Sport

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Work In Progress #1: THIS IS NOT A FITNESS VIDEO

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Can't remember the last time I was nervous hitting "post" on something, but this is it. I got into cameras so I could hold them, & not be filmed by them 😅...but it felt so good to be shooting for an edit again.

It's been a while 🎬

 

May 1st 2020. Work in Progress | L O A D I N G Let me know what you think 👇🏻

 

I really struggle making things like this. This is a video that I think is "fine", but "fine" isn't the kind of content I like to make. Last month I read "So Good They Can't Ignore You", and one of the tips from that was;

📚: "Stop focussing on the details, focus on becoming better"

So here I go. Trying to ignore the less than perfect details, the things that didn't work, the things I cut rather than re-shoot. I'm giving myself some deadlines & hopefully along the way I'll be able to share some useful tips & tricks as well...

Fingers crossed I can get through doing this weekly for a bit, and then we'll see from there!

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Short Snack #5 | Melbourne Bikes & Beaches 🇦🇺

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I'm very fortunate.

Over the last few years I've been all over the world. Continents and cities I never thought I'd visit. Sometimes it's a great experience, & sometimes I can't wait to get out of whatever random place I've landed in. Either way, I feel beyond privileged to get the opportunity, good or bad to fly around seeing the world through my lens.

This was one of those good ones 🇦🇺👍.

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This latest job had me flying 17,000km around the globe to Australia to shoot the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Working with a new client I was putting my editing and shooting skills to the test to create several stand alone videos as well as a highlights of the day incorporating footage from 12 GoPro's mounted on the riders bikes.

Work flow was tough - and while there was tonnes of footage, that's not always the easiest thing to deal with - especially when you're trying to get your video live in four hours. Thankfully it all worked out, & I (plus the client & teams!) are happy with the results!

 

Then, because I'd flown 17,000km and it felt a shame to travel one whole day to only spend three in that country, I decided to stay another two days and explore Melbourne...and there happened to be another bike race to watch 🙈 #CantKeepMeAway

Enjoy Short Snack #5. Really tried to push the boat out on this one in the shoot, testing some new techniques to bring into the edit.

 
 

Melbourne is an awesome city. Seriously one of the best I've ever been to. Somehow it was chill while also keeping the feel of a bustling metropolis. It had everything you needed from a city, the transportation was incredible, and you were 20 minutes from the beach. I've never been to a city that was so sporty either. Multiple pro arenas, and every park was full of people playing soccer, doing yoga, softball, kicking a rugby ball around.

It made coming back to the never ending winter of the UK that little bit harder! It's a place I could move to tomorrow, and a place worth visiting if you get the opportunity 🇦🇺

Melbourne

 

I'm not a city person. Give me a field, a beach, anything - cities are all the same worldwide...well, that's what I thought until I went to Melbourne.

 
 

Macca's on the signs, arvo said on the radio, news stories ranging from shark sightings to spilt milk and all the puns you'd imagine. Australia has a unique attitude, & doesn't hide any of it.

 
 

A green city. Full of juxtapositions, people enjoying the sunshine and..a lot of weird things if you looked hard enough.

 
 

The place felt similar yet different. You still had the crazy pigeon lady, but also a true feeling of multiculturalness. I've never eaten better Chinese, and in a restaurant where no one spoke English.

 
 

The place was buzzing. It was active. You could stray from the path in park for the sport being played almost non-stop. Street music & small crowds formed on nearly every corner. I sat & watched a community of mismatched people wander up & away around a game of outdoor chess.

I left Melbourne thinking about how it had everything London had - with better weather, less people and a much more calm demeanour.

I could move there tomorrow.

 

Cadel Evens Road Race

My main event. Named after Australia's only TdF winner - the race start's in Evans' hometown of Geelong, races down the Great Ocean Road before returning to the finish. Sadly I was stuck around the start/finish & media centre - so never got to see the ocean road...but it's something else to do when I come back!

 

I'm used to doing races in the Northern Hemisphere...so this scenery & sun was quite a nice change of pace!

 
 

My main role was video...but I still managed to take & end up sharing a lot of my photography over the week...

 
 

One for the fans. It's not every day the Pro Tour comes to 🇦🇺...and the fans were rewarded & then some by the generosity of the riders. Big shout out to Esteban Chaves for keeping his trademark huge grin despite everywhere wearing a mask of his face all week

 

Winners & grin-ners. 

The Champagne Moment! 🍾🍾🍾

 

I'm usually filming for these...but with no formal requirement I thought I'd take a turn at snapping Ruth Wilder enjoying a much deserved moment in the sun

 

Herald Sun Tour

Can't beat a bike race through a major city CBD!

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Focus from DVP before eventually riding to the podium on the TT

 

Froome & Chavez were two of the nicest people all week. Taking selfies with fans, signing everything & generally being awesome people to fans who were just excited to see their cycling heroes on the other side of the world

 

Thank you for cycling slowly.

What did YOU think of Melbourne? And did I overdo the transitions in this video? If I was thinking of making a tutorial on how to do some of the cuts, would that imterest you or not? 👇

@THEREALRHODRI

RHODRI@CONTENTISKING.CO

VIEW MORE SHORT SNACKS HERE

All images taken either on a Sony A7sII with 85mm or 24-70mm

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Social Pet Peeve: Keep Clicks Simple

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The social space is congested.

This isn't news - you have a maximum of 4 seconds for content to capture your audiences attention or they're scrolling on. It makes sense your followers also don't want to have to type or click to much to hunt down your content away from where they currently are.

Searching for page: Min 4 Clicks

Direct Link: 1 Click

And this doesn't count someone who doesn't have the website bookmarked or needs to switch apps on a phone and search. You can add easily 10x more clicks than from a direct link, and that's still including some shortcuts - all while not guaranteeing they even find your page at all (or don't get distracted on the way).

What's strange as well is that teams haven't always just thrown a post online. A lot of thought has gone into grabbing the audience's attention - but not necessarily on the next step, driving and guiding them to your desired destination.

 
 

I see this an awful lot on Gameday, and across most sports. Generally this lack of direct links doesn't really make sense either. If you had an article on your website you wanted to make your audiance aware of you wouldn't just put in the copy "head over to our website" - you'd add a link. It shouldn't be any different for informing someone of something happening on another social platform.

Social media & Google might make it easy to find your official page on other platforms - but why create the extra effort when you can take all and any effort out and add the direct link? It's not like it looks messy either.

In the constant fight for attention and relevance, those who streamline the process and make the experience easy for their audiance will come out on top.

Don't add extra work - make it easy.

Keep It Simple (on Social) Stupid.

Do you agree or disagree? Do you have some reasons I may have missed why you may not put a direct link?

Follow this direct link & let me know on Twitter 😉

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One Month To Go - London Welsh RFC

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Last month, I had a free weekend back in my hometown of Twickenham and spotted it coincided with a London Welsh home game.

I sent a quick email over to the London Welsh media manager to see if it would be fine to fly my drone at London Welsh's home ground of Old Deer Park pre-game - & after checking I had the necessary PfAW, and after I talked them through my pre-match risk assessment and safety considerations, they agreed.

I wanted to edit together something like this video, made at the WT20 in India while working for the ICC, but the game wasn't really big enough to warrant that sort of production so, instead, the video focussed on the big Xmas eve, local derby clash with London Scottish

 
 

Shot in one day & edited that evening, the video will be used to promote the game with London Welsh releasing it on YouTube with month to go until the clash.

I also edited other versions from the one day's worth of filming, creating shorter bitesize videos (for social sharing), so that London Welsh have been able to promote every home match and every home match still to come this year (although you'll have to keep following London Welsh on Twitter to see these upcoming videos!)

On top I provided London Welsh with photography from the game, shared directly from my camera to phone, edited and then sent to the London Welsh media manager, who could then post them onto social right as the action happened.

Images included photos to use at the final whistle - shared moments after the game ended & for which you don't need Twitter's insights to see which got the better engagement for a post without photos vs high quality imagery 👇