How to record a basketball game?
The recording strategy
If you want to record a basketball game (or any sports event for that matter) you basically have two options.
- Use a video camera on a tripod and follow the ball
This approach usually gives a good result but the camera man (often a parent) doesn’t really enjoy the game because (s)he is constantly focusing where the next action will take place.
2. Use one or more (sports) video camera’s and a fixed strategic recording location
This strategy allows you to enjoy the game while one or more camera’s are recording the action from multiple angles. The downside on using multiple camera’s is that you’ll spend some (considerable) time post-processing the footage. But the end result is very enjoyable!
The equipment
A GoPro is a camera packed into a rugged frame that’s small and virtually indestructible. Well known for capturing action events in high definition (from 720 all the way up to 4K with superview). 60 Frames Per Second (FPS) is more than enough when you want to show a spectacular action in slow motion. This tiny device can even handle a crazy 240fps!
The downside of a small recording device is the battery life. Fully charged you might be able to record for two hours but in practice it’s often only 70 to max. 90 minutes, which is not enough to record a complete basketball game (including timeouts and breaks).
A must have accessory is a battery powerbank which you can connect to your GoPro while recording. For around 50 Euro you can purchase a 26.000 mAh battery which can fully charge your GoPro over twenty (20) times!
The last important accessory needed to record a game is a flex clamp, as shown below.
This allows you to place your video camera anywhere where the action takes place. I often attach the clamp to a metal pole which is needed by the volleyball or handball games. Some poles can be moved around the basketball court, make sure to place the pole at the best vantage point (more details below).
To record and store a game in HD (min. 1080p) using 60 fps you’ll need to purchase a micro SD card with at least 32 Gb. I’ve recorded games also in 4K but this does require a more powerful computer for post-processing and ideally a 64Gb micro SD card.
I know a GoPro Hero 6 is already available but a version 5 will also do the job and is around 100 Euro’s cheaper.
Onsite recording
The Middle
If you have only one camera and you want to record both sides of the basketball court then consider placing the camera in the middle, behind “the table”.
The GoPro camera has a “superview” mode which uses the full sensor in 4:3 aspect ratio, then stretches horizontally to a 16:9 ratio. As a result you get the recording view as shown below in the YouTube video.
The further you place the camera the more of the left and right corners will get recorded.
A huge advantage of this approach is almost no post-processing work is required after the game. Just append the multiple video files after each other, export (transcode) and upload to Youtube.
The disadvantage is that you do have some blind spots (the left and right bottom corners) and also a single fault of failure. If the camera stops working (for example, you forgot to charge your battery) then you might end up with only the first minutes of a game.
The Left or Right
If you (or the coach) is only interested in the offence (defence is unfortunately often ignored) then go for a a left/right recording strategy.
You feel much closer to the action with this setup but again you do have a single point of failure if the camera stops recording.
The Full Monty
This is the ideal approach but is the most cost and time expensive strategy.
If one camera stops recording you always have a backup from the other side, which is great. The down side is of course the extra time required to post-process the multi-camera footage.
Of course you can use one camera as the backup and only focus on the defence or offence video material, that way limited post-processing is required.
Opposites don’t attract
Avoid having a camera on the opposite side of the court because when you “edit” the footage together it’s misleading and puzzles your audience thinking you’re showing the second half of the game.
Of course if the coach wants to have multiple angles of the offence then it makes sense, but I’ve never been requested this approach. Even professional football games are all shown from one side, for a good reason.
Post-processing
Copy files to computer
A 1080p HD recording of one basketball game (including warming up and timeouts) using 40 or 60fps will result in approx. 5 to 6 files with a total size of around 24Gb.
Depending on your USB or build in SD card reader and the brand/class of your micro SD card, it will take several minutes to transfer them to your computer.
Once on your computer sort the files by recording date and rename them to cam1a.mp4 cam1b.mp4 etc. This is especially useful when you use two camera’s and also want to identify the time sequence of each file.
I’ve had several occasions where the sequence of the recorded files were messed up and having a sequence number or letter in the filename pays of big time.
cam1a.mp4……………..cam2a.mp4
cam1b.mp4……………..cam2b.mp4
cam1c.mp4……………..cam2c.mp4
It’s a good practice to have a dedicated folder for each camera but even so still consider using a camera number and sequence for each filename!
Video software
I’m a mac user, so Final Cut Pro X (299$) is an obvious choice for me. Adobe Premiere Pro is another good option and of course also available on Windows. You can also consider using the free iMovie mac software, but this doesn’t support multi-angle camera footage.
Final Cut Pro supports multi-cam editing which basically allows you to merge multiple video footage into one combined stream and you can select camera number using the numeric keys to switch between them.
More details on how to do multi cam video’s can be found on Apple and even some tutorials on YouTube.
Once the game has been edited you can export the footage to an MP4 file and upload it to your YouTube channel.
I often make the YouTube video’s unlisted, this way the game remains private. I then post the unlisted youtube video link on a closed Facebook group where the players and parents can relive the excitement 💪🏼😎
Hope this is useful, don’t hesitate to post any questions or applaud the story 😎🏀
BTW See also my article on using machine learning for basketball analysis.
