Using Video while teaching

[Bernd Ziesche]

In Spain now I used video within a group of 15 students. No problem. It works so fast! Sometimes I film one, while talking to another student. Its mainly about how often you do, I think. Seeing one's one casting of course is great. I also have used the shadow of mine to check myself in sunny weather. Great to have a different view on stop positions, arc control and so on.

[Paul Arden]

I’d like to see that mate. We should do a group together sometime or maybe if you get the SL meet we can try that with everyone involved.

I loved the idea that Walter had where you have multiple camera angles filming you and wear a head video unit to watch yourself in real time. Apparently you get motion sickness initially but after a while have an out of body experience. You probably need some really good drugs to make it all work properly.

Cheers, Paul

[Malik]

Hi Paul,

I use and recommend an iPad and Hudl Technique and have a library of casting faults and corrections for onsite, side by side comparison. Works very well.

John

Hi John. I do the same. I like to use 2 Go Pro to film the student (simultaneous front and side angles) then I transfer the video to HUDL, via the IPad. At the end of the morning class I plug the ipad into a wide screen TV for group discussions with the students. Very effective. After the class I send them by email the hudl link of their videos. They appreciate it very much. Surprisingly, it is often the first time they see themselves casting, even when they are seasoned fly fishermen/women.
A “collateral” advantage of filming student is that filming generally exasperates their casting problems, so you can easy show them the problems and work on it.

Best regards

MALIK

[John Waters]

Hi Greg and Malik,

It is a good system, I like both the side by side and the overlay comparison option and the angle calculation for body movement. As you do Malik, I use my iPad for real time stuff and use an overhead display for classroom discussion. It is also great for the Casting by Correspondence service I offer clients. Easy to use and very illustrative for technique review. I am currently looking for a system that collates vision from two or more iPads or cameras for split vision review. That would be a super teaching or self analysis tool. I'll let you know how I go.

John

[Paul Arden]

The classroom teaching is fantastic. Mostly I use video however actually while teaching in the field (or more commonly on the water!). That’s why I need something that is pretty much instant, ie no copying media to other forms. I want to shoot a video of my student and have them shoot a video of me and we compare and move on. There are so many examples of this eg to fix excessive casting arc, body movement, haul length, drag etc etc. Generally I try to fix a problem in 2 or 3 ways and then if it’s not working to shoot some video. The time taken to shoot video is only a few minutes but I do find it interrupts the flow, so I use it sparingly when I think it will save time in the long run and make a significant step forward.

If that’s not cloning by the way I don’t know what is

I think an iPad with a hood to block ambient light would be better than the phone I’m currently using. The Hudl app is excellent. I would like to see it simplified or maybe I just need to use it more. What I don’t want is a lesson to be full of fiddling around with apps - that’s distracting. It needs to be fast, simple, point done, now have a go.

I think what I’ll do is buy a new iPad this summer and a waterproof cover and hood. Build a fixed tripod position for it on the roof of the boat (hopefully it doesn’t attract lightning) and a library of casts that can be drawn on immediately. Then I only need shoot video of them, show them a comparison and we save time.

When I’ve built a casting library of moves I can share it if anyone wants.

Cheers, Paul

[Carol]

Question: How do you set things up to get the best contrast where you can see the line? We don't have any big blue walls around here.

[Lasse Karlsson]

Hi Carol

Build one
Seriously, any uniform dark background will do, sadly those are few and far in between. If you can find a row of dense trees with the sun above, so you have sun on the line, but the trees are in shade, it works quite well.
Filming from above, so you have a dark water surface works well too.
The better lighting you have on the line the better. Also using a fatter line can help, ie a 8 weight shows up much better than a 4 weight.

I'm sure you'll get better answers too.

Cheers
Lasse

[Carol]

Thanks, Lasse.
BTW, we reviewed one of your blue-wall videos in our CCI meeting via Zoom a couple of weeks ago. Using Coach's Eye, we scrubbed through it frame by frame. Of course the casting is impressive, but the scrubbing was very informative. I think we all learned something. Thanks for sharing it with the world.
-Carol

[nicholasfmoore]

Hi Carol,

I used to be a semi pro photographer so i can help you out here;

My wildlife photography consisted of black backgrounds, or 'black grounds' which was my preferred photographic style, and is called 'low key' photography.

The sun (which gives you something called hard light) mean that the rays of light are collimated, and consequently arrive on your subject (in this case it will be yourself ) from the same angle. The lack of light scatter ensures that not much light bleeds into shadow areas. A vast difference between 'highlights' and 'shadows' gives you a high dynamic range scene, which is exactly what you are looking for in this case.

Ok, so the sun angle must be right in relation to the background to give you the best result. You really want strong side lighting, which is slightly in front of you. The sun at a low angle will give you amazing results, so take your video at sunrise or sunset. Make sure your background is 90 degrees or so to the sun, which will enhance the shade on the background. Stand quite a way from the background to enhance the darkening effect, and this also has the effect of increasing bokeh which is a photography definition that gives you a nice out of focus soft background.

With the location out the way we need to get more technical with the camera.

We need to really under expose the entire image, but ensuring that you are correctly exposed. You have to play around with this, and your phone camera may not go down far enough. Something like -3EV would be a good start i think, you will have to play around.

I would also recommend a White line, and as Lasse said, a higher line class would show up better

So in summary, for this to work the absolute best you need to;

1. Shoot at sunrise or sunset, sun a bit more than 90 degrees to your background (slightly in front of you). The sun must be low to look epic
2. Ensure your background is neutral, Conifer trees work the best
3. Stand a considerable distance from the background to enhance bokeh which will make your line stand out more (to an extent)
4. Vastly underexpose the entire video, -3EV or maybe more to give you the black background. You will be in sun, and correctly exposed, and the background will drop to black or almost black. You will have to do this manually.
5. Use a White line that's thick, maybe a double taper?

Once you find the right location, you would be able to take stills, and this will really show your loop.

Hope that helps? You'll end up with something similar to this then.



All the best!

[Paul Arden]

Some excellent advice here! What I would add is that for teaching in the field, you need to zoom in on the caster and forget the line. On the APP videos we had huge problems seeing the line, which was why the files were enormous!!! Often the line was just one pixel. On the YouTube and Vimeo files often the line is lost, whereas in the original downloads you can see them. If you are an APP purchaser let me know because you can download these original files for free.

Using a thicker line definitely helps. When Bill made his Essentials video he used an 8WT line and on a relatively soft rod, so that the camera would see the line. He also filmed next to a sports pitch that was floodlit. With the lights behind and the black background I think it works very well.

The only other thing I would mention is to keep the line length short. Distance casts are very difficult to film. I have a few from a Drone that worked well, but for most teaching applications, using the APP for example, particularly because it was made for smartphones in mind, keep the line length short.



Cheers, Paul