Non-linear Editors:
LightWorks - Freeware. I just found it but it has some decent credentials.

I too am much more comfortable with photography than video.

All I've really used is Windows Live Movie Maker. It isn't very sophisticated I'm sure, but it's free and does what little I need from it.

I want to find something with shake compensation, but I don't even know where to start beyond that.

I saw your comment in the other thread about setting up the chest harness, Liquid Mantis. Take a look at this article.

I've gotten fairly proficient with final cut pro at work for video editing, but at home I'm stuck with a copy of iMovie 08. It's pretty frustrating not being able to do what I want easily that I know would a simple task at work. I may just have to fork over the $300 for the new version of FCP for use at home.

fleabagmatt wrote:

Take a look at this article.

Thanks! I should see if I can cinch it down a bit more to help reduce vibration.

Excellent timing! My Panasonic HS900K just arrived from Amazon yesterday. I've been pondering what I would use to edit videos into some sort of coherent structure. I was considering going whole hog and purchasing a copy of Premiere via my University discount. It's still really expensive that way, though.

The Academic version of AVID Media Composer is $295, definitely worth it if you want to get into more professional tools. Final Cut Pro X is another option if you're be-Mac'd. It's more user friendly, though it lacks some vestigial options that are still necessary if you're going to be getting footage prepped for broadcast. But for web videos or low budget stuff it's pretty awesome. $299 for non-academics.

When my 5 year old was born I was given a "digital" camcorder that uses microcasettes for the film. (can you tell I know jack about cameras?) Since I've gotten tired of converting these casettes to files is there a cheap straight to digital camera anyone would like to recommend as a replacement? One I can just film with, plug into my PC and, voila, digital file ready for viewing.

It's hard to get simpler than a Flip.

Why did I think they'd stopped making those? Coulda' swore I'd read that somewhere a couple years ago.

Yeah, most cameras are tapeless now. LUMIX makes some awesome cameras in consumer and prosumer levels... one semi-popular action show I worked on used a LUMIX GH1 for all their action shots. Records digitally, you just hook it up to iPhoto or mount it in Windows and you can copy the files to your drive. Some cameras will upload directly to your YouTube account too... (I think Flip does.)

JohnnyBarnstorm wrote:

Yeah, most cameras are tapeless now. LUMIX makes some awesome cameras in consumer and prosumer levels... one semi-popular action show I worked on used a LUMIX GH1 for all their action shots.

Yeah, the Panasonic lumix series are the same system as my camera (micro 4/3) and have generally been praised for their video quality. On top of that, a number of the cameras in the G* series have been hacked to have improved throughput for video, and have done some stuff that pretty much beats RED cameras for quality in a number of cases from what I've been reading. (And certainly beats them in budget...)

The old version of iMovie was awesome for learning how to edit. When I was working with high school kids all I had to do was sit them down in front of it and show them the command for splitting clips at the playhead and they were off and running. The current version does some interesting things, but it's nowhere near as good for learning about editing itself.

JohnnyBarnstorm wrote:

The Academic version of AVID Media Composer is $295, definitely worth it if you want to get into more professional tools. Final Cut Pro X is another option if you're be-Mac'd. It's more user friendly, though it lacks some vestigial options that are still necessary if you're going to be getting footage prepped for broadcast. But for web videos or low budget stuff it's pretty awesome. $299 for non-academics.

Man, I remember when Final Cut Pro cost $1000. I was lucky enough to qualify for the academic price, which was around what the general retail price is now.

I edit video for a living, and Final Cut Pro has been my bread and butter for many years. But I can feel the industry shifting with the mess Apple has made with Final Cut X, and now many studios are going back to Avid Media Composer (which is what many of us learned nonlinear editing on) or switching to Adobe Premiere (which used to be mocked as the wedding videographer's software, but has come a LONG way).

But on the consumer/prosumer level, I wanted to mention two other products that came to mind.

I've never used it, but Avid now has an entry level product for PC and iPad called Avid Studio:
http://www.avid.com/us/products/avid...

I haven't used it for a long time, but lots of folks swear by Sony Vegas for PC, which has a variety of price points depending on which features you need:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/...

They both have free trials, so might be worth checking out if you're on PC.

chaosmos wrote:

I edit video for a living

Huzzah! This is what I was hoping for. I'm checking out Premiere right now and going through a Lynda.com tutorial on it.

Something else that I did even before I got my gopro is make one of these. It's just some bits of irrigation riser pipe, a couple fittings, a bolt and the tripod mount. Makes for some pretty neat camera angles. I'll try to put together a clip of my test shots with it when I get a chance. I started out with a single 3-foot piece of pipe, but then went back and bought two 2-foot lengths and a connector piece for more flexibility. I also used an old clamp on mountain bike grip as a handle.

My intent was to use it for skateboarding videos, but I found that using a 2-foot section of it worked really well for snorkelling too. It stabilized the camera pretty well and let me get a lot closer to the fish. I just wish that underwater footage had turned out better.

Boogle wrote:

Would the GoPro work well off a tripod for filming disc golf drives?
And also backpacking?

Boogle, the gopro works well on a tripod, or you can just use the square plate that it comes mounted on in the box (The one LM attached to his RC car) and set that on the ground or wherever you like. The problem you might run into is that the camera is a fisheye, it's great for viewing stuff close up, not so much in the distance. So if you set it up where you're throwing your discs you may not be able to see where they land in the distance much. But you could always shoot one drive from where you throw, then a second from near the basket (what are those things called in disc golf anyways?) and edit those together.

For backpacking what might work well is the timelapse setting. You can choose the interval between shots and it will shoot a photo every X seconds (I think 1/2 on up to 30 secs or so, I don't recall). Then you end up with a sped up version of your hike.

Something that I read to help conserve battery is to use the 1 button setting. Ordinarily you turn the camera on with the front face button, then use the top button to start/stop the camera. When you're not shooting the camera is still on, burning battery. In 1 button mode, if the camera is on it is recording. So only the single button press to turn on and record, plus when you stop it's powered down.

Oh, and a final comment: I picked up a little tripod at a dollar store that works well for the GoPro. It's maybe 6" tall and extends another couple inches. It's really light and is flimsy, but plenty stable enough for the little GoPro. Works great for the buck that I paid for it.

I use Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum. It's a cheapy version, quite easy to use and fine for basic editing. I use it on an old quad core PC with 3gb of RAM recognised by XP. Runs fine, but takes a while to render.

This isn't the most complex video I've edited, but I used Vegas to try and synchronise edits to the music. Was slightly off, but a good effort. The video is poor because I was filming TV with a camcorder.

So far, I've had great luck with Premier Elements.
I'd highly recommend it to novices.

What great timing on this thread! I've been getting back into video editing at home but have quickly outgrown Windows Movie Maker and haven't used Premiere Elements since ver4 (way too crash prone).

Re:the Flip, they don't make them any more. I think whatever is left in the retail channel is it.

I don't know why I never looked into it, but I noticed Premiere Elements has a free 30 day trial. I might just have to give that a shot. Final Cut Pro is great for work, but I don't think I need anything that advanced for my home videos. Heck, I would be okay with iMovie if it just gave me a real timeline to work with. Oh, how having a roll edit tool would make life simpler!

chaosmos wrote:

I haven't used it for a long time, but lots of folks swear by Sony Vegas for PC, which has a variety of price points depending on which features you need:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/...

They both have free trials, so might be worth checking out if you're on PC.

I'm a very casual editor, and have Sony Vegas Home Studio 9, which is to Vegas what Photoshop Elements is to Photoshop. I love it, and it fits my hobbyists needs perfectly. I only paid $40 for it 2 years ago, but not sure what it costs now.

I just started editing myself. I scored a complete Adobe CS 5.5 Suite through school, so I've been using Premier for the editing and After Effects to add some titles.

All pretty mickey mouse though, so I'll be hoping to pick up some tips here.

I've got quite a gig coming up this summer. Some friends of mine are training captains - they take people out on their boat and teach them boating skills (anchoring, navigation, piloting and the like). They want to do a series of short training videos and this summer the wife and I go out to Florida. We'll spend a week or so with them videoing and then I get to edit it all together into a series of shorts. They have a HD camcorder, which will be great for most of the shots. I'll bring my GoPro along and get some bow-wave shots and I'm thinking of renting a Canon 5D Mk II to take some long shots with (I already have a few lenses as I own the Mk I).

Once GoPro come out with their Wi-Fi back (now delayed from April until "Summer"), I'll be able to get much better setups from my Hero2. I hope.

Here're my two videos so far:

Laguna Seca: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gphqU...

Spring Mountain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDZU4...

The weird camera motion going under the bridges seems to be an artifact of Youtube's image stabilization. I'd like to learn how to do the job myself in After Effects, but it looks very complicated.

fleabagmatt wrote:
Boogle wrote:

Would the GoPro work well off a tripod for filming disc golf drives?
And also backpacking?

Boogle, the gopro works well on a tripod, or you can just use the square plate that it comes mounted on in the box (The one LM attached to his RC car) and set that on the ground or wherever you like. The problem you might run into is that the camera is a fisheye, it's great for viewing stuff close up, not so much in the distance. So if you set it up where you're throwing your discs you may not be able to see where they land in the distance much. But you could always shoot one drive from where you throw, then a second from near the basket (what are those things called in disc golf anyways?) and edit those together.

For backpacking what might work well is the timelapse setting. You can choose the interval between shots and it will shoot a photo every X seconds (I think 1/2 on up to 30 secs or so, I don't recall). Then you end up with a sped up version of your hike.

Something that I read to help conserve battery is to use the 1 button setting. Ordinarily you turn the camera on with the front face button, then use the top button to start/stop the camera. When you're not shooting the camera is still on, burning battery. In 1 button mode, if the camera is on it is recording. So only the single button press to turn on and record, plus when you stop it's powered down.

It is next on my big purchases list now. Only to work out moving expenses, etc first.

So many new camera owners out there, where are the videos?

I finally got around to putting together something from a bike ride with friends over Easter weekend. Two of us had new GoPros to play with and did some experimenting with them on the trail. Definitely learned some things so next time hopefully I'll get some better footage to work with.

I still need to work out export settings. I've seen some really nice quality HD videos on vimeo. I've followed a few tutorials online, but haven't had much luck. Not real happy with how this one looks.

https://vimeo.com/41751079

I couldn't figure out how to embed vimeo videos on here.

fleabagmatt wrote:

So many new camera owners out there, where are the videos?

Only one I've made so far, and I learned not to mount a GoPro on your belt.

OK so this is probably pretty off-topic from the other things being discussed here but it is video related and I hope some of the other knowledge might cross-pollinate. For a while now, I've wanted to start experimenting around with game video capture and live streaming stuff. There's no particular reason (would that I could become the next TotalBiscuit and make a very nice living from it but that's probably not going to happen) but getting into hobbyist video stuff has interested me for a while and I figure this is a way to faff about with stuff. My culmination for this experiment might be me live streaming my participation in Extra Life this year but one step at a time. I've quickly come to realise that figuring this stuff out is a deep, deep, dark rabbit hole.

What I'm trying to do as a starting point is capture game footage which I then render into something I can put on YouTube in 720p. Right now I capture stuff using Dxtory (FRAPS forces resolution and FPS to match capture which I hate, Dxtory doesn't) and compress it in VirtualDub. The results aren't as good quality as I want yet but that's just a matter of tweaking. My big problem though is a lot of the stuff I capture I am doing while playing online and using Ventrilo and I want to be able to exclude the Ventrilo audio from the captured footage. My audio setup is an Auzentech X-Fi Forte 7.1 sound card with a Razer Carcharias 3.5mm headset. My PC doesn't have speakers attached.

The card has a What U Hear mix mode that apparently can be used to exclude Ventrilo but Dxtory refuses to initiate recording when I tell it to capture from that. Several forums have recommended using a tool called Virtual Audio Cable which allows you to create well...virtual audio cables at the driver level which you can then connect to different sources in some voodoo way to make this work. The problem is that VAC is horrificly obtuse and comes with zero support from the author unless you pay for it and I'm not going to do that unless I know it works. Dxtory's author also barely speaks English and his forums aren't much help either. Every way I've tried to set this up either results in me hearing no game sound, no Ventrilo or my recordings having no sound at all. The other solution of course is to use a USB headset but nothing out there can touch the Carcharias' quality so I'm not willing to switch and being in a tiny apartment, using speakers on my PC is not an option at night if I want to have a girlfriend (and I do).

I feel like going into this void is starting to make my clinically insane but I am now determined to make this work if for nothing else than the personal triumph. Is there anyone out there with experience in this stuff (particularly VAC) that might be able to shed some light on what I'm doing wrong? I'm looking to avoid going further mad by trying to get help from the Dxtory guy and most of the VAC related forums I've read consist of people who just belittle those who don't immediately understand their cryptic explanations of the software. I feel like I'm right on the edge of making this work.

So I actually had a breakthrough last night and managed to hack things into functioning the way I wanted. It's probably not configured in the ideal way but it did what it was supposed to do. Now I've just got to figure out how to make the quality better. Going to try rendering the footage in a trial copy of Vegas instead of VirtualDub.

Whee! Another video edit. Mostly just messing about with some different techniques that didn't need to be in the video, but were fun to try and figure out.

http://vimeo.com/42377055

Still haven't figured out if vimeo videos can be embedded.

Buuump!

What happened to all the new gopro owners? I wanna see some vidjas!

I made a video from my trip to Belize back in January. If I can figure out how to embed a vimeo link I will add it later.

I downloaded a trial copy of Final Cut Pro X for this. It's definitely a big change from Version 7 that I use at work. It's just about unusable on my ancient iMac, though, I pretty much gave up trying to edit to the music. Playback was very choppy.

fleabagmatt wrote:

Buuump!

What happened to all the new gopro owners? I wanna see some vidjas!

I made a video from my trip to Belize back in January. If I can figure out how to embed a vimeo link I will add it later.

I downloaded a trial copy of Final Cut Pro X for this. It's definitely a big change from Version 7 that I use at work. It's just about unusable on my ancient iMac, though, I pretty much gave up trying to edit to the music. Playback was very choppy.

Make sure you select "Create Optimized Media" when you import your footage before you completely give up on your ancient iMac. Playing certain video formats natively is a real haul for older processors, but if you let it transcode to ProRes it goes a lot smoother. Sometimes.