Discussion: Race recap video: Feedback please! (Green River)

I've got another race recap video,

http://www.runbosco.com/2012/02/winter-o-green-riv...

This is a recap of my run on the public advanced course, with little retrospective musings sprinkled in.

This video is rated for BEGINNER-INTERMEDIATE to INTERMEDIATE orienteers (see chart below EDIT: see chart at runbosco.com), which means that you are acquainted with the basics of orienteering, and would benefit from some insight into orienteering problem solving skills.

I appreciate your feedback!

And to answer questions that may come up:
-I am wearing a chest-mounted GoPro, because it is the most comfortable to race in.
-It is already set at the widest angle.
-I don't have any animation software/skills, I'm sorta wingin' it with Photoshopped images dropped into iMovie

My main goals are for the video to:
-have some clarity (easy to understand)
-have some learning value (to the target audience)
-provide insight into the "mind of an orienteer" to beginner-intermediate orienteers

Thanks!

Run Bosco

Nice. Someone needs to go out there with a lawn-mower. Or a flame thrower. Your route to 9 was the one I would have picked, assuming terrestrial vegetation.

I would have included a couple of legs you did well, for example from the pinball urban section, perhaps instead of the mistake on the spur?

Thank, ndobbs for your feedback!

The feedback I got from the video before this was that maps flickered by the screen too quickly-- so I thought that I could give the maps more screen time in exchange for cutting out the legs I did well.

Also.. this was practically my worst race for this season, so.. hahaha

Good to know that a balance is appreciated! I'm trying to figure out how sharing a split I did well can be interesting or instructional (and not just boastful). Thoughts?

I figured people could always pause the vid if they wanted a longer look at the map - unless you're presenting them to groups. I paused it a couple of times for some more map-reading time.

Agree with Neil that you need some more focus on things you did well instead of just the mistakes, otherwise the tone of the video ends up being a bit negative. You had 3-4 legs where you were 3rd fastest, so maybe talk about why -

• did you pick a particularly good route choice relative to other people, or did you just outrun them?
  
• Did they make mistakes?
  
• What were they, and how did you avoid making them?
  
• Were legs easy or hard?
  
• Did you identify them as such ahead of time and do something different?

The pinball reference was a bit obscure for me at first, but maybe I'm just slow. :)

Thanks, Juffy for your feedback!

Funny that you say you paused it.. because that's what I figured in my prior videos! So I was tailoring to those people who complained that the maps went by too fast. But there ya go, can't please everyone. I'll just have to strike a happy medium.

I agre re: the negative tone. It may be an indirect result of me being too critical of myself. If I were recapping someone else's race, I might be more generous!

Your questions are great! They would require that I get in touch with other competitors, though.. but hopefully I can pester a few into sharing their route on RouteGadget. Everyone runs at a different time, so it's hard to catch people for interviews at the event.

What do ya'll think about the length? So far this season, all my recap videos happen to fall around the 8minute mark.

Is 8 minutes too long? (just right?)
If I were to make it shorter, what could get cut out? Or sped up?

I like preserving the unity of the event, start to finish- but I suppose I could make a video of just a particular leg.

Thanks again!

As long as you have an idea why a leg was good, I would find it educational.

Your parking lot trail mistake reminded of a recent local meet where I ran to my best-ever finishing place on red, only to do control pick up for yellow afterwards by leaving a clearing on the wrong trail. ARGH Trails...the cause of...and solution to...all of life's problems.

Good luck with the routegadget encouragement. I found it very informative, but it kind of petered out when with only one of our aces and my midpack self using it.

Thanks, Mr Wonderful!

What a great idea.

I enjoyed it. You have IT (guess I'd call it) mastery. It has plenty of potential for demonstrating orienteering to those who might be interested. Use a more kindly (and interesting) forest next time:). It kept my interest for the duration - which suggests the "methodology" is very good!

Use a more kindly (and interesting) forest next time:).

Hey, Bob!!! Do you have something against our NW forests :)

Nikolay - haven't made a study and unfortunately, haven't been to your beautiful state in too long a time. That "forest", however, would do well with selective application of a flame-thrower (as noted above) or agent orange for a user-friendly result. Or better yet (to turn around a lyric)...come east young man:).

I think it's rather hilarious that CascadeOC led the nation in orienteering starts in 2010, despite having the country's worst greenest terrain for orienteering.

Contrast with LROC, which has the country's most open terrain...

@runbosco, the leg you did poorly, leaving the carpark on the wrong trail, you highlighted the contour directions etc. You could still do this if you took the correct path (not just showing the primary navigational pointer but also the secondary/tertiary ones). The lesson would be similar, but more positive.

@pinksocks, yeah, just goes to show the problem isn't the sport. There's huge untapped demand out there.