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Editing Point of View Footage Into an Entertaining Video

Point of View footage alone isn’t meant to create full videos, but since most of us don’t have paparazzi following us around there’s only so much we can do. Here is the general procedure I follow when creating a POV video along with some tips on how to keep viewers entertained.

You have now shot your footage using tips from my previous blog ‘GoPro HD HERO Mounting and Filming Tips’. It’s time to edit!

Importing Footage:

Once the footage is on my computer I convert it to a format more compatible with Final Cut Pro. Depending on your system and editing software, you may or may not have to do this, or you may have to find different settings that work best with your system.

To convert my footage, I open the clip in Mpeg Streamclip’s free software [http://www.squared5.com/] and convert it to Apple ProRes 422 video at Full Quality. Because clips shot on POV cameras are so long and a lot of the footage is scrap, I always go through the long clips in this program and mark “IN” and “OUT” points in the video and only convert the small portions that I will use.

Steps:

1. Find the first frame of footage you would ever use (but make sure you have extra footage because you can always cut out excess video later). Press “I” to mark an “IN” point.
2. Find the last frame of footage you would ever use. Press “O” to mark an “OUT” point. Your timeline will now look like this.

helmet cam

3. Choose File a Export to Quicktime. In the Compression settings, choose Apple ProRes 422. Drag the Quality to 100%. Choose your proper Frame Rate, 30 or 60fps in most cases. Hit “Make Movie.”
4. Repeat steps 1-3 for each clip you want to use. Apple ProRes 422 is a very high quality video, therefore large file sizes. If you convert the entire .mp4 clip to this format it will take a long time and result in a massive file size.

Beginning the Edit:

Before I ever place clips in the timeline, I choose a song for the video. Lay that song down in your timeline, now you’re set to begin the edit. Here are some tips I always keep in mind when editing.

Keep your video quick and to-the-point. Most videos out there are too long and therefore boring. If someone closes your video before it’s over, your edit has failed its mission of keeping the viewer entertained.

Never cut to the same angle. If your current view is from a helmet cam, never cut directly to the same helmet angle, this draws out your video and bores the viewer. Just because you know you’re on a different wave or doing a different trick doesn’t mean the viewer can tell the difference. Make sure you divide your video up by cutting from one angle to another, and then back again.

Edit to the music. Try to start and end certain clips to the beat of the music. You don’t have to cut everything to the beat but the video looks cleaner if it matches the music.

Make it a story. If you followed my shooting tip by shooting the same trick from different angles, you’re able to edit from one angle to another to create a small story or sequence. Even if you didn’t intentionally shoot this way, some clips may go back-to-back better than others and might even look like they take place in the same spot.

Watch your video over and over. The more you watch the video during the editing process, the more things will start to stick out at you if you don’t like them. If you aren’t motivated to keep watching your video over and over then it will probably be boring to the viewer as well. I watch a 1-minute video about 100 times during the editing process.

Finalizing the Edit:

I find the best thing to do before finalizing the edit is to turn off my computer for the night. When I wake up I will open up the video and watch it again with a fresh eye. If anything sticks out, change it, but if not you’re ready to export the video and put it online.

Export and Upload:

Make sure you export your video using Youtube and Vimeo’s recommended compression settings.

helmet cam

More info can be found here: http://vimeo.com/help/compression

Here is one of my videos where I followed the above guidelines and created a couple sequences by running the same paths over and over again while shooting from different angles.

Keswick Backcountry Snowkiting in Slow-Mo from Big Fall Productions

Brendan Schnurr
~Big Fall Productions

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How to Edit Your Videos into an Entertaining Video