What makes a Great unicycle video great? like camera angles ect…
wow. where to begin? im gonna make up a lesson on the spot here so other experienced videographers, feel free to pick me up on anything (if you can be stuffed reading through it all).
1. Riding. this is the most obvious factor as it is the subject of the video. even if you’re skill isnt the best you can still make it interesting by landing stuff cleanly and not hopping around everywhere. Creativity is also important (but i wouldnt say essential as others would disagree) as this will give people something different to watch as opposed to the stuff we see in most videos. Going big is definately good but this, as well as creativity, is quite dependant on your riding skill level so this would come with time and practice.
2. Filming. this is far more key to a good video than many think. most cameras will only have auto focus and aperature (exposure) but if you have a DSLR or a high end camcorder then its often good to do that manually. i wont go too much into that though because that is a massive field to learn.
to make it basic in order for many of you with cheaper cameras: keep you’re framing good (full shot (entire person and uni in frame) throughout a line) or mid to close up on the uni if you’re doing some tech stuff. thats up to your creativity. try to keep the sun out of shot or your iris will close right up (exposure will be low) and the subject will be just black. even just too much sky in the shot will throw the exposure so be careful with your framing. camera movement is also good but only if it is ‘smooth’. if the camera shakes everywhere, it looks aweful. so if you have a cameraman then get them to use a glidecam or something for tracking, fluid head tripod for panning/tilting or even use jibs or sliders but that shits expensive (and jibs (cranes) are big and annoying to carry to locations while riding). a cheap plastic tripod is still better than nothing. they can be good for static shots if you’re taking a long take or filming something far away with zoom. if you have none of this then you will need a cameraman and they need to be smooth as possible. if you dont have a cameraman then buy a cheap plastic head tripod (or a fluid head would be better if you can afford it).
Get lots of nice looking ambient or city shots. these will be very useful for the editing as you can easily put texts on them or just use them as nice establishing shots. maybe even do timelapses of them if that would work.
Film in HD if possible. 720p is good, 1080p is best but not important if the video is just for youtube/vimeo. interlaced (720i or 1080i) isnt as good but will still do the trick. just make sure you de-interlace in post (editing). thats quite a technical field but if you care to know more about progressive and interlaced frames then my mind knows too much about that crap so just ask. just dont underestimate how good a video can be when it has good resolution. i’ve probably forgotten a whole lot of stuff camera related so i’ll either start another super long ramble like this one in another post or someone else can bring it up for me if they notice something ive missed (or even got wrong, im still learning myself).
3. Edit. ESSENTIAL: pick good music that suits the riding and that most people will enjoy listening too. music can make or break a video so choose wisely. You will also want some decent editing software such as Final Cut Pro for Mac or Sony Vegas Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro for Windows (i use sony vegas and i know many other windows users also prefer vegas, but not all).
the editing stage has a lot of stages within itself. this is not so essential but its always good to know your technical specifications of your footage. is it NTSC (30 fps (frames per second)) or PAL (25 fps)? NTSC is used in north america. PAL is used in Europe and Australia. its some TV related frequency so dont stress over it too much, just make sure you edit at the correct frame rate. If you shot anything in slow-mo, it will be a factor of the video format e.g. PAL slow-mo could be 50p or 100p (50i = 25p when deinterlaced). If you mess up the frame rates then video could become choppy or jumpy. this is quite advanced though so dont stress over it if that all just went over your head.
Aspect ratio. is it 4:3 or 16:9? or even 1:1.85 but i doubt anyone will be shooting something that wide for a uni video (except for Nic Vevers haha).
Did you film in 720 or 1080? interlaced frames or progressive frames? (the first letter of each will appear after the frame rate e.g. 25p or 60i.
Editing is the most creative part of the process and can be the most fun when things really come together. Just try to make your texts look nice (if you use any) and not so tacky. this is probably one of my own weak spots. Dont use horrible transitions. in fact rarely use them. straight cuts are good. depending on the music, cross fades (or dissolves as others would call them) can work well. flashes can work but very rarely so be careful with them.
Grading (colouring) can be good but is not essential. it will just improve the colour of your video and make things looks much nicer.
Rendering. Dont just render into the first format that comes up. for vimeo/youtube, 720 is a good resolution. make sure you render in the same frame rate as you edited in (and hopefully shot) e.g. 25p or 30p. on Mac (im not a mac person so maybe someone else can suggest good formats) but i think quicktime is the most popular mac video format. on windows, either .wmv (which is the most efficient video file size) or .mp4 (most common HD format) will be good for rendering and essentially uploading.
fuck this is a long post! but hey, making quality videos is quite the artform and takes years and years for someone to get really good at it. im currently at film school so im still learning a lot of this myself but this is just a good basic outline of my own understanding on how to make a good video. but as ive been saying, i may be wrong in some areas ive written so everyone should feel free to correct me if i am.
all the best in your video making endeavours 
and i hope you managed to read this far without falling asleep 
For me, what makes a good video is not being repetitive.
Good video quality.
Wide range of camera angles, unless one specific camera angle suits the style of the video.
Tricks done cleanly.
If you have fun making the video, it usually shows and works great.
Basically just nothing too repetitve unless you know it works.
Thanks all of you! I am bot a repetitive person so that’s a plus. Will movie maker and a iPhone camera work? I have come to the point of my riding that I wana start doing videos.
disregard my previous post lol
I got a nice hd camera I just dont want it getting jacked. haha. today I got Imovie so will that work?
iMovie is good for beginners without compromising video quality so it should be good. HD camera is also good. if you dont want it getting jacked, find a cameraman. otherwise just sit on the tripod close to you at all times
We went to a skate park to film. had a camera man. she got hit by a skate board and dropped the camera.
Personally, I think the technique that makes the biggest difference is to have some moving camera shots, not just static throughout the video. It makes the video so much smoother.
Even If you don’t have anyone else to physically move the camera, you can use an aforementioned video editor to pan across the frame as if the camera was moving.
All of this sounds good 
But a thing that is missing is The Golden Ratio(golden cut)! This makes a video much more pleasant to look at!
I’m sorry, what is a golden cut?
I’ve noticed that a lot of videos have the rider moving into the frame from off-camera, doing a trick, and then moving out of the frame. Is that good filming technique, or is that just because the camera is fixed? It seems to look better (IMO) than cutting the shot while the rider is still in the frame.
A wide variety of camera angles is good for making a video interesting. Another little trick is to time edits and color effects with the music. This makes it look very clean and flow better.
For example time the beat of the music to scene changes. It makes a very big difference.
A video can get boring if it is shot using a static camera only, so try to add variation (panning, static, following behind etc.). Variation will keep the watcher interested.
I don’t think the golden means and similarly the rule of thirds are as important in video as they are in still photography. But there are some cases where subject positioning is very important, for example interviews.
Question: How do i add images on top of clips. For example a logo in the corner during a trick. I use FCP. Do i need motion?
Motion is not necessary for that 
In FCP you are working alot with layers. In your timeline you have two parts one for sound and one for video. The top part is your video tracks. First of all you need the logo (photo) you want to put into the corner in your browser (the same place as you have your video). You drag the photo on top of the video and scale it down to the size you want it to be 
Hope you understand what I mean. If not check out the beginning of this video, that should be helping you
Thank you for the reply. Although i was thinking more like a shape, that just tells me how to do PiP. i don’t want a square image. how do i take a picture and make everything around it “translusant” so all you would see is a banana or something on top of the original footage. If any of that makes sense
If you want just the shape and not it’s background you will most likely need to use a photo editing software to make the background transparent.
Okay in that way
You want to have a picture with a black or a white background. Do like I said in the other reply.
I can’t remember how to do it on white atm, I will write it when I can remember it
So right now you want your banana on black I used this one http://bit.ly/nAAFH0
When the clip is in the timeline you want to right-click it and go down to “composite mode” and set it to “Screen” and it should be done
Hope you could use this
Okay in that way
You want to have a picture with a black or a white background. Do like I said in the other reply.
I can’t remember how to do it on white atm, I will write it when I can remember it
So right now you want your banana on black I used this FNK Prod logo http://www.mediafire.com/?kh07uzyvtqhrggb
When the clip is in the timeline you want to right-click it and go down to “composite mode” and set it to “Screen” and it should be done
You can also make this in Photoshop. It’s much easier on PS and you can do it with any back ground, but it’s easiest if you have a single color background. First open you picture in PS. Go to the top and click “select” in the “select” tap you will find “color range” click that. Use the Eyedropper tool to select the color you want to be gone. Drag the “fuzziness” up and down till what you want is completely black and press OK. Now go to the “Lasso tool” or one of the other selection tools. right click in the area you want to erase and click “layer via cut”. Then just press the backspace button and its gone Now save the file as a .psd file and place it in FCP and it should be working
Hope this will help you
Yes that was very helpful. Thanx anton! Now there will HAVE to be a banana in my next video just for you. thank you unihopper for the reply too.