Action Video for beginners

[Brian_of_Bozeat]

Hello, I have recently become interested in shooting action video. I'm learning to fly a hot air balloon and I want to record my flights as I think that will help with the learning process. I also do a lot of cycling so it would be quite nice to record some of that as well.

I have a couple of Nikon DSLRs and I'm very comfortable with all the technical aspects of still photography, but I don't know where to start with video shooting or editing. I'm considering a go pro hero 3 black or a 3+ Silver.

Can anyone point me at an up to date primer and/or a good beginners guide please?

Thanks.

 

[st599]

Normally on video you need to choose a frame rate:

• 25 progressive - European rate film look
• 50 interlaced - video look - better motion - less detail
• 50 progressive - best of both worlds, but larger files

The Hero also does higher than HD frame sizes - but at lower frame rates - awful judder.

Camera Settings, on pro video cameras you choose a shutter speed of roughly 1/2 the frame rate - this is the best compromise between judder and motion blur.

You then choose an ISO low enough to keep noise low enough. In a MPEG based compression system, the one thing that ruins an image is random noise - there isn't enough bitrate and it goes soft. (Same with film grain, artificial or real).

Then you control exposure with the aperture (aka iris). If their's too much light you add an ND filter, too little and you add lights.

 

[Barney Strumble]

Well considering your aplication needs I'd say one of the GoPro's would be ideal, I use the GP3 black edition myself for capturing enjoyable journeys, no matter what weather, plus there's loads of different attatchments for fixing to handlbars etc, I've never used the higher setting on mine though as it takes long enough to upload 5min of 1080 hd to somewhere like Youtube, seeing as you've already got some quality cameras for still pics the silver edition may do, I've put a H3 comparison link showing the difference, and an example of how I use mine.

http://gopro.com/product-comparison-hero3-cameras

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSWXZRpRZHI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-T2zhmJzO8

 

[Brian_of_Bozeat]

Well considering your aplication needs I'd say one of the GoPro's would be ideal, I use the GP3 black edition myself for capturing enjoyable journeys, no matter what weather, plus there's loads of different attatchments for fixing to handlbars etc, I've never used the higher setting on mine though as it takes long enough to upload 5min of 1080 hd to somewhere like Youtube, seeing as you've already got some quality cameras for still pics the silver edition may do, I've put a H3 comparison link showing the difference, and an example of how I use mine.

http://gopro.com/product-comparison-hero3-cameras

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSWXZRpRZHI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-T2zhmJzO8

Cheers, I have just bought a GoPro Hero 3 Black brand new for £240.00 - Quite chuffed with that price.

I like you videos btw, I'm impressed with the editing!
Do you mind if I ask what software you use and do you know of any good beginners guides?

Also - is the go pro editing software any good?

 

[Barney Strumble]

Good find! that's a bargain price.
Thank you for your comment on my vids, I'm relatively new to the game myself so I've not splashed out on any expensive software, all I use is windows 7 movie maker, it has all the basic tools needed for tv presentation Imho, I've learned from watching how the pro's do it on tv, 1 Golden rule I've picked up is every shot shouldn't be any longer than 5 sec cuts in the final edit, maybe slightly longer with some shots, fades to cuts should be kept short and basic using dissolves with a blur, again some for longer with some contrasting shots, its all about audience retention really, I could happily watch my unedited footage which can run for hours, and I find its quit disapointing having to cut some shots short, I hope to get the hang of it one day.
Never used the GP editing software, so can't comment sorry. One other thing is make sure you update the camera software.
Best of luck with it all, I'm looking forward to your first vid.

 

[artyman]

Serif have their MoviePlus X5 software (X6 is the latest) for £19.99 at the moment, which is the editing package I use, having dropped Windows Moviemaker, found it was much better.

 

[st599]

Good find! that's a bargain price.
Thank you for your comment on my vids, I'm relatively new to the game myself so I've not splashed out on any expensive software, all I use is windows 7 movie maker, it has all the basic tools needed for tv presentation Imho, I've learned from watching how the pro's do it on tv, 1 Golden rule I've picked up is every shot shouldn't be any longer than 5 sec cuts in the final edit, maybe slightly longer with some shots, fades to cuts should be kept short and basic using dissolves with a blur, again some for longer with some contrasting shots, its all about audience retention really, I could happily watch my unedited footage which can run for hours, and I find its quit disapointing having to cut some shots short, I hope to get the hang of it one day.
Never used the GP editing software, so can't comment sorry. One other thing is make sure you update the camera software.
Best of luck with it all, I'm looking forward to your first vid.

Traditionally cuts are used to move narrative forwards (or cover mistakes).

Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8AXd1ayxrg

If you're cutting every 5 secs, you're creating what Darren Aronofsky termed a Hip-Hop Montage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_cutting

 

[Barney Strumble]

Traditionally cuts are used to move narrative forwards (or cover mistakes).

Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8AXd1ayxrg

If you're cutting every 5 secs, you're creating what Darren Aronofsky termed a Hip-Hop Montage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_cutting

That opening scene is amazing in that film, full repect for Mr Wells, but I'm sure there's a lot of camera booms and location marks for next shot involved there, I would imagine one of those quad-copters could achieve similar.
I didn't realise I was doing a Hip-Hop montage

 

[essexmole]

or you could experiment like myself and use a small camcorder with a sd slot
i used a small camcorder that i have attached to my cycle helmet to record my bike rides to test it and it works pretty good you could do a similar thing by attaching it somewhere on the balloon which might work