This is a quicky… The weather was good and we were coming out of lockdown, so decided to get the car out for its first small run of the year.
The Video
I took a much longer run to get fuel and out from Bristol to Leigh Woods, Failand and then back into Bristol over the Cumberland Basin, but decided that I could make a quick video out of the run section of the run that went under and over the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Here’s the video…
No Music Version
And, as is often the case, some people aren’t so keen on the music that I added. I always think the music makes the difference to a blat video but others don’t always agree. My problem is that with blat videos, especially on a Caterham where the camera is often in the wind stream, all you get is wind noise on the camera microphone. You can obviously add extra mics and/or additional recorders to get an authentic sound but in this particularly instance, I just chucked the GoPro on the car and went for a drive.
So, as a bonus clip for all you avid readers, here’s a version of the drive with just the on-board audio….
That clip is not searchable on YouTube, you have to know the link to be able to get there.
The Tech
I used a GoPro Max (360 degree camera) mounted to the top centre of the roll-over-bar to get the shot. I left the camera running for the whole 30 something minutes I was out in the car. That created about 30GB of footage to work with.
I then used GoPro’s Mac app to work through the footage and create four 1080p linear (not 360 degree) short clips. Each clip used key frames to set the camera view, selecting a linear shot from the whole 360 degree field of view as I went. I then exported each clip and created the final montage in Final Cut Pro.
Once in Final Cut Pro I created the graphics, used some tracking plugins to make the floating text effects work, and then added the music.
In total I spent about 20 hours to create 101 seconds of video! Much of that time was learning how to use GoPro’s software, how to use some new tracking plugins and making all the clips work in time with the music. I could probably make the same sort of video again in about 1/4 of the time.
Here’s what the 360 images look like before they’re processed…
I hope you enjoyed that short post!
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