Video killing mountain bike stars

I have learned a lot during the process of making my first three videos. I figured I would share with the class since there's no reason you shouldn't learn from my experiences and mistakes.

Before I published the PMBAR video I had one copy of it saved to my computer that was, for all my intentional purposes, correct as far as title and captioning goes. After I saved it I discovered that certain changes I made towards the end affected the timing of the captions and credits, thus making the movie a digitally viewable turd. That was when I discovered I had to start all over from scratch for multiple reasons, and because my brain was so fried I ended up with improper captions and title on the second version. Meh.

I then removed the video after 860+ views (which surely provided 1,720 chuckles) and replaced it with one that was a little more meticulously edited. Note to self: When having someone do a QC check on your product make sure they are familiar with said product. The Pie doesn't know trail or race names. Hell, I'm lucky if she even knows what state I'm racing in this weekend.

I spent about twenty minutes the first time around trying to create the "Extreme Tomato with a frying pan full of PMBAR" still shot.

In the first version it resulted in a beautifully seamless production... a masterpiece in amateuristic digital film editing. When I went to make the movie the second go around I didn't want to go through all the steps of the process again, and I short-cutted some shit to hurry things along. Let's just say it lost a little something in the transfer. Lesson learned: Anything worth doing is probably worth doing twice even if you didn't screw it up the first time.

Music. What a pain in the ass. I've learned a few things about putting music on my videos... things worth sharing with the class.

1. The easiest way to pick a song for your video is to look through your library and find a song that is close to the length of your almost complete video. You can always tweak a few seconds in or out to get an exact fit. This is how I've been doing it, and this is how I will continue to do it. No apologies there.

2. It doesn't really matter what song you pick since someone somewhere will tell you that your song choice ruined the whole thing for them. Seriously.

3. Youtube will not allow certain songs to be used due to licensing and copyright agreements. I can see how this makes sense in some ways, but I'm sure Lakeside would have been thrilled to have Fantastic Voyage on my soundtrack.

4. No matter what song you choose you will hear it so many times over during the process that you will not be able to get it out of your head for days, and you may never want to hear it again.

So here is the latest creation. I kinda went overboard on the effects like a kid with his first big box of Crayolas. It sorta sent me in search of a musical theme...

Youtube didn't like my soundtrack (Warner Music Group didn't wanna play with me), but Vimeo let it slide... at least for now. I'm assuming that WMG is okeedoke with Vimeo... dunno. Vimeo doesn't embed with HD, so for best quality you should watch it on the actual Vimeo site.

Here it is with a BG's soundtrack:

Untitled from Rich Dillen on Vimeo.

Ohhhh Vimeo, you're my hero....

Just loaded up with Lakeside. Which works better? You decide.

BACKYARD TRAILS WITH STABBY/LAKESIDE from Rich Dillen on Vimeo.