Six Reasons Your GoPro Videos Suck (And Mine Do Too)

I’ve captured some great footage with my GoPro camera. I’ve also taken boatloads of mediocre footage and created at least a few videos that didn’t have the pop I wished they had. Here are six reasons my footage hasn’t always been up to snuff, with some tips on getting around these issues. If you've been at this for a while, a lot of these are probably quite obvious -- this is probably most helpful to newbies. 

1) One long continuous shot is usually not that interesting, unless the footage is stellar . As viewers, we expect multiple camera angles in even :15 commercials. Full-length movies are made up of thousands of individual shots. Even a basic two-way interview employs two cameras switching back and forth throughout. Purposely long shots do have their place, of course, but how many different shots are you using in your GoPro videos?

Sure, it was fun to ride. But is twenty-five minutes of this fun to watch?

2) First-Person Footage can be thrilling,  but often lacks an emotional connection. Not seeing a person’s expressions + not hearing what they're saying = hard to connect with them. How are they feeling? Are they excited? Scared? Bored? Mixing your first-person footage with other external shots of the subject in action can make a huge difference, as can turning the camera occasionally to see the subject’s reaction to what they’re doing.

I'm crying as I do this. But you can't tell.

3) Mics in a watertight plastic box don’t pick up much sound. My GoPro audio usually consists of the sounds of items clinking against the case, wind noise, and big environmental changes (like splashing into water). Even with the skeleton back on, the audio is not great. Add some (or better) sounds with an external mic, an alternative audio source, or by adding the right music or sound effects. The latest Hero cameras are supposed to have better sound recording, and may be worth investigating.

4) Most videos go on too long. People have short attention spans and bajillions (est.) of other videos at their fingertips. The second they get bored, they're gone. Even though you loved every minute of your [INSERT EXTREME SPORTS ACTIVITY], will viewers want to watch the whole thing? Don't be afraid to cut your video down to size. And then edit it again. And again.

5) Creating engaging video takes time -- more than you probably want to invest. Editing down hours of video into a couple of minutes of stellar footage is slow, painstaking work. Syncing it with the right soundtrack makes it take even longer. You gotta put the time in to get the quality out. One thing that I’ve been doing to make editing slightly less time consuming is to flip the camera on only when I’m likely to capture something interesting rather than recording continuously. It’s easier to track through a number of short clips than one large one. It can increase your camera's battery life too.

6) Professional video is meticulously planned; most GoPro footage isn’t. We flip it on while we're doing cool stuff and hope for the best, right? Going back to the movie example -- movie crews don't only plan exactly what's going to happen in a scene, they also map out exactly how they're going to film it too, shot by shot. So is it any surprise that our gun-and-go approach often produces lackluster results? Which shot would best capture what you’re trying to show? First person? Overhead? Focused on the subject’s face? I ask myself questions like this whenever I take my camera out now, and usually try to capture an activity from multiple perspectives. With any luck, the shots I capture can be assembled into something I’m happy with: video that doesn’t suck.