I decided to do a bit of research for some video editing tips particularly for unicycling (I know there would be no results for unicycling so I searched BMX because that is way more popular and similar to unicycling).
I came across a video that someone posted on a Video Editing Forum and it was of his BMX video and he wanted advice from expert Media Artists (?) Some very good tips and advice was posted. I have copied it below and supplied a link to the thread. (Oh and if you are going to watch the video only watch a few minutes because it is 20 mins+ long!)
http://www.videoforums.co.uk/user-videos/21650-bmx-video.html
[B]
Here are the main points but further down is all in detail:
-The video needs to tell a story, not just a bunch of clips put together, this will cause the viewer to “switch off” (lose interest)
-Don’t have repetitions where same clip and angles are repeated
-Choice of music (read in the detailed description below)
-Try and make a steady and well composed filming shot
-It’s good to have enough “before” and “after” each trick left in the clip.
Original Post-[/B]
I filmed over a course of 5 months for this video from the day i got my sony hdr-sr5e camcorder. tried different techniques lighting situations and edited it in sony vegas, which I did not like one bit.
Hope you can give me some feedback and critisism, especially on the filming.
Even if you are not into BMX, just general edit and filming critisism would be good.
apologise for the quality I did not have enough hard drive space to save it to HD so I had to compress to a small mp4.
The next post (feedback):
Apart from the that this is way too long for anyone (except those directly involved and possibly other BMXers) to watch all the way through, I thought it was a cut above yer average BMX video.
Dislikes:
No narrative - it doesn’t go anywhere, tell a story, inform. It’s just a collection of clips. This will also make it long and people switch off. Once it becomes obvious it’s not going anywhere people aren’t going to bother watching to the end because there’s no “payoff”.
There are lots and lots and lots and lots of repetitions (the same trick performed over and over again, shot from the same angle) Whilst you have mixed the shots up pretty well so this isn’t as terrible as it might have been, short term visual memory is pretty good and I kept thinking “Haven’t I seen that shot already?”
Likes:
Choice of music. The understated rock gave the film a much more relaxed feel than the more obvious high-energy elecro/rap/trance stuff we might expect. An unexpected diversion from the norm which, I thought, worked very well.
Camerawork: Many shots were very well composed. The camera was steady in the main. Those shot during (I guess) the early evening with the golden glow were particularly attractive to look at. There were some very nice tracking shots. I’m guessing these weren’t hand held - did you use a steadycam or mount the camera to a bike and wheel it as a makeshift dolly?
Editing: Whilst the length, repetition and lack of any sort of storyline have already been mentioned, I thought the actual clips you chose were pretty well edited. There was just enough “before” and “after” each trick left in each clip.
There were a few shots of the riders faces showing reactions. But there were NOT ENOUGH. If there’s one thing that makes a video watchable it’s seeing the people’s FACES, seeing reactions from indifference through to pain, grief, hilarity personalises a video. Only some people can really relate to the stunts being performed whereas we can ALL relate to feelings. Use them more.
Hope that helps.
BTW what did you hate so much about editing in Vegas? I’m guessing the pain was more to do with the fact you were trying to edit AVCHD than the actual workflow within Vegas, but I’d be interested if it was anything else.