I Fancy Making A "big" Video.

[aener]

It might not be the next video, but if it's not then probably the one after.

I've fancied the idea for a while, but 24:2011 has renewed the vigor for the idea.

I want to make a "big" video. I love sitting back and watching a BMX DVD, and feel sad that there aren't many of these sort of videos for my preferred sport.

24:2011, Manifesto, the WheresTheSeat series... There's a bunch of really good ones - but I want there to be more!

Obviously an hour long one like the pro's make is a bit ambitious, but hell... Ambition is good

It'll be a lot of effort, so I want it to be something you guys will enjoy, thus I'd appreciate it if you could answer the questions above to give me an idea of what most would prefer before I even start.

Any other ideas/suggestions, tips or anything you'd like to see in a project like this would be most appreciated.

It's not something I'm hoping to make money from - just in case you got that idea. Just for fun - but I'd like the outcome to be something worthwhile.

Thanks!

Don't wait up though. It'll be a fair while in the making what with fitting it around uni.

[Pure]

I personally think trials videos should be short and sweet, quality rather than quantity! Music doesn't really make much of a difffernce but the trend atm seems to be sort of chilled out 'indy' tracks It's nice to see a lot of riders doing different locations but it'd be nice to see each rider do their own thing on each location? I meant to put mixed not trialsy separate from street!

[Mark W]

From my experience...

Between 10-15mins is a 'long' video that seems to be 'acceptable' for most. I think a few people didn't even watch the 24:2011 vid just 'cos they saw "20:41" or whatever in the time line and just didn't want to get involved. For example, on the statistics on Vimeo you can view the Loads (the impression/page views the video got when it was embedded on a site) that a video gets and the Plays. For the 24:2011 vid, the Loads/Plays ratio wasn't that great (although Plays/Finishes was good), which I'd imagine was mainly due to the length. Most places that embedded it usually left a positive remark about it, and with a fairly ambiguous thumbnail image there's not really anything to put people off other than the length. I think unless it's a bangin' video with something to really tie it together, 20mins is too long for most people. I don't really regret making the trip vid that long mainly because I only made it for the people who were on the trip, and I knew they'd probably sit through that just 'cos it was "our" video. Outside of that, people viewing it is basically a bonus. It seems to have had generally good feedback even from some foreign forums where they're usually pretty "anti-24", so that's cool...

For the Clean 001 video, that was around 10mins long and that got quite a good Loads/Plays ratio and got viewed on a lot of regular MTB sites too as it was long enough to be worth it but not too long to make it not worth even getting into. So yeah, in terms of length I reckon 10-15mins is pretty much ideal.

Regarding music and stuff, I'd honestly just go with what you like. With the videos I've done so far, I had a definite thing in mind for how I wanted the 001 video to feel (and chose music accordingly), and the same for the trip video. I don't really like re-using previously used songs from other people's videos, so I usually spend a lot of time trying to find other stuff. If you go down that route too then choosing to use music you either like or feel would make the video 'work' is definitely preferable to trying to just find music that "people" will like. You'll always get people who dislike the music you pick, so you may as well opt for what you like and what you think works with the riding rather than trying to just go out and appeal to people. If you get a mix of riding you'll have to tailor it to that too, so the footage/the look of it/the overall 'vibe' and so on should be what guides you for that.

I personally think trials videos should be short and sweet, quality rather than quantity!

It's possible to do a longer video that's higher quality. It just seems like there's not really much 'quality control' when people make videos for the most part, so random stuff gets added in just to fill up time, or clips that aren't really as good as they could be or that don't make the most of something. I'm not saying that my videos have all been flawless because they blatantly haven't been, but even doing simple stuff like trying to make sure that people do things without loads of correction hops and trying to make sure the filming's decent make what could be considered an average clip much better.

EDIT: For what it's worth though, go for it! I started the whole Clean thing because I knew there were awesome riders like Ben, Sam, Joel, etc. around that weren't really getting seen by people much, which is why the first proper video I did was just people I knew who were good. Although I could pretty much just watch a video of you on your own, if you try and get other people on-board with it then it can make it much more useful in a sense. It's actually a pretty good winter motivator too - the whole 001 video was filmed from January - April which is pretty much the shittiest time of year to ride plus the shittiest time to be standing around in the freezing cold filming, but it made it all fly by. There were shit times - I had one weekend where I drove from Blackpool -> London -> Bristol -> Blackpool over 2-3 days to try and film and it just rained super hard the whole time. The only thing I did was burn up a load of money in fuel, food and drink and just get to chat to some friends. It was worth it in any case though, if you put the hours in on something you're proud of then it'll be worth it even if everyone tells you it was shit

If you're willing to accept that ultimately you're only ever going to lose money, time, and the chance to ride then it's all good...

[Revolver]

With regard to video length, in a general sense it depends on how good the video is filmed/edited. I turn off dud vids after like 30 secs. Thankfully your vids ( and for that matter mark's) are well done so I could watch 30 mins of that happily. 24:2011 flies by!

[Culshaw95]

0-10 mins why are people voting for that i would rather watch a longer video. K-124 Days was great and that was half an hour in the same area but it was still great to see the amount of riders there and it truly shows how good they are ad shows how difficult it can get. 24:2011 was also good 20 mins is a reasonable length for a big edit it although i don't always like watching street trials that video was really good and hilarious

[JD™]

I put 15-20 only because I want it to get made - I reckon if you aim for 40 minutes or something you're going to end up losing steam at some point. Nothing against you, just feel like it takes a stupid amount of dedication to do something that long and life gets in the way.

I reckon I could easily watch 15-20 minutes of just you, but you'll struggle to make it all interesting enough maybe by that point so definitely bring in some others - even just for 30 second cameos each.

Music, like Mark said, just use what you like without using anything too obviously 'offensive' on the ears.

Re-iterating that the 20 mins of 24:2011 felt like about 3 because it was done well - you can easily keep people interested if you do it well.

[pengsmelly]

God shout flip

I mean if its 10-15mis (as I voted) it would be ideal to have a great variety or settings and riders as well as different styles with riders possibly working together, because then it appeals to a wider range of people.

You better get started!

[manuel]

I start to tune out after 5... (*)

general youtube user is less than three. Example - more than half the hits on the roadfbike video me and martyn did (over 1M views) would not have watched the flip at the end.

Make it as sections of around three minutes per rider, contrast the styles/ locations between sections. essentially make a few 3 minute videos.

(*) unless its the most greatest movie video of all time evarzz.

[J.KYDD]

By 'Big' video are we talking about something similar to Get 2? (in both quality and length)

If so 40mins is more than acceptable

I think music needs to mixed up all the way through (like MTB films) though i agree there should be no dubstep

Hip hop, chill/liquid d+b, funky breaks (A-skillz/Krafty kuts), acoustic and rock all have attributes which can enhance a videos watchability massivly. But done wrong can really make a segment hard to watch.

I think individual rider segments should show said rider in a variety of locations

Group rides are a cool way of showing off the social side of trials and this is where the mixing of riding styles should be used (24", streety, compy, TGS etc)

Edited October 13, 2011 by J.KYDD

[Phatmike]

Sorry I couldn't help in answering any of the poll questions Flip, but I'd quite happily sit through a 10 second video or a 3-hour video, but the key factor is how awesome it is!

Your videos are already really good, plus your riding these days in on another level. Keep on making videos of any length, and keep finding new ways to make them more awesome!

I'd rather you did make money out of doing it, at least then there's the incentive to go out and get some proper equipment, travelling and production value thrown into the mix.