Taking videos at Championship?

[cbf]

This is the first time in six years that our team is going to the championship.

I've been taking videos for our team for the past couple of years. My videos are better than the official streams because I take full 1080P, and try to keep the whole field and the scoreboard in the frame. This is much better for following what's going on. Usually, I just set up somewhere high in the stands for this, using a large video tripod. You can see my videos on our homepage: http://www.ligerbots.org. I post all the videos publicly to YouTube.

So my question for people who have been there before? Is it appropriate to do our own recording at the Championship? Is it going to be possible for me to find a good filming position? (I have a good zoom and a quality tripod -- I don't really care how far up I'll be.)

Are there official videos and are they any good? (I hate it when the official video tries to zoom in on the "action" -- with six robots on the field, there's always something that's missed when you focus on a small space.)

[Jay O'Donnell]

610 and 973 had videos similar to yours last year I believe, may want to talk to them.

[Max Boord]

Official media is 240-480p at a low bit rate. Last year (and i assume this year) you can use you teams media badge to get within 5 feet of the court to take video during your matches.

My setup last year:
2 gopros
1 cannon T3i with a 28-105mm lens IS turned on with no tripod at 28mm.
Use the field supplied recordings for the scoreboard and audio
expect to shoot 1/60 @ f3.5 @ ISO 400-800
Here is an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8bc...0wzkP7uyY4jauw
A great video by 1678 showing the courtside recording abilities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMA_r1oHOPQ

I had lenses like the 50mm f1.4 and 70-200 f2.8 IS but never really used them. Its much better to go WIDE and film up close. A quick idea of what zooms can do what:
14: full field form the closest you can get from the stands.
28: 3/4 field from the on field position
50: close up on 1 robot form on field or half court from the stands
135-400 close up from the stands depending on your location.

Feel free to PM me with any specific questions/ setups you have in mind.

[Maxwell777]

Originally Posted by cbf

This is the first time in six years that our team is going to the championship.

I've been taking videos for our team for the past couple of years. My videos are better than the official streams because I take full 1080P, and try to keep the whole field and the scoreboard in the frame. This is much better for following what's going on. Usually, I just set up somewhere high in the stands for this, using a large video tripod. You can see my videos on our homepage: http://www.ligerbots.org. I post all the videos publicly to YouTube.

So my question for people who have been there before? Is it appropriate to do our own recording at the Championship? Is it going to be possible for me to find a good filming position? (I have a good zoom and a quality tripod -- I don't really care how far up I'll be.)

Are there official videos and are they any good? (I hate it when the official video tries to zoom in on the "action" -- with six robots on the field, there's always something that's missed when you focus on a small space.)

Which division will you be filming? I'm going to be filming curie division, in case that helps you at all.

This is going to be my first time filming championships (I did film the AZ regional though). Any tips/advice would be appreciated.

[ErvinI]

Two years ago I was taking videos on Archimedes from some chairs set up near the entrances by the railing. It's slightly elevated so that spectators don't get in your way. I believe 2056 was taking videos from a similar position last year, if you want to compare camera angles.

[Hallry]

FRC Team 1676, The Pascack Pi-oneers, will be recording 1080p full-field footage of Curie and posting it on our YouTube Channel, as we try to do at all the events we go to. And I promise you it will be up in less time than the MAR Champs footage is taking

[plnyyanks]

Just a reminder, if you record video in big chunks (like you leave the camera running all day) and want help automating extracting individual matches, I wrote some scripts to do that. Shoot me a pm if you want some help using them.
https://github.com/plnyyanks/match-archive-tools

[DonRotolo]

1676 records matches in small chunks, just over 2:30 long. Yes, it means an operator needs to babysit the camera, but would you leave a video camera unattended anyway?
We use the videos for scouting Friday night, pre-parsing them trivializes seeing what we need to see, and has the benefit of making them easier to upload to YouTube.

But regarding the OP: Yes, taking your own video is appropriate and allowed. And a good idea. You might be able to get up to the upper tier to video, which would be a great angle. If not, there are plenty of good locations up higher in the stadium. Remember, it is a football stadium.

[cbf]

Originally Posted by Maxwell777

Which division will you be filming? I'm going to be filming curie division, in case that helps you at all.

This is going to be my first time filming championships (I did film the AZ regional though). Any tips/advice would be appreciated.

We're going to be in Newton -- which we were really hoping for since our team is from Newton, MA!

[cbf]

Originally Posted by Max Boord

Official media is 240-480p at a low bit rate. Last year (and i assume this year) you can use you teams media badge to get within 5 feet of the court to take video during your matches.

5 ft would be way too close for my purposes -- I'm not bringing a fisheye lens!

Your setup looks awesome, but way more effort than I put into this. I need to get some of our students more excited about post-processing our videos. Maybe now that we've made it to Worlds..

[Maxwell777]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

Just a reminder, if you record video in big chunks (like you leave the camera running all day) and want help automating extracting individual matches, I wrote some scripts to do that. Shoot me a pm if you want some help using them.
https://github.com/plnyyanks/match-archive-tools

Awesome! I would love to use this! Does it need to be one large file, or can it be split up into chunks? I don't know If I have the capacity to film for large periods of time with my camera. I could probably do 3-hour intervals though.

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by Maxwell777

Awesome! I would love to use this! Does it need to be one large file, or can it be split up into chunks? I don't know If I have the capacity to film for large periods of time with my camera. I could probably do 3-hour intervals though.

Doesn't matter how long the video inputs are, you can have as many chunks as you need - all the script does is extract one match-length of video starting points you specify and can then upload to youtube for you.

Basic instructions for getting started are on the GitHub wiki, sorry you have to go through the trouble of creating a Google API project, but I can't find a better way to do it.

The input is a csv file with two columns: TBA Match Key (scheme described here) and the timestamp in the video (formatted HH:mm:ss) where you want to start extracting.

The script will cut out all the videos, upload them to YouTube (and optionally add to a specified playlist) and output a csv file that you can copy and paste into the TBA spreadsheet for archival.

[Conor Ryan]

Also check out the Championship A-Z, I found this:

Originally Posted by 2014 Championship A-Z v4.18.14

Video Recording Hookups: Teams are welcome to record their matches. Please see the Field Supervisor for the location of the Multi AV boxes, which you can connect your audio and video recording devices to. There are a limited amount of Multi AV boxes available, so we ask that you kindly limit recording to the matches that your team is playing in.

http://www3.usfirst.org/sites/defaul...RC_CMP_A-Z.pdf

[MrTechCenter]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

Also check out the Championship A-Z, I found this:



http://www3.usfirst.org/sites/defaul...RC_CMP_A-Z.pdf

This will give you the low quality footage, and you're forced to record all of the camera switching that they do versus having one fixed angle.

FIRST said in their last blog post that the next deck up (I believe this is the Club Level in the Edward Jones Dome) will be open for spectators. It might be too high up to get a good view for filming, but you won't have to worry about people getting in the way.

[cbf]

Originally Posted by MrTechCenter

This will give you the low quality footage, and you're forced to record all of the camera switching that they do versus having one fixed angle.

FIRST said in their last blog post that the next deck up (I believe this is the Club Level in the Edward Jones Dome) will be open for spectators. It might be too high up to get a good view for filming, but you won't have to worry about people getting in the way.

Well, like I said, my camera has a pretty good zoom (specs: http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model...s&support#tabs . But could someone give me an estimate about just how far away we're talking about? At the far end of the zoom there is a little optical distortion and even tripod-mounted, camera shake could be an issue.