Transcription
Sport hypes and teasers are some of my favorite videos to create. They're pretty much the reason I'm in this industry and kind of what I got started with. And I feel like every time I do one, I learn something new. And truly, they're just some of my favorite pieces of content to create. So I thought, why not sit down with you guys today and break one down?
What's going on guys, Juan here today with a brand new video. And as always, so excited to sit down with you guys to chat about more sports creative content. So like I said, hype videos, trailers, teasers for sports games are some of my favorite pieces of content, not just to consume, but to create myself. There's just something that's so exciting to me about creating a piece of content that can really amp up anticipation and emotion before a big game or an event. Whether it's a rivalry matchup between two teams who don't like each other or something like a championship game, I just, there's something about these videos that just get me out of bed in the morning and really just make me excited to sit down and start producing and creating such an intriguing and exciting piece of content.
Like I said, I started my career off by making these trailer-style videos. And if there's one thing I've learned from then to now, almost three years worth of, you know, experience, is that there's a lot more to these trailers and hype videos than just a sick track and throwing visuals together. There's a lot more to it, and it runs a lot deeper in order to create an effective and solid video. So for today, I'm gonna be breaking down one of my most recent videos and probably one of my favorite videos so far in my career, which was a season trailer for Ryerson's women's basketball team. And if you do want to watch it, it'll be linked down in the description below, or maybe I'll have it come in the annotations here. So make sure to check it out before you watch this video, then come back and watch the breakdown.
I'm going to give you guys a warning right now. This probably will be one of the longer videos on my channel. So if you're looking for something a lot smaller and quicker to consume, I would suggest going to another video because I'm really gonna go in-depth on this video, the concept, the planning, and how I actually put it together. I would almost classify this as a micro masterclass for me because I truly love making this kind of videos. I'm very passionate about it, and so I want to kind of give you guys a really in-depth look on how I start and finish these kinds of videos. Gotta have water while making these videos, man. Like your throat gets dry and your voice, like, it's not good.
Anyway, to kick it off, I'm gonna talk about something that doesn't even include shooting or editing, and that's just the concept and the idea behind the video itself. So the main purpose of the video was to create a season trailer for the Ryerson Rams women's basketball team. This is a video I've done for them in the past and for other teams as well. And essentially, all it is, it's a video to hype up people who are watching to get ready for the regular season. Whether you're the girls on the team, coaching staff, other students at Ryerson, or any, you know, family members, anyone who really cares about the team at all, just to get them excited and to build some anticipation ahead of the first regular season game.
And like I said, I've made this kind of video for the team before, but there was a very unique and specific challenge that I had to deal with this time around, and that was the COVID-19 pandemic. And I think the biggest barrier that came with the COVID-19 pandemic was the fact that this team hadn't played a game for almost two years because of the OUA not playing last season due to the pandemic. So you can imagine that as a creative myself, it's a pretty tough scenario when you have to make a hype video for a team that hasn't played in almost two calendar years. Now, I know with pro teams, you probably have endless, you know, amounts of archived footage. And even for this team specifically, I've been shooting them for the past two, almost three years, and so I definitely have a lot of old footage. But with university-level athletes, it does get a little bit more complicated.
Now, when it comes to working with a university-level sports team, that changes a few things when you miss a whole year because of a pandemic. Because these girls still went to school. When you work with teams like this, athletes graduate, they could, you know, transfer to another school, they might not want to play anymore. There's just so many things that factor in when, you know, one, you're working with a team that's only going to be together for max four to five years, but then you're going to throw a pandemic on top of it when one of their playing years is essentially null and void. There's also the added wrinkle that there's going to be new athletes on this team. There's going to be first years, there's going to be transfers from other schools. So I need to figure out a way to showcase them despite them never having played a game for Ryerson up until this point.
So obviously, the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the restrictions that come with that, you know, the people who left the team because they graduated, and then also a large number of new faces on the team, presented challenges that I never really had to face up until this point in my career as a content producer. With that being said, these challenges also really presented a new opportunity for me to get creative and try different things that I probably wouldn't have normally done if the pandemic never happened. And it would have probably resulted in a very similar-looking video to what I've done in the past. It really also lent itself to a really interesting story and unique objective that I wanted to portray and get across in the video.
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For this video, apart from being your prototypical hype video trailer, I wanted to make this as unique as possible and take advantage of the scenario and being able to identify key elements and storylines to highlight the journey that the girls have been on up until this point, leading into the regular season. One of the first things I wanted to showcase was kind of like the mental and physical preparation that the girls were going through in the off-season and during their training camp in preparations for this season. Obviously, not having played for almost a year, nearly two, is insane as an athlete. So it was a very unique experience, not just for myself to capture, but obviously for them to go through. So I really wanted to highlight this and capture it and show it from beginning to end.
The second thing I wanted to focus on was showcasing new faces on the team, whether they were recruits or transfers. I wanted them to be prominent in this video. But it's also important for me to balance that with the team members that remained into this season, whether they were in their fifth year or going into their third year, whatever. I wanted to create a balance between both sets of groups and bring them into one to showcase their unity as a team. And unity leads into the third concept, and that was just to showcase and exemplify the close bond that this team has going into the regular season. Being around the team throughout the off-season and during their training camp, I just noticed that the girls had a very strong bond. And I think that this is going to be a very prominent storyline for the team and the content I create around the team this season. So I just wanted to, off the bat, just showcase that and put it front and center for the first big video of the year.
The big point I want to make before we move on to how I shot the video is that I know sports hype videos and trailers are a great way to showcase your skills as a cinematographer and showcase your best shots, the best action you've captured. And generally, for these videos, I think that's pretty acceptable. But I also wanted this trailer to be deeper than just visuals. I wanted those little nuances to come through, whether it's, like I said, the tight bond that these girls have, or, you know, showcasing that mental and physical determination to get ready for the season. You know, I wanted to add a storytelling element. I wanted to add emotion into this video to make it well, more well-rounded and a better product for the audience, not just to view, but to also experience. And I think that was actually the best thing I could have done at the time because I was able to surpass a lot of the limitations and problems with the pandemic and not having seen this team play for two years. You know, it was combining the footage I could get at the time with a deeper story that really allowed this video to be unique and different from ones I've done in the past.
Now, for the second part of this video, I want to talk about the way I shot this video. I don't want to just focus on gear. However, I don't want to just talk about lenses and gimbals, but I also want to focus on, you know, the way I wanted to create a certain style and look for this video. I wanted to kind of, you know, not just shoot a video, but kind of bring an element of cinematography into this project to make it unique and make it stand out and have my own spin on what I've normally done or what other people do with these kinds of trailers.
Now, I know it's probably as easy as thinking that I just was able to go to every single off-season workout or, you know, any preseason games that they had. But I definitely was a lot more picky and methodical with the way I shot the girls, who specifically I shot, what days I came to shoot. There was a lot of other factors that I really keyed in here when I was gathering and collecting footage for this video. If I was to just go to every single practice and every single preseason game, which in a perfect world, like, yeah, maybe I would. But there's a lot of problems that come with that. And the main reason being is overshooting for a video that probably ended up being under three minutes in length. And you know, there's so much footage I shot in the off-season that didn't make it into this video. It very well could have, but I just, it just didn't because there's a time constraint. So you don't want to overshoot for a video that's X amount long, but you want to go and get as much footage as you can and make sure all that footage you're getting is as diverse as possible so you have options when you get into post-production.
So throughout the off-season, I just got selective about the days I was going to shoot. And even then, I got even more selective when it came to what I was shooting on those specific days. Some days I would go in to shoot, you know, new athletes that weren't on the team before that I don't have footage of. Some days were to go shoot the athletes who have been on the team for a while and I just wanted updated looks. Some days I would go in just to shoot with my gimbal and shoot really wide. Some days I even went in just with my 70-200 to get close-ups of people because I just wanted a wide diversity and variety of footage when it came to editing the video. After, I definitely made sure to shoot as frequently as possible, kind of narrowing down the days I knew the majority of the team would be at a particular practice. And I was just to make sure that no matter the situation, I came in, I had a lot of options in different situations that I would want to capture.
And then when it came to the preseason games, the big key for this is scheduling this way ahead of time. So at least I could go to a couple. Like I said, I'm busy and work comes first. So I was able to make it out to two preseason games. Which honestly, even though you shoot an entire game, you don't really get as much footage as you like. But I had to make sure I was able to make out as many as possible. Luckily, I was able to make it up to two, and they played great both games, so it was super easy to capture content and put it in the video after the fact. The reason getting game footage was so important is because I didn't want this just to be a training camp, an off-season hype reel. I wanted to showcase the difference between training camp and practices and actual game action. Even though it's preseason, these were some of the first games that they've played in so long. So I thought that was really important for the storyline of the video.
And I'm not gonna lie, when it came to shooting these two games, I felt a lot more pressure than normal. And it's surprising because they were just preseason games, but it was because, like I said, those were my only two opportunities to get live game action, and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss a moment. But like I said, they played fantastic in both of the games that I captured. There was a ton of action and more than enough for me to pick and select afterwards when I went to look at my footage. Also, I made sure to shoot establishing shots as well. Those are super key, both in the gym and outside, just to act as establishing shots at the start of the video. I think teasers and hypes like these are so much better when they start off with establishing the location where these athletes are, because it lends really well to a solid story.
Moving on, I want to talk about my cinematography style in a separate section of this video because I did really want to make it as unique as possible and stand out amongst my other work. In terms of the shooting style and the cinematography aspects, I applied when I was creating this video. Really quickly though, I'm going to touch on the gear that I use for this video because I know if I don't, I'm going to get a lot of comments in the comment section below about that. So I will really quickly go over the camera and the stuff I used to create this video.
So this video was exclusively shot on my Sony A7S3. A lot of you guys know I love this camera to death. It's my favorite camera, the one I would recommend to pretty much anybody who wants to get into content creation. Lens-wise, I kind of shot with three for the most part: my 70 to 200 F4 Sony lens, my 28 to 75 F 2.8 Tamron lens, and I also got to use a 17 to 28 Tamron lens that I got lent to by a friend. And those were for very specific establishing shots. They're actually pretty much all the shots at the beginning of the video with the establishing of the Mattamy Athletic Centre and in the gym. Those wide, kind of sweeping shots are all in the 17 to 28, which I got lent to by my friend Kyle. Shout out Kyle if you're watching this. I might buy that lens off you because I loved using it.
So when it came to shooting this video, I want to practice what I've preached in the past on this YouTube channel, and that was to make sure my shots are as diverse as possible and have a variety of different styles and looks when it came to my footage. This is just in order to make it as intriguing and as unique as possible for the audience. You know, I don't think a video is very interesting if it's a bunch of close-ups back-to-back to back-to-back, or if it's a bunch of really wide shots back-to-back to back. I want to mix in as many different looks, close-ups, wides, medium shots, establishing shots, action close-ups, action wides, different things to make it as diverse and interesting as possible so when you're watching it, I have your attention the entire time.
And interestingly enough, I noticed that my shooting style definitely changed and kind of became very specified as I got through the production of this video. And the reason this changed was because when I started to edit this video, which was kind of a month before the season began, a month or two, I started to notice a lot of the footage I was collecting, like I said, was very wide and medium shot-based, which is, like I said, that's fine. But I started to notice I wasn't really getting a lot of intensity or passion in the shots, um, because I wasn't getting up and close with the athletes with a longer lens. And I want to make it clear, this wasn't because of them not having a lack of passion. This was just because of me not taking the time to get closer to them with the 70-200 to really dial in the intensity and the emotions that they feel while they're they're hustling and preparing in the off-season.
So like I said, from that point on, I started shooting more with my 70-200. I think I shot some practices exclusively on that lens once I decided to make that change, just to be able to get those facial expressions, get really nice and close on their faces as they, you know, worked out, prepped, you know, after drills, showing their exhaustion, but showing their determination at the same time, just to get that more, you know, impactful imagery to translate that hard-working energy to the audience.
I shot pretty much most of this video exclusively handheld because I shoot sports handheld. That's just always what I've done. I don't ever like using my gimbal to shoot in sports action. It just feels very robotic. There's somewhat of a delay on a gimbal versus if you're handheld, it's all in your hands, your reaction time. And I just don't really like using gimbals a lot in general. I've definitely fallen out of love with gimbals. That's a story for another day, though. However, I did use my Ronin RSC2 on a few occasions, specifically to capture those wide landscape shots with that 17-28 lens, like the ones you see at the beginning of the video, just to keep some motion in there, but also to make it as stable as possible because handheld doesn't always translate well to wide establishing shots.
When it came to preseason games, though, my mindset had to change because, like I said, I only got to shoot two games out of, I think they had five or six preseason games. So I only had two opportunities to capture good in-game footage, and I didn't want to mess up at all. But I also wanted to make sure within those two basketball games, I got again, a diverse and varied set of footage, not leaning too much to one focal length or, you know, being too wide all the time or being too close. I wanted to be diverse. I wanted to get as much different-looking footage as possible, which is actually a pretty fun challenge. And it kind of was more entertaining for me to try different things that I normally wouldn't during a basketball game.
Something I never really used to do was swap lenses at the end of a quarter. But during these preseason games, the buzzer would sound, and I would take out my 70-200 and swap it for my 28-75. The next buzzer, I would just flip them, just to be able to get different looks and different perspectives from a focal length basis. And even my positioning on the court. After a few minutes of sitting on the baseline, halfway through the first quarter, I'm probably gonna go to the sideline or up in the stands or by the bench. I made sure to keep moving around, not just changing my focal length, but changing my actual position on the court, just to get different perspectives. Because when you have more varied perspectives when you're shooting sports, you're gonna have so much more fun and a lot more options when you're going into the edit.
So now we're at the point where we can talk about post-production. Now, at this point, I have pretty much understood the reasoning and the context behind the video idea. I made sure to understand what I needed. I went and got out more current footage during the preseason and during the training camp. Now we come to the point where we have like a week, two weeks to the regular season, and I have a skeleton of a video built out. And now I really need to get down and deep and start editing the main bulk of the video and having it ready for the first game.
So to start post-production, I want to really quickly touch upon song choice and why picking the right song is so important and invaluable for hype videos and trailers like this. If you're a sports editor, now, song choice is, I think, maybe the most important thing when it comes to the entire video. Because the song you pick impacts the story, the energy, it impacts every single aspect of the video. And I guarantee you, if I edit this video to a different song, it'll have a totally different vibe, it'll have a totally different meaning. So I think you really need to sit down and be specific with the song that you choose. If you're a sports editor, trust me, you need to pick the best song and you need to do your research. Don't just pick the first song that comes up in your music library. Make sure you go through your options and understand how this song will not just impact the video and the visuals, but also send a message and impact your audience.
There's truly so many different routes you can go with hype videos. You know, you can go with the tried and true epic drums and orchestras, or you can go with more of a hip-hop style, kind of, you know, influence style video. You can go with, you know, rock. You can, there, the genres are endless. But I think, you know, for the most part, I definitely tend to use more the big drums and the epic scores because I love that stuff. It's just, it's epic, it's hype, it gets you going. There's nothing like editing to massive drum hits or things like that. So that was what my initial options was, was going with that typical orchestra score, which I've done before and a lot of people go to. And I think epic orchestra scores are just, I love me one of those out of a hype video. It's just, it just gives it more of a movie-style feeling, and I love that.
But despite that, for this one, I decided to go more of the hip-hop route, which was very different from hype videos I've done in the past. Preseason, because like I said, I do like to go with those big orchestras and epic scores. But I ended up going with something a little more energetic, but still keeping that cinematic epic score in mind. So the song I ended up picking for this video is called "I Am Defiant" by The Siege. If you aren't familiar with The Siege and you work in sports, I would go onto YouTube, iTunes, whatever, go listen to them right now, and you'll know exactly why I like them. They have obviously the hip-hop influences in the rap, but I think they also have really good composition in their music, and the production is next level. And I hate to use the word cinematic, but it is very cinematic hip-hop music. And I love The Siege. I've used their songs before. I will continue to use your songs. If by any means you guys are watching this video, I love you guys. But yeah, like I said, their music is just energetic, gritty, urban. I love the feeling of editing a video to one of their songs just because of the energy that they give off in their music.
The song just gave me a really good vibe to start off with. I wanted to showcase that hard-working mentality. And I think the lyrics and the base of the song and the story the song tries to tell is very in line with that. The lyrics spoke to me in just being really powerful and gritty and kind of showcasing that hustle mentality that I wanted to put, especially when it came to that training camp footage of them putting in the work in the off-season. And the other part of the song that really spoke to me was just kind of like, there was like a very subtle swagger, confidence in the lyrics. And I wanted to translate that to the team and their, their efforts on the court. And literally, the lyrics say, "Are you with me? Are you with me now? Can you see me now?" And I just wanted to kind of give that element of a swagger and a confidence, not cockiness, confidence to this team in the footage. Because, you know, I wanted to give off the energy that, like, the message that if you're not with this team yet, if you're not following us, if you're not on the bandwagon yet, you better get on before it's too late because, you know, we're, don't sleep on us, we're about to blow the roof off this league and, uh, this year. And I really just wanted to give that swagger, that confident energy to the athletes in the video.
And in my position, I know especially after talking with the coaching staff and kind of understanding the, the theme they wanted for this year, I had to tiptoe a line between confidence and cockiness. Because I know especially with our coach, we definitely want to portray this team as talented and strong, but not give other teams bulletin board material or anything along those lines. So obviously, my main goal here was to portray the team as confident and strong and talented without going into, "We're better than you," et cetera. So it was just tip-toeing that line between that. But I also, like I said, I think the lyrics really showcased the swagger that translated to the swagger that these athletes play with.
I do want to make a note here before we move on, and that's just to be careful with your music choices and not to just slap on whatever popular top 10 track that you're listening to a lot onto your videos. Because, you know, copyright laws are a thing. And I know for a lot of people, it sucks when you create a video with a copyright song and you create a 10 out of 10 video and you put it up on Instagram and YouTube, and then you get slammed with, you know, copyright and Instagram might take the video down or Twitter, and then you just wasted all your time creating this great piece of content and can't even showcase it. So just be very careful as to what songs and the permissions around those songs that you want to use in your videos. I definitely suggest to combat this, you subscribe to some kind of music library that lets you use copyright-free tracks, something like Epidemic Sound or Musicbed, which are the two services I use. This track for the video was actually licensed straight off of Musicbed, which gave me and the team full permission to use it. So I definitely recommend one of those two. I think Musicbed is definitely a little pricier, but Epidemic Sound is great too. I've been using it for years. So either of those two, I would recommend. Do your research.
I also want to say this is not a paid promo for Musicbed or Epidemic Sound. I just love the service and the music options that they have. So if you're a rep of Musicbed or Epidemic Sound, uh, and watching this video, let me know if you want to make a promo deal. But nonetheless, great services, highly recommend. Check them out if you're looking for copyright-free music. This was not a paid promo.
So editing placeholders are something I want to talk about really quickly. And that is just a method that I use to build out the arc and visuals in my video without actually even having to import video or having to shoot video altogether. And this was something I had prepped way in advance and I made changes throughout the process. But I had this skeleton built out and it really helped me speed up the process when it came to actually editing the video with literal footage. So I highly recommend if you're editing a video, have the song picked before you shoot. Have the song picked before you do anything because you have those themes in mind. And that way, you can also build a skeleton using placeholders.
So what I like to do is I will have my timeline out with the music cut to exactly the length and times and moments that I need in the song. And then I'll play the song a couple times, get those themes in my head, and start to kind of imagine and visualize what this video is going to look like. When I start visualizing that, I'll literally just type on a track on Premiere exactly what I would want there. So at the beginning of the video, I would have typed out something like, "External shots at Mattamy Athletic Centre," or maybe even, you know, "Internal shots of gym empty," or "Scenics of basketballs," or something like that. Just so, you know, when you're editing and shooting, you know exactly what you're looking for and what goes where. Even throughout the middle of the video, I might have something like, "Close-ups of girls during warm-ups showing intensity." Just so when I go shoot the games, I know what kind of shots and what kind of looks I'm going for. And when I'm editing, I know exactly what goes where. And it just made it easier too to slowly build this up during the production of it because I would come back home, pull my footage, see what I had, and then look at the timeline and think, "Okay, next time I go to a practice or game, I need this, this, and this." Which again, just lends itself to a very more polished, well-rounded final product. Exactly what goes where. And it just made it easier too to slowly build this up during the production of it because I would come back home, pull my footage, see what I had, and then look at the timeline and think, "Okay, next time I go to a practice or game, I need this, this, and this." Which again, just lends itself to a very more polished, well-rounded final product.
Moving on to the next section of today's video is the edit portion and kind of talking about how I put this video together, my editing techniques, etc., etc. I don't really want to go through the nitty-gritty details of like sequence settings or, you know, showing you guys my timeline. I more want to talk about my thought process and how I structured the actual edit along with small details here and there that really helped amplify this piece.
When it came to the edit, the structure of the video was actually pretty basic. It follows a three-act sequence: beginning, middle, and end, just to give it a linear storyline for the audience to follow. The first act of the video really focuses on kind of building out the environment for the viewer. So showcasing where we are, who we're watching, and what the objective is. So a lot of this part of the first act was showcasing the Mattamy Athletic Centre, showcasing the gym, and then kind of giving you your first look at the athletes putting in the work and getting ready for the season ahead of them. I wanted to, you know, show scenics and set the scene and the stakes, give people a reason to want to watch this video and show the motivations behind the athletes in the video.
This act included having a set of really wide exterior shots with that 17-28, like I said, the beginning part of the video. It's a lot of wide, sweeping environmental shots to set the scene and show you where this is taking place. After the wide exterior establishing shots, you're going to notice that the first couple shots of the team themselves are very, very wide and encompass as many people as possible. The reason behind this was because I wanted to make this a team-first video. I wanted the focus to be on the team and not individuals. So it doesn't really make sense for the first shots of the athletes you see to be close-ups or medium shots of one or two, three people, but instead show everybody, as many people as possible, to showcase that this video is about the team first and individual second, which is a very common thing in sports and something I know the coaching staff wants to stress this year. This is a team unit. This is not one or two people. This is about a collective, and I wanted to showcase that in the beginning of the video.
As we go through the first act, you're gonna really notice that it goes from these really wide shots to progressively getting closer and closer to the athletes, showcasing them on more of a personal level. It's not exactly an extreme close-up yet. I'm not getting up all on their faces, but I'm showcasing them closer and closer, especially when it comes to more of that heavy action when they're running up and down the court or, you know, practicing hard, you know, catching their breath to showcase that hard work and that hustle mentality that I talked about at the beginning. It's close enough where you can see the effort that they're putting in during drills, running suicides, etc., etc. You get to see the reaction in their faces, you get to see some emotions, but you're not exactly all up in their face yet. But it is to some degree way closer than we were with those wide sweeping establishing shots.
Where the first act kind of welcomes you into this environment, shows you where we are and who we're focusing on, I wanted the second act to introduce a bit more tension leading into, uh, the game action. But at the same time, I also wanted to bring you, the audience, closer to the athletes so you can see, uh, their mental focus leading into a game. This act also transitions completely away from training camp and becomes entirely preseason footage, which adds a different element to the energy in the video. Like I said, I wanted this section to bring tension, but also a sense of focus and intensity. And I think the best way to portray that was through using medium and close-up shots. There aren't really any wides in this section of the video at all because I really want to just get up and close to the athletes and showcase them focusing, getting ready for the game and warm-ups, and just getting almost set for that tip-off for game time, for the action to go, just that moment before where they're really starting to prep was what I wanted to highlight with that tension, with that intensity, and with that focus.
I definitely think intensity, tension, and focus were my main themes in this act. Because if you watch the video, you can pretty much guess that the third act is strictly game action. So I really wanted to dial into emotions and slow things down a little bit more before we just ramp up to the climax. And I just love doing that with close-up shots in slow motion. There was no shots here at regular pace. This is all pretty much slowed down to as much as I can. And there's one sequence of shots here that I think really showcase that intensity and that energy. And it was just right before when you're in the huddle. There's three back-to-back shots of extreme close-ups on three athletes, and you can definitely, like, just see the fire in their eyes and their, their focus and ready to go. And it's probably my favorite sequence in the entire video. But I think it was just, like, the perfect way to showcase that energy and tension right before the game.
The reason I think close-ups are really effective way of showcasing this kind of tense emotion, it's just, I mean, if you look at the video, like, when, when you're, we're getting a lot closer to them, you can just see it in their faces. They're ready to go. They're getting in the zone. I think close-ups, you just, like I said, you can see it in their eyes. There's so much emotion there that's not spoken. And I really wanted to bring that through with this part of the video.
And as I said, you're probably able to predict, but Act 3 is straight, all in-court action. Once the music drops, I just go heavy with the in-game visuals, showcasing my best shots and their best moments on the court. And that is all Act 3 is strictly about. And this is always my favorite part of editing these type videos. I love building tension and all these emotions, but when you just get to go ham on the action and your best shots and showcasing the athletes at their best is where, you know, it's the heart of the video. It's what you come to see. It's the grand finale. So I think if you're editing these kinds of videos, just have fun with it. I know it kind of is a bit of contrary to what I was saying before about being methodical and stuff, but I think at some point in these videos, you want to be able to be flexible and have fun. And these are the moments to do it. So I definitely just kind of went balls to the wall in this part of the video and had fun with it. And I really think that came out in the final product.
And really, this climax is all about showcasing the athletes at their best. So I added a lot of three-pointers, I added a lot of, you know, good drives to the basket, solid defense. I think defense is a really underrated part of shooting sports, especially basketball. I think it makes for really good transitional B-roll and defense can be hype. So shoot your defensive plays, don't just shoot baskets. But also shooting the bench getting hyped, shooting the crowd, small things like that. And I think the biggest part to add to all this is making sure you're editing it to the beat of the music. Make sure that your edit makes sense with the tempo and specific parts of the song, different hits, different instruments, lyrics. And that was my big thing when editing this part is just making sure I'm hitting the song with the best highlights possible in order to give the edit a flow. And to end the video, it was just easy because the part of the song I selected just kind of fit in with a final beat, and it was just obvious that at that point, I cut the action and I add the team logo just to end the video once and for all. And I think for hype videos, like your main objective here is to get people hyped and fired up. Once you're at the top of the mountain, you don't want to go down, you want to stay at that peak and at maximum emotion. So find a portion where you can end it, throw the logo on it, throw the team saying, whatever you have. That's what I did. And I think it just ended off the video at a high point, which worked for the style of hype I was going for.
A few more notes on editing here because, like I said, I just kind of told you the structure. I do want to go a little bit more into detail into small nuances and things I kind of noticed and tried to do just to give the video a solid flow and build. I definitely wanted each shot and each cut to have a meaning, to have a purpose. I just didn't want to cut from shot A to B to C to D and have them make no sense. I wanted there to be a reason between each cut, whether it's showcasing a different angle or, you know, having a similar movement. There is a reason I made each individual cut in this video, just so there is a proper flow to the edit.
And a really big part about this is going through and pulling selects. I do this after every game I shoot. I do this before every video I edit. Go through and pick out your best shots and put them on a timeline. So when you go to edit, you're not going through a ton of useless footage of you not getting highlights and stuff. Just pull your best stuff and put it on a different timeline. So when you're ready to edit, you have all your best stuff ready to go. It makes a huge difference, trust me. Try it out.
So when I talk about making cuts that have a purpose and make sense and finding shots that go together, I think a lot of it has to do with framing and composition. You know, what are you looking at on your frame, and can you cut to a shot that looks kind of similar? Or what movements do you have? What camera movements are in? Are you panning from left to right? Are you zooming in? Are you zooming out? I think cutting from similar shots in terms of camera movement can help a lot. And also, what kind of, you know, focal length are you shooting at? Are you shooting close-ups? Are you shooting wides? If you can cut from a wide to a wide, it's a lot cleaner than cutting to a wide to a close-up and vice versa. It's a lot easier to cut from a close-up to an extreme close-up versus an extreme close-up to an extreme wide shot. It's not as jarring for the viewer and it's an easier transition. So just a few things that I did here and there to really give it a linear sense of flow and not throw people off for watching it. I want you to be invested and I don't want you clicking away because, like, whoa, we just went from one shot to another, doesn't make sense. I didn't want that. So this was just the best way to make sure that the viewers stayed engaged and wasn't thrown off as much as they could.
I think camera movement was very important, especially when it came to that first sequence of establishing shots. A lot of them, if not most of them, are all coupled. So pretty much each cut is a shot from moving from left to right, the next shot is moving left and right, and so on and so on. This continuous left-to-right motion allows for flow and it just gives your viewer the perspective that even though the shot's changing, the movement stays the same. So it definitely isn't as jarring and it's just actually kind of visually pleasing to have everything move in the same direction despite the change in the visual that you're seeing on screen.
This logic of grouping similar clips together also applies to composition and focal length. So if you notice in the second act, I definitely start going more towards medium shots and I don't divert from that. It goes from medium shot to medium shot, and eventually it goes from close-up shot to close-up shot because it's just easier for the viewer to digest and it just makes sense visually. And the compositions for the most part are pretty similar. I tried to keep it as close as possible, obviously not, that's not possible with every single shot, but you're gonna notice that is the theme throughout the video and it just makes for an easier and more pleasant viewing experience.
I mentioned this earlier, but my favorite sequence in the video is that sequence of three or four extreme close-ups in the huddle in the middle of Act 2. Because not only is it just emotional because of the energy you feel off the girls, the intensity you see in their faces, but also because there's just that similar composition with a foreground element and their faces are framed. They're all very similar shots, not exactly the same, but similar. And it just makes for a very pleasing sequence and I think it just visually works together very well.
Now you're probably saying right now, okay, I can see that in Acts 1 and 2, it's blatantly obvious you definitely did put thought into shots and sequencing them. But Act 3, you kind of threw that to the wind and started doing whatever you want. And that's kind of true. You know, I think with Act 3, I definitely took more liberties in terms of adding shots that maybe didn't work together in a sequence. But I think with action sequences, climaxes, and hype videos, you can take a lot more liberties and put stuff that may not work well together because it's so fast-paced, the cuts are happening a lot quicker, there's more for your brain to process. Those more jarring cuts actually kind of work in scenarios like this. Although I do still do that at times in this part of the video, there are definitely three-point shot after three-point shot in similar situations, uh, back to back. But I think only shooting two games made it a lot harder to do so because I don't have enough footage to really find match shots throughout to match cut these action sequences. But at the same time, action sequences, you
can be a bit more liberal with them. I definitely chose to be in this specific video, and I think it worked out pretty well because it's all action. Everything's happening all at once. It's a very drastic change from the slow and tension-filled build-up in the first half of the video.
I think speed ramping and the speed of the cuts was also something I definitely changed the third act that you might notice. I know acts one and two, the length of footage between cuts is a lot longer, and that was one to build tension, but also to kind of give you a sense of the slow build and at the same time working with the music at the time, which was a lot slower as the music was building as well. Versus an act three, the cuts are a lot quicker. They're a lot more apparent because the music is going a lot faster, and I think there is a bit more of a chaotic element to this third act. And also, I'm able to offset that a little bit by using speed ramps. But I think for me, a big thing was making sure the speed ramps happened at a particular moment in the music. I wasn't just using them willy-nilly. If you go back and watch the video, there's always a hit or some kind of noise to signal a speed change, and that just kind of again gives that edit flow and makes it easier for the viewer. It's not just random. There's actually a sound correlated with the change in pace.
I think speed ramping in this case also really helped me cut through shots in that action sequence that normally wouldn't work. You might notice that in this video and a lot of my previous basketball videos, I love slowing the ball after it goes into the basket. I don't know why, it just looks visually pleasing to me. And then sometimes I'll just cut to another really quick shot or maybe another slow shot. I think having that split second of slow motion freezing in time just gives you a lot more liberty to cut to a different shot, and you don't really notice it because you're just, it freezes for a second, so you pause, and then it goes into something else, and your viewer just kind of says, "Okay, we're just going right back into it." Okay, so kind of using speed ramps there to kind of gauge my cuts also helped a lot in this portion of the video.
And that's kind of a wrap for everything I wanted to talk about when it comes to this little breakdown master class on this hype video that I did for the Rams women's basketball team. It's definitely gonna be one of my longer videos, but if you made it so far, thank you. I hope you guys got something away from it. Like I said, hype videos are something I'm super passionate about. They're definitely my favorite thing to create, and I'm glad I'm able to share some insights and just kind of give you guys a behind-the-scenes look into my mentality and my breakdown when I'm building one of these videos out.
I think this video is easily going to be one of my favorite ones from 2021, if not maybe my career, just because of the uniqueness of the scenario. Like I said, it was right after the pandemic, they haven't played for two years, so there was an added storyline stakes that I might never get to include in a story again. But also, just, you know, I didn't get to edit or shoot one of these for almost a year, so be able to do it was kind of a relief. I put everything I had into it, and I also, um, I feel really privileged to shoot such a talented group of ladies on this team. So there's a lot of factors in this to make this one of my favorite videos ever, and I'm glad I was also able to break it down for you guys here today on my channel.
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