Taking an editing a video of kids dancing on stage advice

[steveatesh]

So went to see my 4 yr old granddaughter doing her Halloween dance with a dance school on a stage last night.

I have not done much in the way of video bar the odd few seconds of her playing or riding her bike but I thought I’d give it a go with my iPhone 17 pro.

I set it to 4K so I could crop in when coming to editing.

During the shoot I used a combination of wide across the stage and zooming in on her rather than just one focal length. I was in the audience 2nd row from the front, stage was built up about three feet from floor level.

I’m looking for advice around editing the video to crop out the stage front and negative space at the background if possible and accommodate the wide and zoomed shots without breaks or sudden changes if possible

As a complete novice do I have to break the video up into smaller clips and treat each one with separate cropping to suit?

If so do I use a transition between these clips to make the complete video smoother ?

Any good tutorials I can watch to get a general feel of how to edit such a video so it doesn’t jar the senses or look a mess (which it did after my first attempt!).

I’m using iMovie but have downloaded Da Vinci Resolve if I need to use something better (I’ll have to learn how to use it first!).

[StevieBee]

steveatesh said:

So went to see my 4 yr old granddaughter doing her Halloween dance with a dance school on a stage last night.

I have not done much in the way of video bar the odd few seconds of her playing or riding her bike but I thought I d give it a go with my iPhone 17 pro.

I set it to 4K so I could crop in when coming to editing.

During the shoot I used a combination of wide across the stage and zooming in on her rather than just one focal length. I was in the audience 2nd row from the front, stage was built up about three feet from floor level.

I m looking for advice around editing the video to crop out the stage front and negative space at the background if possible and accommodate the wide and zoomed shots without breaks or sudden changes if possible

As a complete novice do I have to break the video up into smaller clips and treat each one with separate cropping to suit?

If so do I use a transition between these clips to make the complete video smoother ?

Any good tutorials I can watch to get a general feel of how to edit such a video so it doesn t jar the senses or look a mess (which it did after my first attempt!).

I m using iMovie but have downloaded Da Vinci Resolve if I need to use something better (I ll have to learn how to use it first!).

First off, stick with iMovie. If you're new to video editing, you'll find Resolve a very steep learning curve. Learn it by all means - it is good - but for now, mastering the basics with iMovie will serve you well.

The challenge you have is sound. When you chop the video up, you'll also chop the sound up - as odd as it sounds, this will make the video 'look' bad.

So, this is how I'd do it.

Place the entirety of the video into a time line. Duplicate the clip and lay it above but for this one, disable the sound. Then just cut away the parts of the upper clip either side of the part you want to focus in on. Then on the bit the remains, you can play around with cropping, effects and the like. And providing you don't move the clip, the movement will be synced to the sound.

As for transitions, you need to keep in mind that you shot from a single vantage point. This means that all you can achieve is essentially zooming in and out but without the 'zoom'. The trick here is not to try and hide this. I'd be using things like flashes at the beginning and the end of each top clip. These are pre-loaded transition effects in iMovie. Just drag them to the beginning and end of the clip and it generates a flash of light between the cuts. There's loads of others as well so just have a play and see what works.

You could also try making the top clips black and white - might work. Might not!

For the next (Christmas?) performance, see about getting hold of a GoPro or similar and sticking this somewhere to get a different angle. You can then blend the two clips together in a single film and will make you look like Kubrick

Hope that helps.

[Simpo Two]

I was halfway through replying to that then thought - 'Steve will be along in a minute, it's an ideal question for him!'

[essayer]

CapCut works well for this

[steveatesh]

Wow that sounds brilliant thanks Stevie, im not sure exactly what you mean about the cutting part but I’ll have a look at that tonight , currently she’s wiping her nose on my sleeve during a days babysitting!

Really appreciate it cheers

[StevieBee]

steveatesh said:

Wow that sounds brilliant thanks Stevie, im not sure exactly what you mean about the cutting part but I ll have a look at that tonight , currently she s wiping her nose on my sleeve during a days babysitting!

Really appreciate it cheers

You're welcome.

Cutting - easier to show you:

This shows the main clip below. You can see the audio is there too. Above it is a duplication of the same clip but with the audio disabled.



Using something called a 'blade tool' you cut the the top clip at points you want to do something different with. The time line then looks like this:



You can add or delete to those cut clips if you need to by highlight them and dragging the toggle that appears backward or forward.

Simpo Two said:

I was halfway through replying to that then thought - 'Steve will be along in a minute, it's an ideal question for him!'

It's like a Bat Sign shone into the sky - only showing a video camera!.... my people need me!

[steveatesh]

StevieBee said:

It's like a Bat Sign shone into the sky - only showing a video camera!.... my people need me!

Thanks for the extra information Steve, I have sent the afternoon doing different versions of your suggestions and ended up with something which is better than the original but not yet perfect (and I doubt it ever will be - in future I wont zoom in camera !).

Anyway I'll keep at it until it's good enough to let somebody else see it!

[Simpo Two]

steveatesh said:

Thanks for the extra information Steve, I have sent the afternoon doing different versions of your suggestions and ended up with something which is better than the original but not yet perfect (and I doubt it ever will be - in future I wont zoom in camera !).

Next time it would help a lot if you (or someone) were able to set up a second camera as a fixed general view. Then during the edit when you want to cut a chunk out of the footage from the roving camera you have the GV footage to fall back on. Keep the audio from the best source.

[StevieBee]

Simpo Two said:

steveatesh said:

Thanks for the extra information Steve, I have sent the afternoon doing different versions of your suggestions and ended up with something which is better than the original but not yet perfect (and I doubt it ever will be - in future I wont zoom in camera !).

Next time it would help a lot if you (or someone) were able to set up a second camera as a fixed general view. Then during the edit when you want to cut a chunk out of the footage from the roving camera you have the GV footage to fall back on. Keep the audio from the best source.

Definitely this.

I also discovered another 'hack' last year.

Was asked to film an entire dance recital show for a friend's daughter who's one of the dance instructors. Quite a big performance with kids from 3 up to 18 and 120 people expected in the audience.

I filmed the dress rehearsal on the Friday evening which gave me all the primary content. Because there was no audience, I could move about, position the cameras where I wanted, etc. Then on the Saturday, I just had one camera at the back of the theatre, picked up some audience reaction shots, applause, etc. Then knitted the two together. Worked a treat! Not something that may be available to all but worth asking.

[Simpo Two]

StevieBee said:

I filmed the dress rehearsal on the Friday evening which gave me all the primary content. Because there was no audience, I could move about, position the cameras where I wanted, etc. Then on the Saturday, I just had one camera at the back of the theatre, picked up some audience reaction shots, applause, etc. Then knitted the two together. Worked a treat!

That's exactly what I do with my theatre group - shoot the DR, where I can move about to get the best angles without bothering anyone. Luckily I don't need to worry about audience reaction or even audio - as I say to them, 'Doesn't matter if you forget your lines, you can say anything and it will still look fine!'

[steveatesh]

Simpo Two said:

Next time it would help a lot if you (or someone) were able to set up a second camera as a fixed general view. Then during the edit when you want to cut a chunk out of the footage from the roving camera you have the GV footage to fall back on. Keep the audio from the best source.

Cheers Simpo, the next one is their Xmas dance and I do have access to a Go Pro. I’ll give it a go providing I can set it up (the dances are filmed by a pro and I believe the videos are sold so the dance school may not be happy with me setting up like that but no harm in asking!)

Really appreciate both your advice.

[bcr5784]

steveatesh said:

Cheers Simpo, the next one is their Xmas dance and I do have access to a Go Pro. I ll give it a go providing I can set it up (the dances are filmed by a pro and I believe the videos are sold so the dance school may not be happy with me setting up like that but no harm in asking!)

Really appreciate both your advice.

My granddaughter does quire a few shows, and though it's only family watching photography is banned at most of them. Well worth checking beforehand. Best of luck.

[Tycho]

I'd recommend an app called double shot for next time. It's a much better version of the built in dual capture feature for the iPhone 17. It allows you to take video from any 2 of the cameras simultaneously so you can have a wide and zoomed view that you can change in iMovie.

[Simpo Two]

steveatesh said:

Cheers Simpo, the next one is their Xmas dance and I do have access to a Go Pro. I ll give it a go providing I can set it up (the dances are filmed by a pro and I believe the videos are sold so the dance school may not be happy with me setting up like that but no harm in asking!) Really appreciate both your advice.

Plan C: Relax and enjoy the show, and buy a copy from the pro
But if you want to film, make sure they know so nobody's nose gets put out of joint.

bcr5784 said:

My granddaughter does quire a few shows, and though it's only family watching photography is banned at most of them. Well worth checking beforehand. Best of luck.

Probably because children are involved so you're going to sell the photos on the dark web. It's a very sad sign of the times.

My theatre group avoids this by saying at the outset 'Rehearsals and the show will be photographed and videoed and possibly put online; if you're not OK with that don't audition'.