I spend A LOT of time online. Many days I am watching the latest snowboard movie from the pros and many days I am scouring YouTube or Vimeo for unsigned talent. One thing I know for sure though is a lot of people have NO IDEA how to make an interesting snowboarding edit. Look, if you are going to take the time to buy a camera, spend a day holding a camera pole and then uploading the footage to YouTube, I assume you actually want people to watch and share the video…right? If you just want to archive the footage for yourself, please don’t waste our time by putting your boring video online. That being said, let me give you a few pointers on how to make an interesting edit. It isn’t hard and it will definitely help make sure that anyone else besides you and your mom will watch it.
Rule #1 All of your footage does NOT have to come from the same day. A lot of people forget this, but you are not making a documentary you are making a movie so if you don’t get enough good footage from day one, then wear the same clothing and shoot another day.
Rule #2 No one wants to see TOO MUCH of you holding a pole filming yourself or a shot from a camera strapped to your helmet. First person shooters are fun, first person videos are not. If I can’t control you from the video and make you slam into a tree I don’t care. However, first person shots can be cool in moderation when spliced into an action sequence to give your part extra depth.
Rule #3 Music matters. If anyone has ever made fun of you for any of the music you listen to then please don’t pick the song. BAD MUSIC WILL DESTROY GOOD FOOTAGE. Everyone has a buddy who has been listening to a band for years before you ever heard of them. Throw that guy or gal a bone for all their hard hipsterish work and let them offer you up a few dope tracks that you can choose from for your video. (also, if I hear one more person use AWOLNATION’s SAIL in a snowboard edit I will personally unplug the internet)
Rule #4 Editing. You need to watch a good snowboard video to know how one is edited and when I say watch, I want you to remember that you are watching for filming angles, edit points, and movie-making technique not for an immersive snowboarding experience. A simple rule is this…tricks need to be cut very short and fast. If it’s a rail trick, give the person a second or two to line up the rail, then you have the trick, and then give them a second or two to land it and cut to the next.
Rule #5 Storyline. I saw a major film release this season from one of the biggest manufacturers and it F#CKING SUCKED! Oh man, was it boring. I still can’t get the taste out of my mouth and I wanted my money back even though it was free. You know why it sucked? There was no storyline. Look, a storyline can be created by the director or it can be created by the viewer’s mind. What i mean by that is this. A director can create a storyline in the way that a video like Animal Chin was made. There was a start and an ending and you watched it like a feature film. The more common storyline in snow/skate videos is you introduce the characters (team riders) by showing them eating, playing pranks, driving to the spot, laughing, crying, etc. and the viewer creates a storyline for that person in their mind. This is usually the easier way to make a video because this footage is hard to screw up and the other way takes a lot more scripting and writing and acting.
Rule #6 People have very short attention spans. Keep the movement of the video with the time of the songs. If you are playing a slow song in the background the video cuts should match that. If you are playing a fast song like dubstep, your cuts should land on the beat perfectly.
****I’m sure I’ll think of more rules and I will add them as we go and you can drop a few in the comments as well.****
Here’s a basic outline to follow for a day of shooting and you should get shots to go with all of these.
#1 Where are we? Where are we going? What are we doing? Shots for these could be you getting dressed, brushing the snow off your car, watching the weather report, pounding a beer, the resort’s entrance sign, ski lifts, strapping in, the drive up, etc.)
#2 Close ups of each rider. (could be them laughing at a party, crying at their grandma’s funeral, taking a poo, eating a corn dog, sleeping in class, or standing with their snowboard)
#3 Scenery shots. (The slopes, the lifts, the terrain park, the sun, the moon, shots out of the side window of a car, or aerial shots from your private chopper)
#4 Tricks or lines or freeriding (This only looks cool when you A. Have someone following you with the camera, someone in front of you with the camera, someone posted up next to the rail, or someone beside you with the camera. For added effect, get two cameras going that can be edited together. Camera A can be on your head or on a pole and Camera B can be in one of the scenarios above. The dopest thing is if you have 3 or more cameras all shooting the same subject matter. Maybe one from a distance, one on the rider, and one following or at the trick spot.
#5 Fails & Bails: People love seeing these in a good edit but they have to be A. EPIC or B. embarrassing. You can either A. group these as a “chapter” of your edit, B. layer them in as steps until a dude lands the trick, or C. run them as the credits or opening.
#6 Gear Shots: Want to get sponsored? Give the brands/shops you love some shine! Show yourself strapping on your DC Boots, or your Burton bindings, or your LibTech board. Screw it, throw in their logos while you are at it. Put up your local shop’s website or logo as well. I know when I owned my shop I was MUCH MORE LIKELY to hook up a kid who was already advertising me as opposed to some kid who always wanted something for nothing.
Now, all you have to do is lay down a track or two or three to give the edit some personality and make sure your transitions line up with the beat of the song. If we are doing an edit with multiple riders set up some “chapters” like this. Introduce your rider (this includes text on screen and a few candid establishment shots that could also have some trick shots mixed in.) Next show his or her best runs. Then go to some fun shots of them eating or goofing off. Come back for some more tricks. Follow that up with a few fails and bails. Then give a few more close ups of the rider in their natural environment. Then you would have a few transition shots like scenery, group goofing off, logos, etc. Then rinse and repeat.
I hope this helps y’all out and therefore helps me not have to watch more a–holes with gopros and no concept of the end viewer. I will leave you with two sayings my pop always said to me. #1 There’s not much traffic on the extra mile. #2 In the land of the blind the psyclops is king. Now go make me proud and if you learned anything from this tutorial drop a Salty Peaks logo in your next edit!
