In today’s world, athletes at every level face strict competition. This becomes more and more apparent as athletes inch closer to the college application process when many begin vying for elite athletic scholarship opportunities.
Of course, when comparing the number of high school athletes against the number of college scholarships available for their sport, the opportunities are few and far between. Many of the athletes that apply for scholarships will be turned down. Paperwriter offers students paper writer service that inform you more on the subject.
If you know how to make a highlight video, it can improve the chances of getting noticed by college coaching and recruiting staff. Getting noticed can help players who are hoping to obtain a scholarship stand out against the competition, increasing the overall odds that they will nab their dream scholarship package on signing day.
If you’re an athlete with big dreams for your future, read on to learn how to make a highlight video that puts you in the winner’s circle!
How to Make a Highlight Video that Gets You Noticed
First, you should know that not all highlight videos are created equal. Many of the videos submitted to colleges by student-athletes and their parents are difficult to watch, at best. But, knowing a few pro tips can help you create a highlight video that will place you in the lead for big-time college scholarship opportunities.
If you’re an amateur videographer, no worries. Even an amateur can pull off a 5-star highlight video if they know the right steps to take.
Here’s how to get started creating your very own hit highlight sports reel.
- Run Tape of Sports Performances
It’s impossible to make a highlight video without video footage. That’s why you should make sure that all of your major athletic performances are taped.
Since every one of your performances is not guaranteed to be highlight-reel-worthy, you’ll want to give yourself plenty of video footage to choose from. The only way to do that is to make sure someone is taping your events and that they are focusing on you, specifically, a substantial amount of the time that they are shooting.
Also, when choosing a videographer, you should keep a few things in mind. There’s no need to pay a lot of money to hire a professional, although you might consider this option. But, an amateur is fine as long as they are willing to follow a few simple guidelines.
First, they need to be dependable so that you can count on them to show up and do “their job”. Secondly, they need to have a steady hand so that the video doesn’t turn out to be complete rubbish. Third, they need to be able to perform basic video functions, like zooming in, zooming out, and so on.
If your team subscribes to a sports video website that allows team member uploading, such as Hudl, you can also pull from these videos when you create your personalized highlight video. However, it’s not ideal to rely solely on team-uploaded videos, as they may not include sufficient coverage of individual players for your highlight reel.
- There’s an App for That
Today, there’s an app for practically everything. And, if you know how to make use of the right ones, you can easily construct a professional-grade highlight video in no time.
The iTunes app is one of the most popular apps for streaming music. And, today, it’s becoming one of the most common choices for uploading video as well. Another advantage of using iTunes for video uploading is that it makes it easy to merge music and video together for a potentially more-powerful and emotionally-charged highlight reel.
If you aren’t familiar with how to add movies to iTunes, the process is quite simple and can be done in just minutes once you get the hang of it. Setapp includes detailed instructions for encoding, adding metadata, and uploading your video. The Setapp website also offers helpful recommendations of additional apps specially created to make it easier to construct your own pro video.
- Tips for Editing
Once you’ve decided on the most flattering video clips, cut, and uploaded them so that the entire video culmination doesn’t exceed five minutes, then you’re ready to edit. If your video doesn’t add up to equal a full five minutes, don’t worry. Most coaches and recruiters will only watch the first couple of minutes of the video, anyway.
Because you’ve relied on apps, editing is usually made much simpler. Many of today’s apps include editing features that are easy-to-use and will guide you through the final touches seamlessly.
Colleges aren’t expecting expert highlight videos, so yours need not be perfect prior to submission. But, you should still follow a few basic rules when performing your final edits.
First, review your entire video to make sure that each clip transitions easily to the next. Hopefully, you’ve already chosen the best video clips to feature first, but if not, now is the time to make any rearrangements that might be necessary.
Second, eliminate any video that is fuzzy, shaky, or otherwise poor-quality. Like most people, a collegiate staff probably isn’t interested in watching a video featuring blank spaces or ground-shots. In fact, each clip should be quick and concise and easily transition to the next.
Some players choose to add music to their highlight reel, although if you choose this option, be mindful of music choices that cater to a universal audience.
It’s also rather easy to include simple edits that showcase individual players, such as flames or circles. Feel free to incorporate these types of edits if you choose. However, it may be a good idea to also incorporate footage that doesn’t include these features as well.
Once you’re happy with the overall video, and it’s clear that the viewers will know which player they are watching, you can consider it mail-ready.
- Don’t Limit Your Choices
Now that your video is ready for its final send-off, don’t cut yourself short by limiting your choices to one or two college picks. Few athletes will receive a scholarship based on sports, but even fewer will receive a full scholarship to one to the very best-performing schools.
Make a list of five or ten schools, at a minimum, and send in your tape early in the admissions process to give yourself the best chance of receiving an offer.
Stay Up to Date on the Latest Sports News
If you’re interested in playing for the big leagues, it will serve you well to learn how to make a highlight video. But, you should also form a habit of staying abreast of the latest news and developments in the modern sports world.
Visit our site to learn all about the latest and greatest current happenings in the world-wide sports arena and good luck in your pursuit of nailing your dream college scholarship!
