Behind the scenes....

So the past few days we have seen Colin and Marco getting on the water early making the most of the wind and the quiet conditions, as well as fitting in their filming around Marco’s teaching sessions and Colin’s role as judge in the Dahab Festival Freestyle competition.  

The guys have taken loads of footage and are getting through their skills menu well, however, its not all about what goes on on the water, there is so much work to be done behind the scenes in order to sort through the footage and put together the DVD.  We took a visit to their ‘media suite’ to check out what they have been up to and get more of an idea how much hard work is involved behind the scenes.  

The team have been spending all hours possible on this production, after filming on the water or simulator, they have been heading straight indoors to begin to sift through the hours of footage they have captured, to find the best clips for their requirements.  Obviously they need the good examples for everyone to see, but also they want to make sure they have clear examples of mistakes for you all to see too as these are really helpful to help you see why or where you may be going wrong.  

Once they have filmed each skill they need, and each mistake too, they then need to make sure they have got the moves on all the relevant cameras.  Had they decided just to show the skills from one camera, as most instructional dvd’s in the past have done, it would have been a much quicker job, but the use of GoPro’s to get you closer to the action and show you clearly what happens during your moves means its not so easy.  The GoPro cameras are close to the water and so regularly get wet, even with small droplets, when these droplets land in the middle of the screen it can ruin a clip and so as you can imagine, its not so easy to get the perfect clips quickly after all.

So you wont be surprised we found the boys sat round with their computers, many empty crisp packets and coke bottles looking pretty tired out and very very busy.

We got a sneak preview of some of the clips from different mounts, showing the different angles the footage is being taken from.  These look fantastic and should be great for learning from as you really can get right in on the move, to see exactly what is happening in different stages of the maneuver, both with your hands, feet and the whole picture from up close.  The work involved is massive, we saw just a few folders of clips they have to sort through, and these clips have already been semi sorted as the GoPro films one continuous clip they then have to chop into useful and useless sections.  Oh and don’t forget, I haven’t even mentioned the voice overs, move by move, step by step, that will need to be done once the clips are all made!! 

The next few windy days the guys need to complete the freestyle clips and re run any clips that may need doing.  Evenings will no doubt be spent head down with the computers, making sure they get everything covered before Colin flys home on his way to his next season in Vassiliki.  

The amount of time and effort being put into this DVD is surely going to result in a brilliant piece of work and a very helpful learning aid.