GoPro

For advanced users seeking ultimate creative control we recommend experimenting with cropping or stretching footage yourself (see the “Cropping and Stretching” section in Chapter 5). (Location 456)

The GoPro’s Wide, Medium, and Narrow modes have FOVs of 170, 127, and 90 degrees, respectively. (Location 466)

Wide (170 degrees) = 14 mm Focal Length Medium (127 degrees) = 21 mm Focal Length Narrow (90 degrees) = 28 mm Focal Length (Location 469)

The standard frame rates used for television in the world today are 30 fps in the United States, and 25 fps in parts of Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. (Location 480)

HERO4 added photo-specific Protune settings (much like those of video) and powerful new Night Photo and Night-Lapse modes, which feature adjustable long exposure times from 2 to 30 seconds. (Location 522)

mode. If you are inclined to experiment, photo white balance should only be changed for a specific reason, such as while shooting night photos or time-lapses (Location 547)

Exposure settings beyond Auto require more consideration. The manually selected 2- and 5-second exposure times are great for cityscapes, thunderstorms, fireworks, and light painting. 10-to-20-second exposures work well for full moon landscapes and rural settings. With these longer exposures, try lowering the ISO in Protune for less grain (but also less light). 30-second exposures with an 800 ISO will yield the best star-lapses. (Location 564)

Helmet-cams, head straps, and Chesty mounts are almost always in a 4:3 mode with the camera aimed a few degrees farther down to capture the arms, legs, and ball. More experimental mounts such as the gnarwhal, spinner, or stick mounts offer very stunning cinematic shots but are obviously not as practical or safe in actual high-impact game situations. (Location 1939)

There is a saying in film: A story is told three times. Once in writing. Once in production. Once in editing. This idea can be applied to GoPro filmmaking. (Location 1998)

Preparation Good filmmakers understand the direction of the story and the (Location 2007)

structure from start to finish, while adapting along the way. This requires planning. Sloppy filmmakers just shoot everything and expect to make sense of it later in the edit. You can always cobble something together in editing, but it’s painful and less elegant. When a story is truly directed from the beginning, it can become far more powerful. (Location 2008)

Story Research and Planning If you want to create a story, the first question you should ask yourself is this: What am I passionate about? What do I want to experience? Maybe you just… (Location 2011)

Once you have the idea, explore YouTube and Google to gain knowledge and understanding of the locations and characters. Look at photos and Facebook pages. Research every website on the topic you can find. Listen to interviews of characters you’re interested in—they can provide a sense of depth in your story. Make phone calls or Skype with potential subjects who live in the area or have previously traveled there. Consider logistics: permits, visas, immunizations, weather, and safety. How much time is required to properly experience… (Location 2015)

This can be one of the most enjoyable parts of the pre-production stage, and it helps your mind start visualizing creative ideas for the film. This visualization can propel you into the stage of writing or sketching the… (Location 2024)

Story Building Blocks Story building blocks are the basic foundation on which your story can be built. When preparing for a production, we always plan on capturing the following general building blocks: Introduce the environment and characters. Including yourself. Who are we and where are we? Capture the climactic moment. This is what you came… (Location 2028)

Document the resolution. This is an easy one to forget. Whether it’s victory or failure, capture it all. The climactic moment is almost always planned, because it’s the whole reason you are telling the story. On an average story shoot, we plan for five days minimum—one day for scouting, three days for filming, and one day as a buffer for the weather. The sooner you can capture the climactic moment, the better. You can spend the remaining days covering the other building blocks. In preparation, figuring… (Location 2034)

The best climactic scenarios involve a character who overcomes an obstacle. When telling a GoPro story, the obstacle is often inherent to the experience. For example, let’s say you were about to go paragliding with a hawk today, but it’s windy and dangerous and the guide doesn’t speak your language. Capitalize on these buts and document them. With experience, you will learn to adapt your… (Location 2043)

Currently, the our media production teams use a Countryman waterproof lavalier with an 1/8-inch plug that connects into a USB adapter. It’s decently priced and durable, and it provides great sound when clipped or taped onto a lapel/shirt. In conjunction with a Chesty mount, you can simultaneously capture great audio and POV video during an active interview. (Location 2072)

K-Tek, creator of the Norbert, also sells great small furs for lavs. (Location 2077)

use. For something more durable, Shure makes a great short shotgun mic called the VP83. (Location 2079)

What’s in Your Pack? Here are the essentials that we as GoPro filmmakers carry in our backpack on any given production: 4 to 6 cameras in waterproof cases with quick-release (QR) buckles 4 Frame mounts with protective lens covers and QR buckles 1 LCD BacPac with backdoor 1 Battery BacPac with backdoor 1 Smart Remote and charger 10 Adhesive Mounts (curved, flat, and surf) 1 grab bag of mounts (quick-release buckles, J-hooks, extension arms, etc.) (Location 2084)

Production Telling a story with GoPro is an art unto itself. In our media department, we refer to individuals with this skill as production artists. Production artists are like independent directors. While shooting on a production, they must be conscious of camera placement, coverage, (Location 2122)

sound, light, recording interviews, logging and reviewing footage each day... all while being aware (Location 2124)

Wide shot: The primary focus of a wide shot is the setting and then the character(s) within it. This is standard and typically static. The wide shot is used as reference for the rest of the coverage. For GoPro, a wide means the camera is not usually attached to the character. The tiny camera also allows the filmmaker to transform a static wide to a dynamic moving wide. Steadicams, poles, handheld gyros, or drones are the best tools for this. We typically shoot both a drone and a follow-cam for coverage, usually running the (Location 2145)

Full shot: The primary focus of a full shot is the character’s full body interacting with the setting. This is achieved by mounting the camera several feet away from any part of the body via equipment or a long extension such as a pole, spinner, surfboard, or ski tip. Medium close-up shot: As the camera moves closer, the primary focus of a medium close-up shot begins to shift from the setting and character’s body to the face. Sometimes, only half the body is seen and can feel larger than the setting itself. (Location 2151)

Close-up shot: The focus of a close-up shot is solely on the character’s face while the setting fades into the periphery. (Location 2156)

POV shot: With a POV shot, the audience is experiencing everything from the subject’s perspective. (Location 2159)

Primaries and Secondaries Traditionally, directors use storyboards and shot lists to plan their shots. At GoPro, we generally don’t storyboard each sequential shot. If it helps you, however, then by all means do it. We often draw (Location 2164)

camera and mount setup diagrams for important scenes. Whether a character or vehicle, draw a stick figure with GoPro cameras and all the potential mounting options. (Location 2166)

We generally shoot what are called primaries and secondaries. Primaries are shot first, especially when the scenario is new and unknown, and they usually consist of wide shots and POV coverage. The primaries provide the essential angles you need—so (Location 2168)

Secondary setups involve backpacks, poles, armatures, and gnarwhals—generally, things you don’t want to (Location 2171)

Well in advance, the filmmaker and character should decide what POV mount is as natural a part of the character’s ensemble as a shirt or a hat would be. (Location 2173)

Before embarking on an adventure, always ask yourself, “What’s my next unique shot?” We always aim for one new type of shot every production, something we haven’t seen or tried before. (Location 2185)

Light Light plays a crucial role in capturing impactful footage as well as emotion for your story. On productions, we often schedule a specific afternoon or even full day to scout each location and understand what is best for (Location 2190)

lighting. As in all outdoor photography, dawn and dusk are the most ideal conditions. (Location 2192)

Low Light GoPro was conceived with outdoor settings in mind. (Location 2227)

At GoPro, we always set the ISO or gain to 400 for video. This will cause the camera to crush the blacks regardless of the lighting conditions, keeping the processor from ramping the gain and creating image noise. (Location 2231)

GoPro has also introduced an Auto Low Light mode for users who may not be as conscious of light levels and frame rates. In this mode, the camera detects if the light drops below an acceptable level and automatically slows down to 30 fps. (Location 2238)

Directing the Interview Everyone has a genuine story to tell. (Location 2252)

A typical GoPro interview setup combines a short shotgun on top of a Norbert with two cameras. Each camera is set to different FOVs, such as 4K Wide and 2.7K Medium. Medium FOV limits any facial distortion and feels more natural. (Location 2255)

When directing interviews, remember the following principles: Do your research beforehand. It’s good to ask for explanations and clarity, but don’t arrive clueless. An informed interviewer gains the subject’s trust. Double-check audio levels and recording. Nothing is worse than doing the same interview twice due to technical issues. Turn off the blinking red light on the GoPro. It can be distracting and remind the subject they are being recorded, which makes them self-conscious. Keep the lens at eyeline. Too high or too low can be unflattering, unless it is a deliberate thematic choice. (Location 2258)

Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a “yes” or “no.” Tell your interviewee to reformulate your questions as the first part of the answer. This provides needed context to the answers in editing. Be conscious of keeping the subject’s audio clean. Don’t interrupt the end of his or her lines when conversing or asking the next question. For encouragement, offer a silent nod or smile. Be aware of voice quality, pacing, and energy. If the subject is speaking too fast, calm them down with deep breaths. Do physical exercise to get a flat or bored subject’s heart beating. When someone is energized but speaking slowly, it adds weight to the words. (Location 2266)

Static Interviews The classic “talking head” is a static interview. (Location 2290)

A very slight bit of movement from a slider with layered background elements will feel more dynamic. If you don’t have a slider, try to make your static unique. (Location 2294)

Active Interviews Active interviews can open up a world of layered storytelling. (Location 2306)

One of the most cinematic techniques for active interviews is using a steadicam or handheld gimbal. Floating around a character as they are in the midst of showing you the surroundings and what they are passionate about can be dynamic and inspiring. (Location 2315)

Interview Theory Of the five Ws—who, what, where, when, and why—the “why” is the real question you need answered, and it often serves as an underlying theme of the story. (Location 2332)

It’s useful to prepare your list of guidance questions over the first few days of a shoot, arrange them with a few warmup questions, and then throw in a challenging one relating to the thematic “why.” (Location 2364)

Environmentals and Time-Lapses Environmentals are shots that depict a story’s location, often also showing the characters within it. They can be used as a video’s opening, resolution, to bridge between story beats, or to convey the passage of time or journey. (Location 2386)

For video environmentals, set up foreground elements to give depth. (Location 2390)

However, we use photo time-lapse mode for sunrise and sunset when good exposure and low light is needed or when shooting over extended periods of time. (Location 2396)

Environmentals are best used to introduce and underscore themes in a video, as in “Remembering Sion Milosky.” The opening time-lapse, captured with an egg timer, (Location 2398)

Downloading and Review Good organization of video footage starts on-site while the filmmaker is still shooting. When downloading all the footage at the end of the day, we tend to organize GoPro video files by character and by mount. All of Character A’s helmet-cam for a given day goes into one folder, Character (Location 2450)

B’s helmet-cam into another, and so forth. We then label the folders. (Location 2453)

For a production, one of the most critical and easily forgotten steps is footage review. This should take place each night when downloading the SD cards. (Location 2455)

We shot the entire thing with a handful of cameras and a couple of filmmaking toys: a drone, a Kessler Cineslider, a Glidecam, and a Sail System Backpack. Our audio gear included a lavalier mic and a shotgun mic. It was an uncomplicated shoot, simple and realistic for two friends, but it yielded one of the deepest stories we’ve ever told. (Location 2580)

The Sun Seeker app uses a phone’s GPS to project the sun’s path (Location 2600)

while standing at a location. This allowed us to plot out the best time of day when the sun was peeking between tall skyscrapers to light up a location. (Location 2600)

Editors must keep the audience immersed in the video experience at all times. They do this by sequencing story events, cutting unnecessary action, and maintaining continuity in time and space. (Location 2670)

Use the free GoPro Studio to convert your MP4s into the GoPro Cineform codec, an editing codec that allows for a much smoother editing workflow. (Location 2690)

Organization Organizing a project before you’ve even begun will save you hours in editing. It also helps you find important files later and keeps you from accidentally deleting something imporant. We typically create a root folder with the name of the shoot or project and then place the following folders inside: Exports: Contains the exported finished product of your video, as (Location 2697)

well as any compressed versions for upload to the web. GoPro Raw: All the video files, straight from the camera in .mp4 format with the original GoPro file names (i.e. eGOPR0001), that you will be using for the edit. Never delete your raws! Music: Music files you might use for the edit. Scratch: Editing and visual effects programs usually require a space to store temporary data when rendering. Instruct the program to save those here. Selects: If you are transcoding, this folder will contain the best moments of footage, transcoded to the editing codec and renamed for clarity. SFX: Any sound effects files you will use. (Location 2701)

VFX: Project files, temporary files, and exports for any visual effects you will be doing in another program, such as Adobe After Effects. (Location 2712)

Don’t fall into the trap of cutting before you have a plan. Or trying to force a story before understanding what story the footage is trying to tell. (Location 2719)

Over the years we’ve developed a workflow that helps editors avoid getting lost in the woods through proper planning and direction. We tend to break the editing process into five stages: 1. Selects 2. Paper cut 3. Rough cut 4. Second pass 5. Final pass (Location 2723)

The first and arguably most important step of the editing flow is making selects, which are the best moments in your footage with all the unusable or uninteresting parts trimmed out. The selecting process is where the editor begins to understand the story being told by the footage. Upon completion, you should have every shot (Location 2738)

you need for the eventual finished edit. Selects are the building blocks of the story. In the paper cut stage, you will decide which building blocks best tell that story. The selecting process is also the moment of truth when you find out the difference between what you think you shot and what you actually shot. (Location 2740)

It’s useful to categorize your selects according to function: action shots, establishing shots, interviews, transitions, time-lapses, and so on. Depending on the amount of footage and complexity of the edit, the selecting process can take anywhere from a few hours to days. In general, we select almost everything that is potentially usable. You don’t want to end up going back to the raws later, just to find that one shot you missed. It’s also useful to not trim your selects too tightly. Leaving an extra 3–5 seconds on the head and tail of each shot ensures flexibility on the timeline later. (Location 2744)

If you are editing in a program such as Adobe Premiere Pro, transcoding is not necessary because the program can handle GoPro’s H.264 compression. However, you should still go through the selecting process. (Location 2753)

A paper cut is basically an outline of the most essential moments or beats in your story. This might consist of a half-dozen frame grabs accompanied by relevant notes on each beat with music and important quotes. A paper cut gives you a good starting place and keeps you from getting lost in the forest during the editing process—because it provides a roadmap and directions. A paper cut keeps you from falling victim to major holes and pitfalls. (Location 2757)

In filmmaking, stories usually involve a character who must overcome a problem. The story will have a beginning, middle, and end. These three stages unfold through beats: moments when an event, decision, or discovery moves the story’s narrative forward, usually bringing the character closer to overcoming the problem. (Location 2804)

deer, but the story is much more impactful when the editor takes time to set up the problem. In this case, the two men discuss what to do, search for the right tools, try to rig the deer, and so on. All this setup creates anticipation for the moment when the problem is overcome. (Location 2809)

Story happens when an interesting character is given a problem to solve or an obstacle to overcome. (Location 2833)

Classically, four kinds of problems exist in stories and they are usually framed as conflicts: Human versus nature: A human versus nature conflict is arguably the most common, whether it’s a snowboarder taking on the mountain, a surfer pitted against the power of the ocean, or a BASE jumper defying gravity. Human versus human: Human versus human conflict is most notably seen in racing and competitions. Human versus society: Human versus society conflict often drives our conservation pieces, where we address problems created by larger human society. (Location 2837)

Human versus self: Human versus self conflict is a little more nuanced. Often, conflicts in the other three categories reveal internal conflicts inside the character. The human versus self conflict pits a character against some aspect of himself or herself that must be overcome. You can see a good example in the “Jeb Corliss and Roberta Mancino: Wingsuit Flyers” video featured here, as the athletes conquer their own fears in order to perform death-defying stunts. (Location 2845)

Beginning: The character is introduced in the beginning of the edit. Middle: The character faces obstacles, which lead eventually to the greatest obstacle, or climax. Here, the character either overcomes or fails to overcome the greatest obstacle. End: The characters react to their success, or failure, in the end of the edit. (Location 2863)

beats. Beats are those key moments you identify in the paper cut, when an event, decision, or discovery moves the story forward. (Location 2869)

The rough cut stage focuses on the more mechanical facets of editing. This includes configuring the timeline, maintaining continuity, using different types of cuts, speed changes, time-lapses, and voiceover. (Location 2942)

device. If you are editing for web, 1920×1080 is a good choice for online video players such as YouTube and Vimeo. (Location 2952)

One easy way to establish continuity in space is to begin a sequence with wide shots before cutting in closer to introduce the characters and action. This principle applies throughout a video. Any time a major environmental change occurs, the editor should take a moment to make sure the audience knows where they are. (Location 2972)

When is a cut motivated and useful? When it shows the action better from a different angle, changes time or location to advance the story, removes nonessential or uninteresting footage to speed things up, shows something that is referenced or implied in the shot before (as in a cutaway), or conincides with major music cues. Music cues—including huge hits; changes in mood, tempo, or instrumentation; beginnings and ends of verses, choruses, and bridges—can serve as natural cutting points, especially in montages. (Location 3009)

The action cut (traditionally called match on action) takes advantage of two different angles of the same action by cutting between them. Continuity between angles is maintained by the action of the subject and the setting itself. The added perspective lends depth to an otherwise straightforward POV sequence. (Location 3018)

Match Cut Action cuts are actually a specific form of the more general idea of match cutting. (Location 3034)

Match cuts create a flow that keeps the viewer engaged in the video even when cutting between very different times and locations. (Location 3036)

The wipe is a special form of match cutting in which movement across the frame or obstruction of the lens is matched between shots. (Location 3047)

Also, it’s good to note that most editing programs include a cross-dissolve function. Bad cross dissolves are one of the hallmarks of novice editing. They work best when used to fuse shots that are already match cut; otherwise, it’s best to avoid using them. (Location 3049)

Jump Cut With the jump cut, the same perspective is retained from shot to shot but the action jumps in time. (Location 3059)

The primary use of jump cutting is to compress time. (Location 3065)

The whole purpose of smash cutting is to draw attention to the cut. In this sense, it is the exact opposite of match cutting. The smash cut takes advantage of contrasting imagery, action, or sound to startle the audience. (Location 3085)

Cutaway and Crosscutting A cutaway does just what it says: cuts (Location 3090)

away to another shot to show something implied or referenced in the first. In interviews, characters often discuss ideas or actions for which you have footage. (Location 3091)

Crosscutting is cutting from a shot or sequence to show a parallel shot or sequence. This is useful when you want to connect multiple ideas or stories simultaneously. (Location 3094)

Another great use for slow motion is footage stabilization. You can greatly smooth out shaky handheld, pole, drone, or POV footage by dropping the speed. (Location 3118)

You can find many tricks and tutorials online, but in general, shoot in 60 fps or above and avoid fast motion and complicated foregrounds/backgrounds to get the (Location 3138)

best results. (Location 3139)

For POV footage especially, we often hide speed ramps in launches and landings of a jump to slow down time in the air and emphasize the athlete’s weightless performance. When implemented correctly, speed ramping flows with the story rather than calling attention to itself in an obvious way. When used stylistically, speed ramping dramatically accelerates the audience into a climactic moment instead of just cutting to it. (Location 3141)

Transitionally, a speed ramp to fast speed with a little bit of motion blur can “portal” or wipe from one setting to the next. Most editing programs have variable speed control built into them, so ramping can be as easy as keyframing a starting and ending speed. (Location 3145)

For POV or moving shots, accelerating footage works well with upbeat or fast music. Often, we use a little motion blur and a vignette to give the audience a sense of warping through time. (Location 3160)

Time-lapses on the editing timeline generally serve three functions: establishing, pacing, and passage of time. They are often seen in the beginning of a video or particular sequence, where they introduce an environment. They can be introduced at critical points in the edit to control a story’s pacing. Finally, time-lapses convey time’s passage and can be used to emphasize the amount of time between one event and another. The HD HERO2 reel, featured here, uses time-lapses to establish environments, both at the beginning and throughout the edit inside individual sequences. (Location 3185)

In low light conditions, photo time-lapses may require additional work in post-production. We use the denoiser in DaVinci Resolve or After Effects if noise is an issue. (Location 3194)

We recommend using a deflickering plug-in to smooth out problem time-lapses. (Location 3196)

Interviews and Voiceover Proper use of interview audio, sound bytes, and voiceover starts during the selects stage and influences the structure of the paper cut. Interview audio tracks are often very long. A good workflow is to import these tracks directly into your editor, create a new timeline, and listen through the newly imported audio, trimming the audio track so only those clips pertaining to the story remain. (Location 3208)

Before you screen, make sure the story is complete and you aren’t missing beats. The video should be watchable, but not perfect. Don’t worry about seamless transitions or color. The review is about structure and communicating an idea with your story, not about little details that will be polished later. (Location 3240)

Once that person has seen the cut, you can ask questions such as: Do you know who the characters are and what they want? (Location 3244)

Do the sequences and beats lead to a climax? Is the ending earned? Does it feel as if the character has overcome something or learned something? (Location 3246)

The “Monster Energy Supercross Highlights” video featured in this section offers a phenomenal example of how acceleration in cutting speed affects the pacing of a sequence. The video opens with slow wide shots and the cuts quicken with the music and action. The cutting speed stairsteps once or twice before the final ascent. (Location 3268)

The video ends at the point of maximum tension, both musically and on the timeline, as the cuts are almost too fast for the eye to follow. (Location 3271)

Placing 4:3 aspect ratio footage on a 16:9 timeline will result in black bars on either side of the video. In the GoPro workflow, we usually leave the footage in this state until the final pass stage of an edit. (Location 3345)

The editor has two options for dealing with 4:3 footage: dynamic stretching or cropping. If you don’t want to lose any pixels or important information at the top or bottom of the frame, dynamic stretching is the best option. (Location 3347)

The time for working on sound is usually right after the editor has locked the visual cut. In this stage of editing, you focus on mixing raw camera audio, voiceover, and music levels; applying audio filters; and even adding sound effects to make the action onscreen more impactful. (Location 3372)

Many editing applications have filters to impact the way an audio track sounds. Using a hi-pass, low-pass, or bandpass filter can reduce the amplitude of undesired audio frequencies inside a clip, such as wind noise, traffic noise, or camera impacts. Reverb is another useful filter. It simulates the echoing of sound in larger spaces, and has many uses stylistic uses. (Location 3381)

Motion stabilizers have become a standard feature in many editing and visual effects programs. Motion stabilization works by analyzing the overall motion of an image and then compensating by cropping in and moving the entire image in the direction opposite the camera shake. These features work best when the shakiness is relatively minimal. They cannot correct for those times when the image itself becomes deformed by motion, such as with rolling shutter caused by high-frequency vibration. Applying motion stabilization is time-consuming, so you should only use it to salvage shots that are crucial to sequences or a story. (Location 3398)

For both text and graphics, After Effects is the program of choice for GoPro’s media department. (Location 3415)

We often deal with user-generated content where the shooter (Location 3417)

captured the middle part of the story and climax, but didn’t get any introductory or ending footage. The easiest way to create context or a resolution for these pieces is to overlay a little paragraph of text that introduces the characters or explains the results of their story, as the situation requires. (Location 3418)

Most editing programs have color correction modules for adjusting your images. At GoPro, we often use DaVinci Resolve, (Location 3442)

You can achieve phenomenal results by adjusting two (Location 3444)

simple aspects of an image. The first aspect is contrast. Adding contrast increases the range of brightness in an image by darkening the shadows and lightening the highlights. While working with contrast, we recommend using a waveform to make sure you don’t push the shadows or highlights too far, resulting in clipping and a loss of definition. The second aspect of an image to adjust is color balance. This refers to adjusting the overall hue of the image. Shots filmed at sunset can be overly red or orange. Overcast shots are often a little blue. Water scatters red light, so anything filmed at more than a few feet underwater will be bluish-green. Color balancing all of these shots can make them look more natural, and is done by adding opposing colors into the image. (Location 3445)

As you work with color, you’ll get an idea for its many uses. We often use subtle vignettes to focus the viewer’s eye on what is important in frame. You can use color stylistically to create a tone, look, and feel for a video. (Location 3452)

For a product release montage, editors tend to group shots into several different categories. Introductory shots introduce the characters and their environments. Gear-up shots show the characters getting ready, whether they are literally putting on gear or traveling toward their environmental obstacle. Action shots show the characters conquering inherent obstacles or danger. Reaction shots capture the characters in moments of genuine reaction to their triumph. These tend to be smiles, celebrations, and expressions of gratitude toward life or nature. Reactions form crucial interludes between action sequences. They give the video a sense of continual reprise (Location 3515)

Bookends refer to beginning and ending a video with the same or similar shot—a useful technique in (Location 3650)

dramatic storytelling. Probably the most common use of bookends features a character returning to the physical location where the story began. (Location 3651)

The intermission is particularly useful in breaking up action footage. Music and action cutting have a tendency to put viewers in a kind of trance. An intermission can break the trance and command attention. You can use an intermission in various ways, including communicating character insight, introducing music transitions, juxtaposing environments, or giving consequence to an action (such as a crash). (Location 3659)

Travel Montage What do you do when you have a lot of footage from a lot of different places? One of the simplest ways to use everything in a cohesive manner is to give the audience a tour. Keeping characters constant while cutting to different times and locations maintains continuity and lets the audience feel as if they are (Location 3675)

traveling alongside them. (Location 3678)

The journey is a classic adventure film structure. It is like a travel montage, but with a more clearly defined beginning and end, fewer locations, and a major emphasis on storytelling. (Location 3703)

Music Video One reason music works so well with narrative is that well-crafted songs and stories have many similarities. They both contain well-defined sections that give them structure. (Location 3757)

We spent a lot of time formulating the building blocks of the story on-site. Each night, we logged footage to see what worked and what didn’t. Then we discussed which beats we wanted to film the (Location 3781)

next day. (Location 3783)

As a filmmaker, it’s good to note that one of the best ways to make your audience root for the protagonist is to have another character tell the protagonist they can’t do something. Such a side character, who challenges or empowers the protagonist, is often called a foil. (Location 3813)

The Inner Conflict Falling into the default mode of action sports cutting is easy while editing GoPro footage. Pick a cool song, throw in some face shots for the intro, line up your action sequences, and just cut cut cut to the beat. But sometimes when you’re focused on reproducing what feels familiar, you miss a chance to tell a unique story. (Location 3832)

One of the things he was growing was his little girl, Marley, (Location 3841)

A common way to use music is to create tension with a brooding song and then bring on the more evocative, soaring tracks as the tension resolves. (Location 3843)

Over the years, one of our mottos at GoPro has been: try to do something new with each and every video, even if it is only one thing. (Location 3957)

The effort may work, it may not. But just by trying you have pushed your own limits and will grow as a creative artist. (Location 3959)

Short Feature In feature-length films, structure is traditionally broken down into three acts. Each act can weave and twist and turn in all kinds of wild and interesting ways. (Location 3971)

Using the proper workflow, you can take GoPro footage from the camera to fully edited video with very little, if any, loss in image quality. You can do a number of things to maintain quality: keep the camera’s firmware updated; use the correct settings during the transcoding, editing, and exporting stages of video creation; and avoid overly aggressive color correction or zooming of footage while editing. (Location 4081)

If you have a history of good content, subscribers will look forward to your next project. Another thing is to find a niche, a look and style that is your own, and stay consistent to that. Focus on image quality, content, story...something that’s going to give your videos an edge over everyone else. (Location 4137)

always tell people to stick to it and really hone their skills as an artist, videographer, and editor, and people will pick up on it naturally. (Location 4143)

First, post your photos at noon, Pacific Standard Time. That way you get the people at lunch break on the West Coast, people just getting off work on the East Coast, and anyone who isn’t in bed yet in Europe. Second, post consistently. (Location 4164)

I use the GoPro App to send the photo to my phone. Then I’ll use Snapseed to do a basic color pass before bringing it into Instagram. I used to take a lot more photos with my iPhone or DSLR, but these days 95% of my Instagrams are GoPro. (Location 4167)

Once the raw video arrived, Tyler spent the better part of several weeks really crafting the story—selecting the best shots, sound designing the breathing and sirens for the intro, recording radio voiceover, and selecting music. The content was there, but he needed to bring out the story in editing to make it really shine. (Location 4219)