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Editing A Motivational Video Reflected
Editing a Motivational Video Reflected
Polonia won the Women’s National Cup Finals 2016 two weeks ago. We came back from 6-12 down in the fifth set to win it all 15-13. It was very stressful but it was an incredible achievement. It was my first final I have won with Polonia. For this blog post, I thought I would write about the process of editing a motivational video for the Cup Final and some things I learnt along the way. I have edited nine motivational videos for Polonia (see playlist here) and I can’t believe I haven’t written about my learning experiences from it yet!
Something Different
I always try to do something different for every Polonia motivational video. For this one, I looked on YouTube for some inspiration and I found this video from Hart Girls’ Volleyball. It was the beginning that caught my eye where past players would say some encouraging words. I have done this in the past (here and here) but what I liked about the Hart Girls video was it was 10 second bursts of positive energy rather than a minute long talk that I did. So I asked past players for their help. I copied Hart Girl’s idea of having their names and seasons played on there. I also added total number of sets played, which I thought was a nice little nod to the performance analysis I do.
The Soundtrack
Ever since learning about editing motivational videos at Cardiff, I always kept an ear out for soundtracks I could use. I tend to use scores because songs are quite personal in terms of motivation. I had a few ideas but I ultimately went for Guardians at the Gate by Audiomachine. It has an epic feel and has a good length of just over two minutes long.
The Inspirational Speech
I normally put in some kind of inspirational speech in there, usually from a famous sports film (I finally succumbed to using the classic Al Pacino’s “Inch by Inch” speech from Every Given Sunday last season). I initially was not going to have one because I thought this would be something different. However, the night before the cup final, I thought I got to have something. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t. I had a few ideas but the one I thought worked best was this one from Scott Cochran, S&C Coach from University of Alabama (Roll Tides!) It was quite short and I could stick it at the end of the video. I got the idea of using written text from this NBA advert I watched back in 2012 (although I did use it for a SideOut Rhodes 2014 promo).
The Base Highlight Clips
You need a base of highlight clips to use for the motivational video. Rather than going through the hours of match video to find the best clips, I would use the stats hyperlink to videos to make the process easier. I would watch every kill, block kill and ace to find the best clips. To differentiate the highlight kills from regular kills, I would modify the code to add an “X” in the custom section (see below). This meant when I create and export the montage of clips using codes, e.g. all highlight aces, the “X” was in the custom section would filter out all the regular aces. Since I wouldn’t use the X custom code for the opposition, it also sidestepped the issue whether it is coded for the home or away team (a problem when several matches are selected).
Editing Down the Base Highlight Clips
The base highlight clips was 20 minutes long so I went through the process of editing it down. Some clips I would shave it down (I don’t need to see the two-three seconds before a person serves or the two-three seconds after a rally has ended) or I would delete clips all together. I would also have a look at other non-match video clips I could use. Once I get it down to about 3 minutes, I go through the process of counting how many times a player is featured. Firstly, I want to make sure all players are featured at least once as a minimum and secondly, they are featured in relatively equal amounts, e.g. all three middle blockers got three clips each.
The Logo
I would insert the logo at the end when the video is practically finished. I do it this way to avoid time spent constantly rendering. Since Polonia has a new logo, I did have to go through the process of making the background transparent in Photoshop.
“Make Today Count”
Below is the final cut of the motivational video. Give it a like and share it if you like.
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