Sporting compilation project

Video_flaneur wrote on 5/6/2017, 5:49 PM

Here is the sort of project I expect a number of you have experience with and have solved with varying degrees of success. I would therefore be grateful for some advice as to whether I am on the right track.

The local charity sports club shoots a video of each match and would like compilation videos for coaching and other purposes.

There are 12 games per season each of 90 minutes. Each week they would like to create:
• A compilation for each player (e.g. each time player 1 is involved in the action)
• A compilation of specific events such as tackles, goals, etc.
• A compilation of highlights and of lowlights
As the season progresses each compilation to be progressively supplemented.

Thus, by the end of the season there will be 12 initial videos sliced, diced and combined in a large number of ways. As much of the work will be taking place on a laptop my preference would be to end up with a large number of Vegas projects – many of them nested – which can be rendered at will to external media. This would seem more efficient than ending up with large numbers of video clips ready to be compiled.

Video production values are not of the highest priority but obviously good looking videos would be preferable.

Question 1: I am looking at doing this with VP13 and Vegasaur. Is this a foolhardy venture and should I just advise them to find someone with more suitable software?

Question2: The project seems to lend itself marking regions for e.g. player 1, player 2, tackles etc. Fortunately, others would do that tedious work for me (under supervision initially). However, these regions would often overlap (e.g. players 1 & 2 in same passage of play). I am looking at saving each set of region types and markers to a spreadsheet file using Vegasaur, using a spreadsheet to create the desired region list (e.g. player 1 tackles), importing it back into Vegas, then creating the compilation. Does this seem workable?

Question 3: I would then look at scripting and maybe Sony Production Assistant to help automate the process. Does this seem workable?

Obviously, such a project needs to be well thought through from the start if one is to avoid constant going back and redoing previous work. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

john_dennis wrote on 5/6/2017, 7:03 PM

"Is this a foolhardy venture and should I just advise them to find someone with more suitable software?"

It's going to be a lot of work no matter the workflow. I do it for one swimmer and occasionally shoot a few others. Shooting the right lane in the right event will keep one hopping. At least you can shoot the whole game and slice and dice it afterwards. The number of ways to slice and dice it will be your challenge as well as the skill and diligence of those identifying which player was involved in which plays. I haven't used any special automation except for preset titles and nested projects to display time/rank graphics.

Blu-ray and/or DVD would be good because of its inherent navigation when reviewing and coaching.

NickHope wrote on 5/6/2017, 8:08 PM

Assuming the footage is several very long takes with lots to cut out, I would cut it up first and render those shorter events out as new files (smart render or lossless codec if possible). Vegasaur and/or the Batch Render script can help with automating this.

I would then bring all those rendered clips into a new project and set up media tags in the Project Media window. One for each player, one for highlights, one for lowlights etc.. So you would for example have a clip tagged "Charlie", "Jimmy", "Highlight" and "Goal".

Should then be fairly straightforward to filter the right clips to make your compilations.

Finally use tracks labelled "definitely", "probably" and "possibly" to decide what to finally include.

Back up your project regularly and on multiple drives!

p.s. I've never used media tags myself.

BobMoyer wrote on 5/7/2017, 1:24 PM

I do something similar as the OP. I deal with Ice Hockey and Soccer teams. When I go through the timeline initially, I put in markers for 'hits', 'goals', 'saves', 'fight', etc. That makes it easier when I do the compilations for the season finale. As far as highlights for the individuals' scouting videos, that takes a lot of input from the individual as to exactly what they want. What I consider a good hit, block, goal, might not be what they are looking for. I post the game videos on YouTube and ask them to mark down the in/out times of the cuts they want. They aren't always exact, but it narrows it down and I can find what they want.

Bob

Video_flaneur wrote on 5/7/2017, 9:10 PM

Thank you John, Nick and Bob.

Nick said

p.s. I've never used media tags myself.

Nick, I have used them in the past but found them problematic for my purposes. Firstly the tags create sfl files for each clip and managing these properly when renamed and moved with is open to user error. Secondly, tags cannot be applied to subclips (which I would find useful). Thirdly (unless I am using them wrongly) the tags appear to be specific to the clips only within the specific Vegas project in which they were created. For instance, if you a save a project which has media tags, then use one of those media clips in a different project, the tags are not loaded.

The particular sport I am dealing with is Australian Rules Football which has few 'dead' patches to cut out. It also often involves a number of players in the action at any one time. Hence the total of individual segments will probably come to nearly three times the length of the original due to the overlapping segments. Thus I would prefer to be working with one master file rather 200 to 300 shorter event clips per match.

Bob said

I post the game videos on YouTube and ask them to mark down the in/out times of the cuts they want. They aren't always exact, but it narrows it down and I can find what they want.

Thank you Bob. That is a great idea that clears the bottleneck on trying to use Vegas each time for marking the segments.

So here is my proposed Plan B that I will attempt to investigate

Create a lossless master video for each match as suggested by Nick and post on YouTube or Vimeo as suggested by Bob
Have players, coach and volunteers record in and out timings for the various types of event.
Have a mathematically literate volunteer collate this data into appropriate Vegasaur-compliant spreadsheet marker files. That volunteer might want to create spreadsheet templates for individual users to ease his/her data handling time.
I compile and render the videos using the master video and appropriate spreadsheet files. This frees me up to concentrate on making the finished product look better.

Dealing with data errors from the volunteers may become an issue so we will see how that goes. Unless someone comes up with a better workflow I will test this out and report back if there are any major disasters.

JackW wrote on 5/7/2017, 11:48 PM

Make sure each master video has Vegas time code superimposed. This will enable very precise selections by the coaches and players. Once everyone has input their selections you can remove the TC after you have edited the material..

john_dennis wrote on 5/7/2017, 11:56 PM

I don't mean to brag, but...

The 2017 swim season time trials were yesterday and my swimmer swept her age group in every event.

The music is incidental, there is a DJ at the events and it bleeds into the background. I try to cut it in rational places.

If you think I'm too focused on one subject, ignoring the other swimmers, watch the scoreboard times roll while we wait for the other swimmers to finish. I know I need a decent mic with a dead cat. It'll come with a new camera which will have a place to plug it. The most likely candidates are the Panasonic GH4 with 14-140 zoom lens or the Sony RX10III.

Video_flaneur wrote on 5/8/2017, 12:02 AM

Make sure each master video has Vegas time code superimposed. This will enable very precise selections by the coaches and players. Once everyone has input their selections you can remove the TC after you have edited the material..

Thanks Jack - a great suggestion.

Video_flaneur wrote on 5/8/2017, 12:03 AM

John, Your swimmer is suspiciously good. I think she should be tested for drugs.

john_dennis wrote on 5/8/2017, 12:05 AM

She probably will be when she moves to USA Swim.

ritsmer wrote on 5/8/2017, 1:17 AM

When we see similar in the TV sports channels all the highlights, low lights, goals etc. are recorded well zoomed in on the player. For this the TV sports channels have several cameras strategically placed - and coordinated by the producer.

Now I do not know what type of matches your sports club will be playing - but it would be more than difficult to follow the players closely in i.e. a soccer game without having enough cameras recording at the same time.

@ john_dennis: For some purposes I have worked with the RX100 I-IV's for some years enjoying the great video quality. Needing more zoom I bought the RX10 III some months ago and I am positively surprised of its quality - and also of the very usable and convenient manual setting possibilities.

Video_flaneur wrote on 5/8/2017, 1:37 AM

When we see similar in the TV sports channels all the highlights, low lights, goals etc. are recorded well zoomed in on the player. For this the TV sports channels have several cameras strategically placed - and coordinated by the producer.

Now I do not know what type of matches your sports club will be playing - but it would be more than difficult to follow the players closely in i.e. a soccer game without having enough cameras recording at the same time.

The sports channels do a remarkable job in real time with replays conjured up within seconds.

In my case there is just one volunteer with a single camera on a tripod doing his best so there is no attempt to match professional sportscasting. It will be used for coaching and for 'pie nights' where every player wins a prize. And should any player eventually make the big time, there might just be a call for some footage back in his/her amateur days. (Australian Rules Football is highly popular in much of Australia, but the women's code is just getting a big kick along.)