<p>As I am getting ready to guide my second kid through the recruiting maze, I'd really like to do a better job with videos on this go round. My talent is very limited -- to shooting with an ipad!</p>
<p>What tips do you have on shooting and editing video? Everything from camera selection, to software for editing (especially zoom), to posting on YouTube, to video techniques, to sharing the video links with coaches. </p>
<p>Even links to other sites would be appreciated as long as they are allowed on CC. </p>
<p>I would check the NCAA guidelines because there are some restrictions for videos for some sports. You can only send game highlights taken at official contests for some sports. I have a Sony Cybershot SLR camera that has an amazing zoom. I can take close up face shots from the upper deck of a pro football stadium of kids on the field. It also has a shot stabilizer in the camera so the video quality is very good. It’s pretty easy to use.</p>
<p>I’ve never edited videos from that so I can’t really help you there but often if you have a local cable access tv station, they will help you with that. There are companies that will do the editing for you as well or check with any local colleges to see if they have editing equipment and college students you could pay to do that for you.</p>
<p>Thanks for the detailed help. Our national sport association has space for video in the athlete’s database record. That’s what got me thinking about my ahem, skills. I tried to up,old a couple to YouTube today and could see my lack of finesse.</p>
<p>At each of the major tournaments we can pay for a video service, and it may be worthwhile to do that.</p>
<p>I would imagine it depends on what sport you need to video. For example in basketball I have heard coaches do not like highlight videos, they would rather see an entire half so they can see the whole picture not just the good stuff. I assume the same with soccer. I would search engine the sport under recruiting to get some good video ideas…</p>
<p>No highlight tape or otherwise should be longer than five minutes. There is no way any coach has that kind of time to sit through an entire half of a basketball or soccer game. And not to burst a bubble, but if a coach has not seen a kid play in person - either at a contest or camp - or has not at the very least been contacted by an outside source (HS Coach etc) the odds that a randomly submitted video will result in recruitment is fairly unlikely. However, I will be more than happy to be proven wrong by personal experience (Vs those who will spin the tale of that illusive friend of a friend…)</p>
<p>^^ Good point, the video that was sent on my daughters behalf was requested by the coach after contact and a recommendation thru a grapevine. However I still heard that just highlights are not always desirable as anyone can make someone look amazing taking hours of tape and just putting the best of the best…</p>
<p>MovieMaker is a good program for video editing if you have Windows. I know Mac has a good one, too - but I’m not familiar with it. There are lots of YouTube tutorials on editing with either program - it’s pretty easy to get the hang of editing, splicing, title pages, etc. </p>
<p>If you are going to buy a new camera - learn a little about the format that it saves the movie file. I bough an HD camera that saved files in a format called AVCHD that MovieMaker (the old version anyway) didn’t like.</p>
<p>In my daughter’s case she sent links to her highlight videos with her initial contact emails. She has gotten no outside help from coaches or friends. The only “help” is recruiting websites BeRecruited and NCSA. NSCA has a highlight video that they created for her from clips she sent them. All of other highlight videos are available on BeRecruited. Her sport is volleyball.</p>
<p>She has asked coaches what they prefer and we have been in Recruiting Workshops with college coaches. 95% of the coaches said they prefer a highlight video with something that will peak their interest within the first 60 seconds. Also try to keep the video less than 5 minutes. This is what my daughter has done and now has about 30 coaches that she regularly converses with. After establishing a dialogue almost every coach has asked for an unedited game video which my daughter has sent.</p>
<p>Our experience is the highlight video peaks their interest. If they are truly interested then they will ask for the unedited game footage.</p>
<p>Varska - Agreed, movie maker is a good one, my daughter put together her video (less than 5 min long) on movie maker w/ non HD camera; however, also agree that her friend borrowed our new HD camera and it took awhile to format it. I think they had to put it onto a different file…</p>
<p>Modadunn - here is the prove you wrong response…lol…my daughter sent introductory emails with video link during her soph year, and the video definitely got the attention of coaches- coaches then asked for her schedule and where they could see her play…She committed to a D1 college spring of Junior year. I do not know if this is the norm, but it worked for us.</p>
<p>Other video info - although it is recommended that music not be used, we did not know this and D put music on her video… all the coaches that viewed it said that they liked the video and not one made a comment about the music -the music actually made it more interesting… the coaches could have muted it though -lol. I would recommend using a tripod and depending on the sport, have some zoom in shots as well as wide shots so the coaches can see the plays progressing. Some recommend skill videos as well as game play - we just used game play video. There are plenty of agencies out there that will shoot and compile videos for you; however, my daughter enjoyed doing it herself.</p>
<p>All good stuff here. Older daughter was recruited without a decent video. She had a couple of videos but they weren’t very good visually. Even the videos from a service weren’t very good. Mostly she was recruited by coaches who saw her play in national tournaments or at their camps.</p>
<p>For D2 we are starting a bit earlier and I’m thinking we should do a better job with the video.</p>
<p>Having used both, I can tell you that iMovie on the mac is SO much easier to use than Windows MovieMaker - if you have a Mac. If you have the time, I don’t think you need to pay a service - D’s teammate used NCSA and the videos they created were not as good as the one’s we made on the mac. I think your ipad should be able to capture at a decent quality - the key is getting a tripod/stand and not trying to hold it. When you load to youtube, make sure comments are disabled - we also like using the “unlisted” feature - which means only those with the link can view it. It enabled us to get a good sense of exactly how many coaches were viewing it. We started the video with a shot showing her athletic accomplishments (awards, rankings, etc) and closed with a schedule of where they could see her next. We also created a free web site which enabled her to have all videos hosted on her site as well as her youtube channel. Her website also included academic highlights, schedule updates, etc. She then included links to both her website and recruiting videos in her emails to coaches. Without knowing what sport it’s hard to give to many more specifics.</p>