First "real" video - motorcycle club racing
 

Hi guys,

As a gift to the local racing community I collaborated with a couple of folks and we came up with this. Most of the regular footage and all the still shots in the vid are mine, the on-board footage is from one of my friends and a little bit of the regular footage and all the editing is from another friend (who is an ex-pro editor, lucky me).

This was basically me just learning the camera and you'll see some of the footage looks "flat" or "washed out" because I was filming on out of the box settings. The more lush look is from the "outdoor" setting from the downloaded presets file (from here I think?) which looks waay better. All footage was shot in SD. Also, you'll notice I have a tough time panning with the fast bikes. I'm sure I could get better at it, I can certianly do it all day long with my photo gear, hehe.

And I made a cameo in the video! I'm the guy with the photo camera, haha.

Hope you guys enjoy, the racers sure did when I showed the video at their annual awards banquet.

I tried to imbed it, but can't figure out how. Nor do I have a "web" size version to attach here, just the dvd... so here's the YouTube link:

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

Any comments or suggestions are welcome, thanks!

-brian

That's a nice video, Brian. Who is the song by, The Black Crows? Anyway, good job. Keep it up.

Yes, I believe that's right. I didn't choose the song, but it works well. We wanted something not too heavy and "PG" rated.

Might try Blip.tv or Vimeo... With these Youtube videos I find myself imagining what the footage looks like rather than being able to actually see it... Just a thought...

Thanks for the head's up, might use those in the future.

I didn't have time the other day to post about it but there were some really cool elements in the video. Forget about the whole quality and it's on YouTube and whatnot.

You used still images very effectively in this video. One especially comes to mind. The image is of three bikes in motion, going diagonally from bottom left to top right. You're zoomed in on just one of the bikes (the bottom left one) then you slide the screen across the image and show the center bike, then the top bike, then you zoom out from the top bike and we see the whole image. It was great! That little thing added so much movement and life to the image. I mean, the bikes in the image can't move, but our perspective of the bikes can - and I think you did that very effectively.

I may be losing people with my rant, but I'm sure you know which image I'm referring to.

I do event coverage for my employer, Stylin' Trucks and I'm trying to use stills in the videos to add some extra pizazz. You just gave me another technique to try out. Thanks!

Edit: There are four bikes in the pic, not three. And the specific image I'm referring to shows up at 00:48

Thanks for the compliments, I too agree that by moving the still images around you get lots more life out of them. I see it all the time on TV, for example on shows on the History Channel. I have to give credit to whom it's due. The editor, Nicole, did everything, I just gave her raw footage and photos. Her info is in the video if have any questions, I'm sure she'd be willing to answer... or if you guys want something edited professionally.

Glad you enjoyed and even happier you found some elements/techniques that you want to borrow!