How to be a Good Citizen Video Stuff Upgrade?
Video Production: as you
can see from some (?) of the existing vidz here, they
don't all make riveting viewing. There are a few things
worth mentioning here about MTB video, and principally
aimed at the use of digital camcorders as opposed to TV
stream-type analogue devices (tape recording). Firstly,
experiment with the positioning of your digicam. Jason
had his 4 inch long tubular device (!) mounted on his
handlebar stem and roughly parallel with the ground when
sitting on the Coiler. This is a reasonable starting
point but there are some points to consider:
a) Do you have decent suspension?
b) Is the trail smooth or rough?
c) Will the action be fast?
d) Is the camera's Frame Rate
reasonable?
e) Can the camera react quickly to changes in light
level?
f) Is the microphone prone to wind
noise?
g) Can you steal a better video off the
Internet?
The first two may seem daft but if you can answer
"yes" and "smooth" to these, then the odds are less
stacked against you for a decent output. If answer (c)
is "yes" you are going to have problems with
(d) as anything less than 25 fps
(frames per second) is going to lose the image in the
turns and blur any sideways panning. It will also cause
jittery vertical picture distortion unless you're riding
straight ahead and smooth. If (e) is "no", and that will
apply to anything bought for less than a few hundred
notes, then dipping in and out of tree cover will cause
the image to be lost. And perhaps the least troublesome
is (f) as you
can obviously make silent movies as well now as they
could in the 19th century, but a good bit of background
audio can make a crummy video at least laughable, and
sometimes the accompanying language can become the
highlight of the event!
Obviously, if you find some
of the above problems holding back your creative juices,
go for option (g) as most MTB bikers' bods and/or faces
are unrecognisable on amateur video anyway. The majority
of videos on this site were done by me with a little
Mustek DV3000 mounted on top of my full face helmet.
This gives the huge advantage of "Body Damping" (BoD)
and "See where you're going" (swig) technologies
(Registered Trade Marks of 
) but you absolutely MUST remember to DUCK UNDER LOW
TREES! You also have the slight drawback that you look
and feel a total arsehole wearing these things. Unless
of course, like me, you ARE it and don't care.
What can you do?Well, although most diddy solid state (memory
card) digicams or digital still cameras can run to 640 x
480 (VGA) resolution, they normally do it at only 15
frames per second. This is fine if your subject is
moving at the same speed as the sun in the sky (NO!
for MidAirCrisis sake don't video the
Sun). However, if your subject has a
beating heart and is moving slightly quicker than this
(maybe a slow Gollum on a bike) then it won't catch much
of the action unless it's head-on or butt-tracking. Your
only solution is to wind down the resolution to 320 x
240 or even less. This should pump up the frame rate to
something like 25 or 30 fps and give you a bit less
detail but recognisable subjects in your viewfinder, and
something to laugh at later down the pub.
If you want real advice instead of a madman's
ravings look somewhere else, like www.internet.com. OR
you can carry a tape camcorder in your Camelbak with a
bullet cam on your helmet. If you go this route, make
sure your camcorder has an AV input socket otherwise
you'll need a BBC outside broadcast team following you
around, and the batteries for those are really
heavy.
Another thing to consider if you're a racer like Jay,
and that is if you're pushing hard you may have a
tendency to flap the bike from side to side. This
certainly works for Jason, as it used to for him on a
cycle speedway track (and Lance Armstrong does it!) but
it gives a frame-mounted camera yet another mountain to
climb, as if there weren't enough of those things. So
maybe a helmet or at least body-mounted gizmo is where
you need to be looking. One advantage of this style of
riding is that the breeze generated by the saddle flying
back and forth between your inner thighs can keep you
cool in the gonad department. Or savagely massage you
privately. Now is that why Jay is always grinning
on the trail?
Just before I finish, my little Mustek DV3000 weighs
about the same as a blown out birds egg. When I use it
atop my full face helmet, rock-on (i.e. poxy, but good
enough). When I use it atop my open face XC helmet,
because the helmet has no sides to hold it steady
against my cranium, it rattles about and takes the
helmet with it. It's hugely different to the full face
experience, and you can see from my vids taken recently
that they are even more jittery than the previous
efforts, so be warned.
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