All the zones down in Newbattle woods were still neutral following the recent start of the round, and it was the ideal location for this second turf video. During this walk, I chat about a range of turf subjects.
Filming was done using the GoPro Hero 10 Black mounted on an Insta360 “Invisible” selfie stick* held at arm’s length. I wanted to keep things simple and also minimise the number of clips I would need to edit, cut and splice together afterwards. With each individual clip I discovered that simply recoding 10 seconds or so of footage at the beginning and also at the end without myself taking to camera allows me to easily trim the clips without losing any of the voiceover. I use Openshot Video Editing software for most of my editing. To edit the 360-degree footage from the GoPro Max, I use GoPro Player. Both are freely available online. Note you may need high-spec computing power to manage clips from either camera.
As I mention in the above video blog, I was originally planning to use the GoPro Max, a 360-degree camera, as the main camera, and use the GoPro Hero 10 for additional footage. However, editing the 360-degree footage is challenging and very time-consuming, to say the least, and I would need to edit each and every clip individually, then export them, then edit and join all the clips together into the finished video blog. It’s so much easier using the footage straight from the GoPro Hero 10 with minimal editing. But I do intend to persevere with the GoPro Max. I’ll get there eventually. And there’s also a DJI camera drone on the to-do-and-buy list.
For the equipment geeks out there and perhaps for those who might want to try this for themselves, here’s a list of my equipment. All the smaller items are carried in a GoPro hard case.
- GoPro Hero 10 Black camera.
- two spare batteries for GoPro Hero 10.
- GoPro Max 360-degree camera.
- two spare batteries for GoPro Max.
- two spare micro-SD media cards.
- Insta360 “Invisible” selfie stick.
- ground spike for selfie stick.
- GoPro remote control.
- spare GoPro mount screws, etc.
For some planned night filming, I also have the following:
- accessory bracket for lighting.
- two Lume Cube LED lights.
Actual recording the clips on location is simply a case of switching the camera on, allowing a reasonable gap then starting to talk to camera. Of course, working out what to say is not always so easy. What I do is think up a topic beforehand then just talk, though I’m pretty much making it up as I go along. No scripts or prompts here, just me rabbiting on about stuff and my apologies for wandering off topic at times. I use the gaps between filming clips to work out what to say next.
And then there’s the times when you are talking to camera and someone approaches. Initially, I’d stop filming until they were past but yesterday, I was in mid-flow and didn’t want to stop. Would have spoilt the clip, so I kept on recording. It’s funny, you worry yourself and get bothered about other people seeing you talking to camera but in reality, they don’t bat an eyelid. Yes, they stare at you and you imagine the thoughts going through their heads, like you would do yourself. But it doesn’t bother me now that I kept on filming when I passed some golfers on the path yesterday. Now that I’ve overcome that hurdle, I feel happy about filming in town or even on busy Edinburgh streets. Back soon. Heading out on the Swifty for my Daily-Five.
* The Insta360 “Invisible” selfie stick is so named because it has a very small head profile that is almost totally invisible in 360-degree footage.
Copyright ©2022 Gary Buckham. All rights reserved.
