Hoping for advice regarding highlight videos for lacrosse and field hockey. I’d like to record and prepare clips from high school games. Can anyone recommend a good video camera? Are parents using apps or services to prepare video clips (the services we’ve used via tournaments are expensive!)?
Thank you!
Canon has some decent high definition cameras (e.g., Vixia) that are user friendly and not too costly – probably at the same price as a professional taking and editing one or two sessions (depending on the package). If you are going this route (and I quite enjoyed it) it is almost more important to get a halfway decent tripod. You can probably find an acceptable amateur tripod for around $75. At one game, I forgot my tripod and I bought a $15 cheap one at the local Walmart. It lasted for two games.
There are lots of editing options, but I just used IMovie. I took a lot of film, which was not a bad idea. If you do as well, do not get behind on editing. If the game time runs one hour, it will take at least that long to find the clips you want to you. It is easy to get swallowed up. It also is easy for your computer to get swallowed up as it does take up a bit of space to store the high def film.
Before you dive too deeply into editing. Go onto You Tube and review a number of recruiting tapes for your sport. I think you will find some excellent tapes and some snoozers. Use them as a guide.
I do recommend organizing your tapes. If your kid is an offensive player in field hockey, for example, you might do a couple of clips of dodges, a couple clips of different shots, a few on corners, some showing speed, etc. I think that is more helpful than just five highlights of the player in each game. Try to keep the tape down to 5-10 minutes (aiming for the 5 minute mark). Personally, I think it is better to make multiple tapes (more reasons to contact the coaches) rather than to cram too much in one tape.
As you make your highlight tapes, hang on to the original game footage. DS had several coaches ask for full games (letting him know where the highlight moments were.) I am guessing it allowed them to see the overall level of play as well as what was going on in the "less spectacular " moments.
Needs vary by sport, so it’s good advice to good watch a bunch of tape. Go to NCSA or one of the other services and see what sort of videos are linked in your sport, and also at your position. Goalies are a completely different problem, for example and forever. Same with equipment: my DD played an indoor court sport so just about any phone or digital camera had the required quality, but getting any detail across a soccer field in possibly poor light in the rain is another matter entirely.
Also, we had good luck just posting them to Youtube without full identifying info on them (eg “Megan Z - OH - Fabulous Club Red - NKHS 17 - #9”) and then providing direct links to the coaches. If you want you can put more complete info in the video where it can’t be scraped.
For lacrosse, all the big summer tourneys (President’s Cup, Capital Cup) are filmed and every game is available to every coach. They are 30 minute games so if you can tell the coach where and when she played in a game, the coach can watch. “I played Capital Cup, field 4, at 12 pm on Saturday. I had on green cleats and a yellow hairband. I scored 2 goals, one at the 12:13 mark and the other at 12:22”
We had one dad who filmed all the high school games. We were able to get some pretty good clips off of his filming and made a highlight CD, even though of course he was focusing on his daughter. My daughter was a middie and his attack, so I had to search for when D was doing something good (which of course was all the time!)
Try to convince your club to buy film from the tournaments. If you can split the cost across a whole team, it comes out to $20-25 per person per tournament and that can easily be added to the club fees.
I used a Canon HD Vixia for D1 and D2’s games and it came out very well. I agree on the tripod being key. If you can get one that elevates above head level, that is great. Don’t bother with zooming in and out, just follow the ball and/or your player.
I used Krossover to prepare my daughter’s lacrosse highlights. The coaching staff recorded all the games for film sessions and encouraged parents to use the footage for recruiting purposes. If coaches or parents are already filming games, then you may be able to use their film to create your highlight reel.
What I liked about Krossover was the ability to highlight my daughter with a circle or an arrow and filter footage. For example, I could select all the clips of my daughter causing a turnover or snagging a ground ball. I believe you can even add your own music but we were never that creative.
Thank you for the responses! The cameras friends have suggested run from under $300 to $1000. Thankfully, it sounds like a good Cannon will be fine!
The extra tips provided above are super helpful! I’ll plan to save video of full games. And I hadn’t realized coaches have access to video from the big lacrosse tournaments…
Krossover sounds great - I’ll check it out!