Racing is fun, editing is not!
After hosting my first mail-in race, I learned some lessons that will help me make the next event better. One thing that reduces the fun factor is the heat in my garage. It can quickly get over 100 degrees there, so some of my filming occurs at night. The racing itself is the best part, and I'm waiting to see how fast some of these cars will cover my 20' 11" track. It was shorter until some of the cars were too fast for the Slanman system. Three of the cars would cross the finish line before the start gate reset, resulting in no elapsed time. I got that settled, but making sure I track everyone's car correctly and track times is something that takes focus. This and editing is why I kept the number of entries low. Making the racing look good, giving a voice-over, and providing a good music track is time-consuming and a little more tedious. Still FUN! I will be doing another mail-in event in the fall with the same rules and an allowed number of cars. With my short shutdown, I would be nervous about anything too fast. I will be entering some races in the future, once I have cars that keep up with the ones that were sent for me to race. Time to learn how to build faster cars!
Lloyd - Freed Diecast Drag Racing.
Discussion
I have what I think is an unpopular opinion: not everyone should feel the need to go through the effort of doing commentary, especially for your first videos. Sure, it makes a video more fun to watch and your production quality increases, but it's hard to do it well and it takes a lot of time (and a lot of money, for a good mic). Maybe just recording the races and posting the footage with the noise of the cars running is enough? Or quiet background music? Just an idea
When some channels like 3d/EP/etc. do color commentary really well everyone wants to imitate them, but I think it's a lot harder than it seems to get a good audio recording setup and do the actual voiceovers. I admire you for trying, but I think if I ever tried to build a track and host a race, I wouldn't be able to do commentary for my first videos. Too daunting on top of everything else being new
I like your track and your camera work, I haven't found your channel until just now. Subbed
- Thank you! — Freedom_DieCast_DragRacing
- I have been doing this for a while, the filming and editing and it has gotten a little easier. The commentary will get better with time and I think it adds to the action. — Freedom_DieCast_DragRacing
the reason I built the micro drag track is to develop my skills.
but forcing myself to shoot a season (8 races) and the team/car finals,
and having a walk up to it, start filming (in the AC..lol)
will force me to do it, and a "flow" will develop.
Even stuff like where ya set the cars,
the team boards, keeping track of points,
all stuff I must become skilled in before I will ever run a mail in
lifes a marathon
dr
Those 100 degrees must be part of the summer weather
I haven't put together a video in a *long* time because I do not enjoy the process...and that's even without commentary! My videos were like silent movies...just music and words. Occasionally I'd do a car show preview and try my best to hype but I just couldn't get behind spending hours editing to get 15 minutes of video. At that time there was just no return on that investment.
Here's how I went about editing videos as quickly/cheaply as possible. I just used what I had on my phone. It worked. It got the job done and it wasn't a complete drag. Was the video entertaining? No...but that wasn't the point. The goal was to prove that racing happened and to show the matches and who won.
But I agree with ConMan that there should be zero pressure to do commentary, story, or be overly elaborate at all with your videos...period, let alone when you're starting out. I'd suggest getting a routine and system down for managing your races first before you try to do fancy editing. As you've found, editing is the biggest time suck, even with minimal production.
You did very well and your system will only get smoother with practice. Thanks for hosting! I had a blast at your track!