How To Make Hyperlapse Videos - Improvised Rig with a Cabelcam and a Slider Motor (Digislider)

Here's a way to shoot a hyperlapse video (long distance moving timelapse) that doesn't require moving your tripod for every shot.

We're using a DIY cablecam, a climbing rope (red line), a strong nylon thread (green line) and the slow motor from the motorized Digislider.

A Forklift Can Work Great as a Jib Crane - Video

Yup. It would such a pity to not use our forklifts or scissor lifts as jib cranes for shooting video. Seriously!

Those smooth moving shoots look too good so why not take a few if we can, right?

Behind the Scenes with Calin Manescu - Winter Corporate Games

Below is just a short behind the scenes video shot during the days I worked with Calin Manescu (professional videographer) at a Corporate Games event.

GoPro Editing Software Giveaway - Got a New Camera for Christmas? Get The Program Here

Update: The contest has reached its deadline and the winner is Ady Nechita, responsible for the base jumping videos in Bucegi Mountains (first time ever). Thank you all for entering! Subscribe to not miss future software giveaways!
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You probably got a new camera.

Either as a Christmas gift or as a birthday present. Or maybe you just bought one for yourself. Doesn't matter. (Was it a GoPro?)

What matters though is you wanna shoot and edit videos.

So if your current video editor can't handle MP4, MTS (AVCHD), MOV or MKV files, here's your chance to win an easy to use, yet powerful, video editing software: Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus.

Introducing VideoEditingSoftware.com + Your Chance to Win a Free Copy of Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus

If you wanna come along on the way to edit better videos, join me on my new site VideoEditingSoftware.com.

If you don't - well, you may be missing out. Magix and Corel already jumped in as sponsors and they're giving away free serial numbers so you can have an original copy to work with on your web movies.

NTSC vs PAL or How To Get The Highest Frame Rate for Your Slow Motion Video

Before buying your camera, think about this:

Do you like making slow motion videos?

If so, how do you know the camera you wanna buy offers the advertised frame rate in video shooting mode?

Free Screen Capture Software - Screencast-O-Matic

Wanna record the activity on your computer but don't feel like installing a new program?

Check out this free web-based screen capture software that'll make your life easier.

Highlight Hunter or How To Find The Highlights in Your Action Sports Videos without Watching Hours of Footage

How do you find your best moments on video?

You have to watch through hours o footage just to find those few seconds when you fell off your mountain bike. Oh snap! Is that your best moment?!

How To Improvise a GoPro Shooting Pole

A simple way to improvise a shooting pole for your GoPro HD camera is to attach the cam on any kind of stick with the handlebar mount.

We used a mop stick for our videos and this is what we got:

How To Stop a Train - Video for Rail Fans

I never left home with the intention of stopping a train but...sh*t happens.

So if you've been following this blog for a while, you know I enjoy doing videos. And I thought shooting some footage on the railways would probably be fun. And it was.

What Cameras and Editing Software Les Stroud Uses for His Survivor Man Show - Video Interview

If you've been wondering about the camera gear and video editing software that Les Stroud uses for his Survivor Man show then it's all Sony.

He doesn't specifically tells which camera model but he does say he loves Sony Vegas (which is a bit too expensive for my amateurish video editing).

How To Edit MTS Videos

If you bought a new camera that shoots in AVCD format and can't view or edit the .MTS, files here are two pieces of software that you can use:

1. Use VLC Player to view MTS videos

VLC is a versatile player that will play most video formats.

Bike Stunts - Harman Extreme Fest (MTS and MP4 files)

How To Shoot Amazing Nature and Extreme Sports DSLR Videos - Tips from Devin Graham

Everything I know about building a DIY steadicam is now is in this new guide. Learn how to get amazing cinematic video with this cool gadget that you can build using parts from your local hardware store.

If you don't like the material, no worries. I'll give your money back and you get to keep the guide. Guaranteed!

	Printable PDF document Instant Digital Download 60 Days Money Back Guarantee  Prompt Refunds No Questions Asked One Time Payment/No BS 2 FREE Bonuses: How To Build a DIY Camera Slider 3 Ways To Get Clients as a Videographer (you'll be surprised to find out what the first method is...)

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Would you like to learn how to shoot DSLR videos from a pro?

I know I would. So let's learn together from Devin Graham - famous for his awesome nature and extreme sports videos on YouTube (watch them below).



He's gonna release tutorials and behind the scenes videos on his new YouTube channel. So subscribe and keep yourself informed about the tricks he pulls to film and edit all his videos.

GoPro Mounting on Bike Fork - Improvisation - or How You Can Shoot Bike Tricks Videos Like a Pro (read: Respected Amateur)

Everything I know about building a DIY steadicam is now is in this new guide. Learn how to get amazing cinematic video with this cool gadget that you can build using parts from your local hardware store.

If you don't like the material, no worries. I'll give your money back and you get to keep the guide. Guaranteed!

	Printable PDF document Instant Digital Download 60 Days Money Back Guarantee  Prompt Refunds No Questions Asked One Time Payment/No BS 2 FREE Bonuses: How To Build a DIY Camera Slider 3 Ways To Get Clients as a Videographer (you'll be surprised to find out what the first method is...)

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This post adds to the previously published article that teaches you how to improvise GoPro mounts for your mountain bike using just the helmet mount.

I've been asked how I shot certain scenes in the above bike tricks video and I decided to publish some pictures with my GoPro mount improvisation for the bike fork. I hope this explains it better than words.

You only need your helmet mount, which comes bundled with GoPro HD Hero Helmet.

What you do is wrap the straps around one of the fork tubes and clip in the camera (quick release buckle). Use the two piece arm (goose neck) with the buckle and point the camera in as many directions as possible:

• you want to capture the biker who's pulling the stunts
• shoot only the wheels, pedals and feet of the biker
• shoot forward to capture the obstacles
• etc.

Mix all the scenes to make your clip interesting to watch.

The rest of the scenes were shot with a DIY steadicam, which I use for most of my outdoor and adventure videos.

Cheers!

Disclaimer: I'm an amateur filmmaker and I share as little as I know with you. You're invited to a conversation in the comments. There's always something new I can learn from you and I'd love to hear your opinion. Thanks!

Magix Edit Pro 17 Quick Review - Clicking Noise (Sound Issue)

Update 20 Feb 2011: The sound issue can be fixed if you export your clip at 29.97 frames per second (no more clicking noise). Also, Magix has released patches that fixed this. 

What I love about Magix Edit Pro is that it allows you to import MP4 video files. This helped me a lot with my GoPro HD video editing.

You don't need to convert the MP4 clips, just import them directly, edit them and then export in MP4. Pretty neat!

So I've been using Magix Edit Pro version 15 and 16 for editing my outdoor videos since January 2010. While I love the workflow and the editing capabilities of the program, there is always something wrong:

• I can't create projects longer than 2-3 minutes. All my videos longer than 3 minutes were done by merging 2 or more clips - clips that were edited and exported beforehand. These problems are not exactly software related but they're more a consequence of me running Magix on a weak laptop computer. One can't expect to edit HD without dedicated video graphics card...
• When I do manage to export a video - the original quality of the footage is lost... Even if the output is in HD, the image itself looks pixelated. And sometimes I get this strange effect that blurs the footage at every second (like at 33 seconds playback in this climbing video).

Okay. The video editor is not perfect but I work with it nevertheless (I purchased it). I don't want to go through the trouble of using an MP4 to AVI converter coz it takes too much time and the resulted AVI files occupy too much space on my hard drive.

And here's the point of this article:

Magix released version 17 of Movie Edit Pro.

• It works GREAT! It imports long videos seamlessly. 
• You have good preview of footage even after adding effects (such as time lapse)
• The image quality of exported files is as sharp as the original!!! That's new for me! :-)

BUT...

If you add soundtrack (or keep the original sound of the footage) you get a clicking noise in your final video... Everything's perfect except this sound issue!

See my video below to understand what I'm talking about (edited with trial version).



Now I hope their developers jump on this bug and fix it quickly coz I have to get my videos out there with sharp audio as well.

Are you also having the same sound problem with Edit Pro 17?

GoPro Video Editing Tips - Convert, Import and Edit Your HD MP4 Outdoor Clips

If your experience with GoPro HD MP4 video hasn't been very smooth then don't worry. Help is on its way to you!

Perhaps you can't import, convert or edit the MP4 clips in your current video editor and you feel you've been screwed paying $300 for a camera that doesn't allow you to do anything else but shoot...

NOT true my friend! I've been there and if it's one thing I've learned about internet it is this: whenever you have a problem, Google is there for you.

Click Here To Get Magix Movie Edit Pro and Easily Edit Your Videos. It Works with All Video Formats: MP4, MOV, MTS (AVCHD), AVI, etc. If you're using a Mac, get Final Cut Pro.

However, if you don't have the time to browse through endless search results looking for the right solution to your video editing issues then choose a certified shortcut and read the GoPro tutorials below.

Most of the links refer to articles on video editing tips but I guess your biggest wish is to learn how to convert the MP4 clips to AVI format as to be able to properly import and edit your extreme sports videos without buying another video editing software (check out the fifth link in the list for that).

GoPro HD Video Editing Resources

• How To Edit GoPro HD Videos - A Complete Workflow (Most Popular)
• GoPro Slow Motion Video Tutorial (Very Cool)
• How To Do The Vertigo Effect (Dolly Zoom) (Awesome!)
• GoPro Time Lapse Video Tutorial

For a cool gliding effect shoot your videos with a DIY steadicam for GoPro camera.

Cheers!

How To Shoot Video with DIY Glidecam

Test Video - Shot with My DIY Steadicam


Everything I know about building a DIY steadicam is now is in this new guide. Learn how to get amazing cinematic video with this cool gadget that you can build using parts from your local hardware store.

If you don't like the material, no worries. I'll give your money back and you get to keep the guide. Guaranteed!

	Printable PDF document Instant Digital Download 60 Days Money Back Guarantee  Prompt Refunds No Questions Asked One Time Payment/No BS 2 FREE Bonuses: How To Build a DIY Camera Slider 3 Ways To Get Clients as a Videographer (you'll be surprised to find out what the first method is...)

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Since I'm no longer selling the DIY Highball steadicam, you may wanna check out these other camera stabilizers. Click on any picture.
Check out the stabilizers on Amazon Canada, Amazon.UK and Amazon.DE.
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I was supposed to take photos at my cousin's 4th grade graduation but instead I shot a video. It was another occasion to test my DIY glidecam and plus - I made her a star. :-)

Shooting video with a glidecam it's not only fun but it let's your creativity explode. You become more or less a bit of everyone on a movie set: you're the director, the cameraman, the technician, the guy with the lights, the screenwriter, etc. Just playing with the camera mounted on a steadicam makes you wanna experiment more that you would normally do with a hand held camera. I've seen both from the comments on YouTube as well on this blog that some of you have problems balancing your glidecam. There are a few simple steps for getting it right but the key is to have your glidecam built in a smart design that allows fast adjustments without too much hassle. Some key features of such a design include:

• A telescopic tube for the shaft. If you can add the gimbal to a telescopic tube then you're one step closer to a professional glidecam. This will help you raise or lower the center of gravity in a snap!
• If you can't integrate a telescopic tube then use a threaded bar. In this case you can make your adjustments either by moving the gimbal on the bar or by moving the upper and lower plates. Please note that the bearing is slid onto the bar and hold in place with two nuts tightened against each other ( the bearing being fixed between them).
• Plates with channels for sliding the weights.
• A smart plate for the camera. I couldn't find a self sliding plate but I drilled many holes in the laminate flooring (of which my plate is made) as to accommodate different types of cameras.
• Wing nuts instead of regular nuts. Faster to operate and of course you won't need to carry any wrench with you. :-)

How To Balance Your Glidecam You should know that I only refer to the classic glidecam, not the Merlin design. Unlike the Merlin, the normal camera stabilizer has some advantages:

1. You can do 360° turns without having to move. Just stand still, raise the gimbal handle slightly above your head (it depends on how long the shaft is) and start rotating the camera around it's own axis by spinning the shaft.
2. You can make the glidecam top heavy and have the camera down and the weights up. This allows you to shoot at ground level - which is great when following a walking person (or a dog or even with no subject - sliding 5 centimeters above the ground creates an amazing effect).
3. You can shoot in all directions: forward, downward and upward. You can easily tilt the shaft with the left hand and thus point the camera wherever your subject is. The beauty of it is you can raise it above your subject and have a bird eye's view along with the gliding effect. That's pretty neat!

When balancing the glidecam you must have in mind that the center of gravity must be just below the gimbal as for the system to reach a state between a stable equilibrium and a neutral equilibrium. The videos below explain how to accomplish that. Even though they are using professional camera stabilizers all the principles apply to your own DIY steadicam as well. You can measure the balance of your rig by checking the drop time (1.5 to 3 seconds) and by spinning the glidecam to check for dynamic balance (watch first video - minute 6.50). Please note that while your home made glidecam may not have a sled (with a battery and remote monitor), it has the bottom weights plate instead (just like the glidecam in second video). Use the weights on the plate for fine tune balancing. How To Shoot Video with a Glidecam What you wanna shoot with a glidecam is a moving subject. That's the main purpose of any camera stabilizer - to help you capture a steady footage while following your subject (even on uneven terrain - no pun intended). You must know that the only thing a home made glidecam does is to keep your camera horizontal. That's it! The gimbal separates the movement of your hand, absorbing the jolts with it's three axis of rotation. The gliding effect is produced by our arm and by our walking with the subject. A professional steadicam comes with a mechanical articulated arm and a body vest that helps the operator to shoot without holding the weight of the entire system. Professional camera gear is both bulky and heavy and this comes in handy for the cameraman. In our case the articulated arm is no other than our own arm. Yes. We have three joints that absorb the shocks of our walking: the shoulder joint, the elbow joint and the wrist joint. All these together along with our knees and ankles provide the flying sensation (in the video) as we move our glidecam and camera through space. This gliding effect is also caused by the weight of the whole system. In other words - the heavier the system the more stable it will be when running after your moving subject. As you run, passing over obstacles (small rocks, etc), the camera tends to follow a straight line due to the inertia of the whole rig (camera and steadicam) - that's the gliding outcome. In order to get really smooth video you must practice holding the glidecam, tilting it, running with it, rotating it, etc. You'll get accustomed to it's sensibility and you'll become better with each small victory. Tips for glidecam video shooting

• Shoot your moving subject from all directions. Walk before it, behind it, in lateral - and of course you can combine any of these methods with shooting from above (hold the glidecam up) or from below (make the glidecam top heavy as to have the camera down). Example: shoot from lateral and above or from behind and low. Mix all these techniques together wen editing the footage. If you shot with your camera upside down, rotate the footage within the video editor.
• Give 180° capturing your passing subject. You can do this in two ways:

1. Stand still and spin the camera on the shaft as to follow the subject (the camera rotates on it's axis)
2. Move your arm describing half a circle, keeping your camera pointed at the subject. You will get an awesome movie like effect as the camera sweeps the landscape in an interesting way.

• Rotate around your subject. Go round the subject and keep the camera pointed at all times towards the center of the imaginary circle.
• Run after your subject. This will make your friends ask "How did you shoot that?!". The glidecam proves it's value when you get the steady footage while running with your subject. I was pretty blown away by that. :-) You can also run in front of your fast moving subject, just be careful not to trip as you're stepping backwards.
• Move the camera against the subject (which is coming towards you) and pass it laterally. I stole this technique from a friend of mine - Brant Dempster. I'm sure I've seen this in movies as well but I just wasn't aware of it as I am now.
• Follow the subject from behind, laterally and eventually end front shooting. Again this is a movie like technique that empowers the viewer. It makes the people watching the video feel they were there and thus they got the full picture (subject plus the landscape).

This list is by no means exhaustive and it's based solely on my observations of other's work. Feel free to correct me or add your experience in the comments. I'd love to hear from you. Shot videos using your DIY Glidecam! Cheers!

Why You Don't Have To Shoot Video in HD Mode with GoPro HD Camera

Just a short note for mountain bikers and other extreme sports lovers out there that have bought or wanna buy the new GoPro HD camera.

You don't really need to shoot your outdoor video clips in HD. The high definition footage offers great video quality but you'll have a hard time importing and editing it into your video editor.

Instead you can shoot in lowest resolution (r1) - 840/480 pixels at 60 fps 0r 120 fps with the HD Hero 2. The files are lighter (unlike the full HD videos) and thus easier for your video editor to handle. The video above was shot in r1 and the sharpness is just as good as with HD settings.

The 60 frames per second footage allows you to render action sports scenes in slow motion better than say full HD at 30 fps. You'll get smooth slow motion video, that is.

You may want to convert the GoPro MP4 clips to AVI before you do any editing on it.

A new friend of mine, Raul Robino, suggested a forum (GoPro User Forum) that teaches you how to render your video in slow motion using a video editor/mixer called tsMuxeR. You may wanna check that out.



And since we're here, let me show you the best dirt bike video ever!!! Shot with GoPro HD. And notice that the video is great mostly because of the editing, the awesome angle shots and the great stunts that those bikers pull - video quality is secondary (that's my opinion).

A wicked GoPro HD slow motion video suggested by Raul - freestyle skiing



Shoot your mountain bike adventures!

How to Make Still Motion Video - Digital Photo Pro | DigitalPhotoPro.com

Learn how to create still motion videos from Andrew Kornylak, professional photographer and film maker. Oh, he's a climber as well. :-)

Still Motion - Digital Photo Pro | DigitalPhotoPro.com

How To Edit Videos on Music Beats with Your GoPro HD Footage

Update - Check out my most comprehensive tutorial on editing videos: How To Edit GoPro HD Videos - A Complete Workflow

Why take the trouble to edit your videos on music tunes?

Editing your videos "on the beat" will make your clips watchable and memorable. Imagine how would music videos be without the synchronization between the scenes and the tune... Pretty dull I would say.

Dynamic videos work great as teasers, trailers for almost any type of events, competitions, tours etc. Rocking music, like the one in my video, work well for action clips: motor sports, mountain biking, free-ride skiing, climbing. I knew from the first few seconds that I wanted to watch the Honda teaser to the end. Having video scenes rolling out on the melody will simply keep your viewers watching by catching their attention in the very first few seconds.

How To Edit Videos "On The Beat"

• Firstly, you must import your music track within the video editor. You may not have any idea about the outcome but listening to the music and viewing some footage that you shot may bring up good ideas. If you need or want to use more songs then choose each song according to scenes you want to render. For slow motion scenes use soft music, for dynamic and aggressive action use engaging up beats. You wanna have your viewers pumped!
• Zoom in on the tracks. Video editors allow you to "zoom" on scenes - basically allow to expand the segment that represents a scene as to view it in smaller time increments (fractions of a second). This enables you to cut your footage right where you want it - you can analyze it frame by frame and find the spot where you need to cut or trim the scene. For example if you have a mountain bike rider flying through air and want to cut the clip just when the biker reaches the ground then you zoom in on the imported clip and drag the cursor at that particular point. Only the zoom mode can show you the exact time at which a certain event takes place in the video. Editing at such detail gives you full control - fine tuning - over the video.
• Look for pitch changes in the music track. Perhaps you've noticed by now that most video editors show you the pitch graph on the music/sound track. This graph shows you both when the music grows loud/silent and when the pitch of the tune goes high/low. Seeing where the pitch of the sound track changes is key for editing videos on music beats. Scroll the track, find the tune changes and those will be the points where you'll have consecutive scenes - see picture below. Now you don't have to add a new scene with every beat change but where the song has good rhythm it would be nice to have some scenes rolling accordingly. The beat changes can be identified in the graph as visible high and low spikes neighbored by smaller, insignificant spikes.
  
  
•  Use dynamic scenes if your video shows action. For instance, the climbers in my clip are moving, leaping, swinging, jumping, falling. All this adds up to the urgency of the video. If you have rather static scenes you can also edit on the beat - just be aware of what it is that you want to convey with your video.
• Use short scenes. This time we're talking less than a second scenes. Short scenes will enable you to do two things: keep your movie short (internet surfers have a short attention span) and cover all your footage (a few short scenes from each shooting session will tell the whole story, showing images that were taken in a long time span - a few hours or a few days).
• Have shots from various angles mixed in the video. A sequence of various angle shots will keep your audience curious to see more whereas shots taken from the same perspective will bore the viewers. Keep it interesting. 

I hope this helps. I stress the fact that I'm not a professional - I'm just a serious amateur. Feel free to add your own suggestions on video editing in the comments. Critique is eulogized here! :-)

Go outdoors and shoot your adventures!