My first attempt at editing a film of a unicycle ride. Lots went wrong, including the wheel getting so clogged up with clay that it wouldn’t turn, and the camera battery giving out before I’d filmed everything I wanted to. I arrived home filthy.
I enjoyed watching that. It’s fascinating to me how much different our typical unicycle rides might be, the different terrain, surfaces etc in different places, even though when we talk about it we tend to assume we’re all doing pretty much the same thing.
And having thought about making a video or two like this at times, and not having a handy sidekick who could be pressed into assisting, it seemed like I’d mainly be dismounting and remounting, walking back and forth, resetting the tripod, trying to guess where to aim the camera, etc. The actual experience would be quite a bit different from the relaxed, casual ride I’d want the final edit to portray. I had a sense that you were up to a lot of that when the camera wasn’t running too. 
Those spam 'bots are getting more clever. Scary.
Fun video that is! All shot by yourself?
The amount of sticky mud is insane!
I don’t understand your comment about the “spam bots”. 
Yes, I shot it all myself using a cheap camera and a lightweight tripod - sometimes using the tripod as a selfie stick. Not the most exciting film compared to KH doing north shore, but an interesting exercise for me.
Nice video! Filming by yourself is quite the exercise, eh? I’ll leave a few comments here that I hope you’ll take as constructive criticism.
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I feel like a broken record, but this forum has sections, and there is one for videos, so use that, please. The structure this forum provides is great, it keeps it from being a cluttered mess like the unicycle chat facebook group.
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To keep people watching and make the video “round” it needs continuity of sorts. The easiest way to achieve this is (suitable!) music, I enjoy videos that keep the original sound too, but they are harder to edit. You did very well in the first part, but after the shot of the muddy tire (pretty interesting issue btw) it felt very random.
A clear intro and ending is always good too. I feel like you missed some opportunities on the intro, you could have had something like the trunk opening and you taking the uni out as an intro, with the battery running out you couldn’t do much for the ending obviously. -
Maybe you were restricted by the camera you had available, but anything narrower than 16:9 is outdated.
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This one is on your unicycling: You seem to twist a lot. Tighten up that core, you are wasting energy. Maybe that’s something that will come with time, but just try and be more stable.
There was a comment just above mine (deleted since) that was clearly from a robot - with a link to their website selling god knows what rubbish.
The video appears to show you doing a loop around a familiar environment. Did you film it chronologically?
Thank you for your advice. After 15 years as a regular in the forum and well over 6,500 posts, this was my first attempt at a video and I put it on the wrong page. My wrist is well and truly slapped.
At 54 years old, in my 30th year of riding, I am unlikely to make major changes to my riding style. I’m good for 20 miles without a dismount, but if I’m wasting energy as you suggest, that’s good for keeping my weight down.
Pretty much. I have a cheap old camera that has a very basic movie facility. I recorded the sections separately then trimmed and linked them. The film would have been better if the battery had lasted longer as I would have used more, but shorter, clips, and it would have shown the whole ride.
I didn’t mind it being here, I rarely venture off the main section of the forum and wouldn’t have seen it otherwise. Also, the forum is not so busy at the moment (is everyone gone to FaceBok?), so it brings new posts.
The editor in me wandered if you filmed both directions at each spot, or if you actually went chronological and set the camera twice as you were coming back to the same locations. Thanks!
There are only two parts of the film that are me riding at exactly the same spot. I cheated and filmed myself riding out from and back to the camera when I was on the tarmac section. I then included the “back” bit towards the end of the film. Other than that, each shot is of me riding at a different place, although it is not the most exciting location, it’s the best I have locally now that I live on the border of Lincolnshire and Notts.
For each section, I either set up the camera and rode away from it, then collected the camera afterwards, or I went ahead, set up the camera, then rode towards it. I have not re-ridden any section to get a better shot the second time.
I know it was someone else who mentioned it, not you, but there are three reasons why I didn’t put a music backing:
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I ride in the countryside partly to enjoy the environment: the laughter of magpies, the chuckling of the green woodpecker, the cries of the gulls,the songs of the birds in the hedgerows, the whoosh of the windmills’ sails, the distant sound of kids on trailbikes. It’s all part of the riding experience. Why obscure that with a backing track? If anyone prefers music, they can turn the sound off and play their own music!
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My taste in music is not very mainstream. 1950s rockabilly, Motörhead, English folk music.
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About 50% of the non-racist, non-sexist, non-political comments under any YouTube video are criticism of the choice of music.
Well now that you record yourself, I’ve also finally managed to record me. Though my ride isn’t as fancy as yours through the mud. I just rode on the cycle path and I could finally test out the selfie stick, which I bought a few months ago.
But there’s loads of mud off to the side… go on… you know you want to. 
Sure I ride there too, but didn’t want to while filming. Then I would look very very focused and serious.
And that would never do.
Greatly enjoyed the video Mikefule. Thanks.
lol, I guess most, if not all, will disagree with me, but when I hear a lot of music while watching these unicycling videos, I mute the sound. Maybe it’s my age, but music blasting from the speakers isn’t what I’m interested in. However, I generally do like the nature sounds or if the rider is explaining what is going on.
Music or no music really depends on what you are trying to achieve. Music just thrown in the background usually is terrible, but when the music matches the cuts and riding, it’s often very beautiful.
Making videos is an art, but many people don’t seem to realize that if the riding is good, that doesn’t make it a good video. Good perspectives, good lighting etc. are important to make a video good. I am far from a master of videography, but I think by just looking at videos others made from a videography point of view can teach you a lot.
I usually have some sort of goal when I make a video, sometimes showing a technique, sometimes capturing the feeling of an event, making people go for a ride, or just making a video that is nice to look at and that people enjoy. That takes a lot more work than just taking my camera and selfie filming myself (Although it has proven to be quite an interesting challenge for me to ride difficult sections while keeping the image stable and myself in the frame) and uploading it to youtube.
The last video I made was 90 minutes of captured video (so 3 hours of filming or so) and probably somewhere close to 3 hours of editing. I could have easily thrown the clips together in 30 minutes and put music under it, but I think the extra 2,5 hours made it into a video people enjoy watching, and I heard it made people want to go for a ride, which was my goal. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EBTwBn9Tuk&t=1s )
I regret having posted my video 
It’s horrible, but it shows peeps I deal with in life what I love doing in my spare time - not video editing though. I did download a crack for Windows Movie Editor, so I could cut some boring stuff out and rotate everything. My first edited vid actually.
How to
I want to record and edit. I love watching everyone’s videos. I do appreciate the “artistic” touch when someone blends music and otherwise. I don’t have a clue where to get started I have several short clips on my cell and others cell phones. I want to take it to the next level. I want to post on you tube and here at unicyclist.com. I think this would be fun. I was thinking of a go pro ? Not sure where or how to get this going. Jeff c
It’s too bad more videographers don’t take advantage of the interesting sounds made by certain unicycle tricks, and instead prefer to blast us with shitty music. If I am going to watch unicycle videos, I normally turn off the sound. This is the only unicycle video I know of where somebody did a good job with the music.