• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

Action cam users - how much time do you spend editing?

greenmonster

greenmonster

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 7, 2013
Location
Pleasanton
Moto(s)
2022 Suzuki Hayabusa
Name
Ed
I’m thinking about an Insta360 4 Air as a dash cam but also to make and post vids on YouTube or Instagram for fun.
I’ve been watching videos on editing and it appears to be easy enough.
There are also AI editors available.

My question is - how much editing time does it normally take to make a decent video?
I don’t have hours to spend and I’m not trying to become an “influencer” but the creative aspect has me hooked.
 
greenmonster said:
My question is - how much editing time does it normally take to make a decent video?
Click to expand...
I haven't done it.

But, I would say it take 3-5 x as long as the video that you're making, since you have to gather up the parts, stitch 'em together, watch the thing, fix it, and then adding in titles or any of that stuff.

That's assuming you have vague ideas of what parts of the original you want to get and you can zip through the master cutting chunks out of it.
 
I am a relative newbie at this, as I have only been doing video for about 6 months. I have a two camera setup on my bike. I started using iMovie for editing and have since graduated to Final Cut Pro. The amount of time you spend will initially be discovering what is possible with the software you choose. For me it was slow at first. I tend to be a perfectionist . In editing you have to be ruthless and throw out most of your footage and keep just the gold clips. No one watches 45 minutes of someone else's ride. I spend about 3 days editing a days worth of footage as I am slow and still learning. (about 3-4 hours worth which results in a 5-10 minute final video). Two cameras and especially a 360 cam will increase the amount of time you need to spend editing. :2cents
 
Yeah, that darn learning curve! One thing I read is that once you know how to edit you start filming with the edit in mind instead of dealing with a bunch of useless raw footage.
Sorta like recognizing how much oatmeal and water you'll need to make a bowlful instead of starting with 5 pounds of oats and a gallon of water.

The cool thing about the 360 cam is that you pick a key frame of the bike, then a key frame of the trees on the side of the road, then a key frame of the rear and so on.
Then choose the transitions you want and the whole thing comes together automatically. This is on the Insta360 editing platform.

They make it sound so easy. Hmmmmm.
 
I have a lot of unedited footage because it takes a while to sift through it and splice together the good bits. Apparently Instas software does pretty well at that, but all my stuff is on a time year old GoPro 🤷‍♂️
 
Totally depends on the content. But 3-4hrs for 10-15min video is not unreasonable. Your first one could take 8hrs or 30min depending on how detailed and how good you want to make it.

360 cameras add another step to editing. You gotta turn the 360 video into regular non-360 video by picking which direction you want to see and how to transition btw each. Then you do the regular editing. That extra step can double the time.

DaVince Resolve works well and is free. Start learning hot keys immediately.
 
Don't forget after you get a decent video you still need sound. Almost always require some voice over. Music it the hard part for me, YouTube has some free music you can use but need to download and put in your video before uploading. If you want copyright music you need a paid subscription.
 
I had a couple of action cams then discovered I never had much interest it rewatching almost anything I recorded.
But then I wasn’t really living the Red Bull lifestyle either.
 
Yep, after posting a vid I don’t think I’d much interest in viewing it again. Maybe later when I don’t/can’t ride anymore.
For me the fun would come in the creation.
 
Good audio quality is arguably more important for enjoyable viewing than video quality, especially for voices. You may need a lav mic for your recording situation because recording voices with the camera generally sucks. YouTube seems to be using the DJI Mic Mini. Reviews for Insta360s version aren’t great
 
berth said:
I haven't done it.

But, I would say it take 3-5 x as long as the video that you're making, since you have to gather up the parts, stitch 'em together, watch the thing, fix it, and then adding in titles or any of that stuff.

That's assuming you have vague ideas of what parts of the original you want to get and you can zip through the master cutting chunks out of it.
Click to expand...
:love

"I haven't done it but here's my input" :laughing

:thumbup
 
Depends on the kind of video I want to make. A lot of the time I just package up the video as recorded, toss in some music, and go. That's maybe 5 minutes of editing for every 20 minutes of video- time to line up music, crossfade clips, etc. If I have to source music that is maybe 2x so 10 minutes per 20 minutes. If I'm making a highly edited video with lots of clips from many days of riding it can be longer than that- I've spent hours on one ten minute video before. So the answer to your question is actually "it's infinite"- you can spend as little or as much time editing as you like depending on the type and quality of output you care to produce. You can in fact polish that turd forever.
 
Jump cuts every 2-3sec is the “easy” way to make an engaging video. If you want to have a longer shot, something better be moving in frame and it better be exciting movement. Splice in b-roll for talking head shots to make them a lot better. If you want to show a static image, make sure to apply KenBurns effect.

I could never put in the effort to do all that. So my vids always felt lacking.
 
Just bought an insta360 camera, and filmed my first ride. Has anyone mastered the dark arts of deep tracking in Insta360 Studio? I'm struggling to get it to track another rider as we pass each other back and forth. I'm wondering if my PC is just not up to the task.

So far - 3 hours riding, 6 hours post editing! :loco
 
Holy mackerel!

I’ve been watching a bunch of YouTube vids on this and the more I see the more I realize I don’t have the time needed to edit footage and use all the tools this camera platform offers.

I understand there’s a way Insta 360 can create an AI generated edit so that might be a solution.
But the whole thing about key frames and swiveling the shot to track an object, or other rider, or slowing down or speeding up the shot is too daunting.

I guess if I did it a bunch of times I’d become faster but I can’t spend hours at a time at this.
Got bills to pay!
 
Agreed! I'd rather be riding than editing. I'll check out the AI options and see how that goes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top