Shooting video of 1/10 buggies

BORMAC · #1 25-03-2013

I'm reasonably new to this so I am hoping someone here might be able to help out.
I'm interested in shooting some quality video of 10th scale buggies at the track and even bashing in the park.
In the past I've set up a video camera on a tripod and also followed cars around the track whilst at a fixed point. Now this was all done previous to the HD revolution and even my PC doesn't do that we'll with HD.
Now days I have a GoPro2 Hero and I'm just starting to play with it now.

What I wanted to ask is what would be a good setting for this little HD Hero and what software should I look into for editing and stuff?

On the net I've been looking at tips for filming and hardware to assist but thought I'd check in here to see what you other guys can recommend.

Thanks in advance, Jason.

Danosborne6661 · #2 25-03-2013

720/60fps and spot metreing with the Hero 2, simply because slow motion shots look great when filming RC. You can still play back at normal speed like 24fps but you have the oppurtunity to slow it down without loosing out on frame rate. Spot Metreing over matrix because it will give what you're recording in the foreground more detail, matrix will give the overall picture a balance of detail so the sky you'll find will take away some of the detail from the cars you're filming.

I personally use Adobe Premiere Pro, as a designer I use the Adobe package like Photoshop/Illustrator day in day out so having this part of the package is great. You then also have facilities like Adobes After Effects and they all work hand in hand.

If you're just getting into it, I'd recommend Premiere Pro. Even Sony Vegas is decent but the plug-ins out there are limited. Final Cut X is also OK if you're using Apple but it is quite difficult to get to grips with in comparison to other software out there.

BORMAC · #3 26-03-2013

Great advice Dan, thank you for taking the time to explain these things to me.
I understand the FPS but can I ask what does 'spot metering' mean?

Danosborne6661 · #4 26-03-2013

The metering basically means where the light reading is taken from to determine correct exposure. Matrix takes the reading on average taking the whole frame into consideration and spot metring just takes the central point for the light reading. With spot metring you may find the sky will be overbloomed if its in the shot but this will allow what you're recording in the foreground to be correctly measure for brightness.

Have a look for GoPro Spot Metreing (Or Metering for American results) vs Matrix Metreing. It will give you a pretty clear indication on what both do.

Another tip for actually recording would be to to have a variety of clips, the same clips over and over again get boring. Even if other RC fanatics are viewing the video, they'll still find it dull if it's all just all just cars driving around. Break up the clips of the driving with sceneic shots, close up stills of the cars, film a tree for a little! It all adds to the variety. Vaterra are a new R/C company that have come about, their promotional videos are done in exactly this way -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooCTOKOml4k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdNFqb0tMb8

In my day to day job I get to film Ferrari 458's racing yet you still have to break it up with sceneic and still shots so the video doesn't get boring. Also try and cap yourself at making the vids 3mins max, we don't have a very long attention span us humans

jaysllim · #5 26-03-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danosborne6661

, we don't have a very long attention span us humans

Luvin tha comment dan lol but have to.............ow look at the bird outside,wa was i saying? Ow ye i agree lol

BORMAC · #6 28-03-2013

Thank you for taking the time to explain this further to me. I definately understand your points and I will definately take your advice.

Here's a video I shot a few years back of my Schumacher Cougar2 buggy at a local park. There are a lots of things I would do different this time (especialy close ups)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKUvDXENBmc

Danosborne6661 · #7 08-04-2013

I've just done this one in a few hours after filming yesterday if you'd like to take a look

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2joy6...eature=mh_lolz

BORMAC · #8 03-07-2013

Hi Dan.
Just looking through and trying to familiarise myself with the GoPro2 Hero and have found the spot metering function plus have opted to go with 720/50 (doesn't have 60 though?). Does this camera have a Matrix function? I am not familiar with this so I do need a hand with that.

As for content, yeah too much of the one thing gets boring and like you have done in your latest video I want to break up the action with other details also.

Great advise. Thanks- Jason

Danosborne6661 · #9 03-07-2013

Change the settings from PAL to NTSC. PAL only allows 50fps where as NTSC will allow you to go to 60fps for some strange reason! Not sure why but that's the case!

Spot metreing off means it will just be normal matrix metreing. In some conditions you'll find the Spot metreing doesn't work as well but it's worth experimenting with it. Make sure you update the GoPro to get rid of the horrible bugs it had on it's release. If you have an iPhone get the GoPro app too so you can see what the camera is viewing with a delay, it also allows you to change all the settings!