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Thursday, 26 February 2009

Watching YouTube videos

I took a little while out last night to watch David's videos of the cross country and to compare what we produced against other film taken.

I also recently watched my first ever YouTube video which was of the Arthur Jones Fell Race just two years ago. I didn't even use a proper video camera (it was just the video function on an ordinary camera) and I was using the free Windows Movie Maker software. I concluded with a caption "they will get better".

I think that generally they have but one of the things I think I got right on the very first one was to move around and to not take all the footage from exactly the same spot. I subsequently started using a second camera on a tripod and although this added extra options the footage is not generally as interesting as following an athlete for a short period and using different backgrounds.

I thought that David did this very well at Parliament Hill. He got a nice balance of showing the leaders, our own club athletes and a selection of others. I thought the film was much more interesting that filming the whole field from one place.

It also gave me a chance to watch the films with a different perspective. Usually I am trying to make them as interesting as possible or I am being critical of my own work.

What I found so interesting in these films was not only the speed and skill of the top guys, but the closeness of the battles. Have a look at the mens race from about 5 minutes 18 seconds for the next half minute of so. You will see Kevin Loundes hanging onto a little group and then a small gap appear and then Kevin closing them down again. Its what the race is about.

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