Need Suggestions: Make 20 Videos of Baseball Hitters

[johnrr6]

I film a local HS Baseball team for their practice/use (my two sons play on the team).

I have video footage of basically every at bat----for every boy on the team----for the entire season-----20 games.

This would eqate to roughly every boy with 60 to 70 at bats.

My idea is to create a DVD of each boy----with their entire year's at bats. The seniors would receive this as a going away/graduation gift----and the returning boys on the team would receive a DVD as their "homework" for the summer to see what they were doing wrong (as well as right) while hitting.

The footage is basically broken down in captured "Scenes" which represent an inning of our team at bat.....

Here's my plan-----and does this sound feasible???

Suggestions welcome.....

I would take each of the "scenes" captured clips and use the split feature to split the footage and save each boy's batting in that clip as its own separate clip.

I'd organize and combine the 3-5 at bat clips from a single game into one "Chapter" clip using the "Set Chapter Point" in VS10+

I'd use the Library Manager to create storage folders for each boy with all the split out clips stored in them.

Ultimately-----there would be 20 "Chapters" each representing one game and 2-5 at bats (or----whatever the boy had during that particular game.)

Sound feasable???

Suggestions??

My one problem I have to give some thought to is that the game footage lies on two different computers and somehow I'll have to come up with a method of combining the footage on those two machines-----and storing the split out new clips in a central location.

Possibly a large USB external drive?????

Ideas welcome......

John

[kebrinton]

Sounds like the kind of thing I might try to do.

It also sounds like mostly a problem of organization. Creating a folder in Windows with each boy's name, then getting that boy's footage and nobody else's into that folder; etc.

I'd wait till the footage was in MPEG2 form before using an external HD to ferry one computer's stuff to the other computer: It's 1/3 the size of AVI format, which is what's on tape (unless you have a DVD camcorder).

[johnrr6]

Thanks for the reply-----agree-----it's an organizational challenge-----once I figure that out, it would just be time consuming to split out each boy's individual at bat footage and combine them into one storage location.

I think I could use the library manager and set up individual clip storage space for each boy.

Maybe start a "project" for each boy adding the clips in sequence as I go through them game by game.......

[Rich2Putt]

Hi John,

Seems like a hugh undertaking with all that footage. The most difficult part any video editor has is editing out family & friends in the final production. Keep in mind your audience & the content. Every video should have a story, a beginning, middle & end. Keep it interesting, short & to the point.

From a general audience point of view, watching 20 chapters of one baseball player doing basically the same thing for 30-60 min would get awefully boring.

I always found that less is better & have your audience wanting to see more at the end. Good luck with your project.

[Black Lab]

I sort of agree with Rich2Putt. No offense, but a "going away/graduation present" of a 60 minute, twenty chapter video of me taking 70 at bats could be a little much. Sort of like the proverbial tie on Fathers Day. A nice thought, but kind of boring. On the other hand, as a training tool it could be good, especially if you use slo-mo.

I'm actually in the middle of this very same thing right now. My son's team is about to wrap up its 10-game school season. I videotape them when they are at bat and in the field. I keep only the highlights and get rid of the rest. I add music, effects such as slo-mo, and it usually ends up to be between 10 & 15 minutes of a high energy, action packed highlight reel. The kids seem to enjoy it, and I enjoy the challenge of making it different for all of his sports/seasons (soccer, basketall & baseball).

So what I'm say is, you may want to decide what it is you really want to pruduce. A nice gift of a season to remember, or a training video, or both - either separate or in combination. You are limited only by your imagination (and of course time!)

If a training video is what you are after, then I think you are on the right track. Figuring out the procedure that works best will be your greatest challenge, but once you do it's gravy from then on.

Good luck!

[johnrr6]

Thanks----and you raise a valid point I hadn't thought of.....

Training versus entertainment.....

The graduation gift should be more polished and entertaining-----probably highlights----every time the boy had a hit or drove in a run.....

Certainly not the strikeouts or pop-ups.....

And-----I had another shock while I was reviewing the video....

The Panasonic 3CCD camera I use seems to have an excellent built in microphone. It picks up all kinds of background.....

Such as me swearing when one of my sons hit into a double play at a critical time.....

Or-----another father talking poorly about a certain player on the team----which wasn't his son....

Yessiree----going to have to edit audio as well......

The project gets bigger every time I look at it......

Thanks-------John

[Rich2Putt]

I noticed the same thing when I first started using a camcorder. Now before I begin to shoot, I place a piece of duct tape over my mouth (works everytime)

[the gooch]

Hi,

I also have many avi files as we produce a bike show for our community tv. I got myself an external portable hard drive which i keep all of the avi files on. The computer runs well when adding and saving files to it and they are safe in the case of the computer breaking down. Especially if the files are of family which you do not want to lose ever. Once you have finished using the files you can also burn them to a dvd where you can use them again at any time.

An idea for a dvd could be make one dvd for the whole club that is funny and entertaining with all of the players on it . Try adding bloopers that always works. And then you could make one dvd thats for training purposes using the current players as examples.

Enjoy!

[sjj1805]

How about something they do after big sporting events like the
10 best goals (soccer) or the 10 best shots (snooker) that sort of thing

Then to add a bit of humour the worst 10.....