Highlight Videos and Football

One of the best things that one can do to become a better videographer is to consistently work on editing projects. I do my best to keep busy by editing weekly highlight videos for Brigham Young University's football team. I notice that there are those who edit "highlight videos" of BYU football using TV footage. This is mostly done by people as a hobby. While this may help to become a better editor, this does nothing to improve one's ability to shoot footage, work with cameras, manage live events, log & capture, etc. Using TV footage for highlight videos really hinders the "art" of creating a highlight video. I like being able to film the game myself so that as I edit, I am able to create my own works. I have noticed that my ability to edit has improved because of being on the field and filming the games myself. I feel that I receive ideas for how I will edit this week's video based on what I see through the lens as I film. While we still get the broadcast melt to have extra footage, I do what I can to use my footage and that of my fellow workers so that the video feels like it is ours.

The highlight videos that I create are internal only. In other words, no one is allowed to see them but the players and coaches. (This is because of some of the broadcast rights that go along with the footage that we shoot.) Last year we tried to work out how to distribute these videos, but we discovered that it would take a lot of work with some "high-ups" to make it happen. I think that there are some contractual obligations to CSTV and others that hinder the distribution of any of these types of videos. 

The videos are shown in a pre-game meeting prior to the team getting on the bus to head to the stadium. The team comes to the meeting very focused. The meeting starts by us showing a highlight video of the previous week's game. (I'm pretty sure this is typical of all division I schools.) After the video is finished, one of the captains will usually say something to the team and lead them in break before they get on the bus. The fun part is getting all of the equipment taken down before the buses leave us behind. (They left us once in South Bend... well, actually, it was a city outside of South Bend where the hotel was... we lost the police escort to the stadium, so it took us quite a while to get to the stadium... you can imagine the traffic on game day at Notre Dame...) We have a projector, speakers, DVD player, sound board, and lots of cables that we have to take down in a just a minute or two. We have it down pretty good (we're going on three years now). Once we get all of the equipment on the bus, we head to the stadium and shoot the next game to make the next highlight video. 

It makes for long nights and fun weekends. Producing highlight videos is a tedious process, but being able to edit consistently has allowed me to improve my efficiency. I've been able to cut out about 10 hours worth of work since the first year that I did the highlight videos for BYU. This week we go to Las Vegas to play UNLV. I plan on giving a report on how the game goes. I may turn this blog into a BYU blog since I have a game each week to talk about. We'll see how it goes...