I got myself a panasonic Lumix and one of those cam rigs off seabreeze and have managed to get some nice footage.
question I have is, what is the best video editing program people use out there that can turn the footage up the right way when I turn the kite around and focus me into the center of the screen, as well as dub some music.
Ive seen a TV commercial that uses this technique, the one where the guy is running and catches up with Adam Goodes and his head is centered on the screen the whole time.
Im not an expert and dont intend to be but just wanted to make my footage a bit more user friendly to watch.
I record in AVCHD format so its pretty good quality as well.
Thanks
I'm no expert (in fact I'm no anything) but Sony Vegas is good once you learn the ropes. Like any computer software though, it's potential is directly proportional to how much time you use it.
Video editors are much the same, as long as they will read your AVCHD files. Sony Vegas is as good as any, and is very good on the audio side as it started it's life as a sound program
Two methods to stabilize the kitecam footage I can suggest...
A free way is to download VirtualDub (www.virtualdub.org) and then the deshaker plugin (www.guthspot.se/video/deshaker.htm ) and follow the instructions. Virtualdub only reads AVI files, so you need to use your video editor to select the small bit of film you want to stabilize, and write it out as an uncompressed AVI first. It won't track the head of the kiter, but it can take out the shakes and rotation (set rotation smoothing to -1)
An expensive way is to buy Aftereffects CS5 (which can also do the video editing) and use the Mocha plugin to track the kiter and stabilise the footage that way. This can make the kiter stay upright in the middle of the screen.
Neither way is all that easy. Also, if you don't want black borders, you have to film in full HD and then crop down to 720P or SD resolution. 16:9 aspect ratios make the border problem more difficult.
Alternatively - hold your kite really still!
I got a program called 'simple rotate' It cost me $3 to download. Its nothing fancy but worked ok for me. You have a start point and then a finish point and it rotates between the two. So if your clip starts upside down and finishes with you at 90 degrees it easy to keep you upright throughout.
thats easy to do with sony vegas
you just turn grids on, and keep moving the frames so your heads in the same grid.
Or - if your head is moving away from the grid at a steady rate, you can skip forward to the end of when you start going a different way - and it will linearly correct allframes from start to the endpoint & move your head to the middle ..... hopefully...in a circumbendibus type way
