Help with sports recruiting videos

tunesmith1801 wrote on 8/10/2009, 8:48 AM

Part of my duties at school is to produce videos for students to send off to college coaches. For the college coach, trying to follow these kids on a soccer field is a bit hard with all of the other players. It there by chance an application that would allow you to tag a player and have the player highlighted in some way around the field. If there is not, do you have any suggestions how I can do this? The videos average about 10-15min in length.

Thanks - Jim

Comments

RalphM wrote on 8/10/2009, 9:07 AM

Jim,

I've heard these capabilities mentioned, but I believe they are rather expensive.

I did a few of these videos in the past, and what I did was to freeze frame the video at the beginning of section of interest, highlight the player within a brightened rectangle, then let the motion resume.

As I recall, the NCAA had some rules that had to be followed regarding these recruiting videos, such as no music, etc. I'm sure you are on top of that already though.

RalphM

MUTTLEY wrote on 8/10/2009, 9:21 AM

Motion tracking is what I think your looking for and what I've been asking for for forever and a day here on the forums. If we had it it would make what youre trying to do a snap. Sadly we don't have it and last I heard not enough people are requesting motion tracking for it to become a reality in Vegas. You'll hafta dig around for something that does have that capability.

- Ray
Underground Planet

rs170a wrote on 8/10/2009, 10:06 AM

Boris FX has motion tracking capability but it's $300 ($200 if you have the lite version that came with Vegas Pro7).
If that's too rich for your blood, check out these posts for ideas.
Highlighting a football player on video clip
How do I overlay an arrow on a character in video?
Highlighting a portion of the screen
spotlight a runner in a football video
Don't know the term
Video Effect Help

Mike

amendegw wrote on 8/10/2009, 12:40 PM

I've posted this video before, but I think it illustrates the technique you're looking for. About 42 seconds into the clip, I use the cookie cutter to highlight the player (my son). I keyframe it to disappear before the play completes. By the way, I've probably taken 100 Hi-8 tapes of my son's soccer - all boiled down to 1 min 24 seconds, phew!!

...Jerry

Dominated wrote on 8/10/2009, 6:28 PM

If I were you I would stay away from using an effect for that long of a time ...it would be annoying for the person watching the video and it would probably make them shut it off without watching the entire video...The only way to properly highlight a player during a game is to have a professional cameraman shoot the video with a proper camera. I'm not sure where you live but I'm sure that there is a local tv or cable station near you with someone that can do this and not cost that much...effects are just that, effects, and should be used when needed not just for the need ...

jrazz wrote on 8/10/2009, 6:36 PM

In my area, I actually did some filming for parents at the games. I was also hired by an agency that scouts high school players for colleges to go out and film that particular player for a game.

In both instances I focused solely on that player. I was paid well and the parents got what they wanted and the scouting company got what they wanted as well.

One thing you could do is tell the parents (or booster club) that there are videographers in your area (or you) and they/you can/will film each player at one game during the season and they can submit that to colleges for scholarships. The parents who know their children will have a chance will pay for the videos that focus squarely on their child.

Just another angle to think on.

j razz

eVoke wrote on 8/11/2009, 4:32 AM

Great info in this post. This comes just in time as the mother of my GodSon asked if I would record some of his peewee league football games this year.

PerroneFord wrote on 8/11/2009, 8:12 AM

Slightly off topic...

As a former college soccer coach, if you are going to produce these videos, then please do the following:

1. Open the video with a photo/bio of the player indicating Jersey #

2. Keep the scenes with the player to less than 15 seconds each.

3. Freeze frame the start of the scene with the player highlighted, then drop the highlight. We don't need motion tracking, we are trained to follow player's motions.

4. Each scene should show a particular skill executed in a game scenario. (accurate passing over distance, shot from distance with power, heading in a crowd, corner kick, flip throw, etc.)

You've got about 5 minutes to show us this player is someone we cannot be without on our team. Otherwise it gets tossed. And it better play on a regular DVD player or on our laptop or it's getting tossed.

If you send it unsolicited, it will likely get tossed depending on the coach/school.

(As a weird aside, the best player video I ever got was from a Serbian kid. Had to jump through a million hoops to convert the video for use, but showed the player at her practice field with bombed out buildings in the background. No game footage, but the skills were exquisite. We recruited the player and she was one of our best recruits. That happens about 1 in 1000.)

Good luck.