With the cost of a college education approaching $40,000.00 a year a talented High School athlete could save a good chunk of that of that by obtaining a athletic scholarship. It could be as much as $160,000.00 over a four year college career.

Recruiting videos have been come part essential of any program designed to gain the attention of prospective college coaches. If you are thinking of sending your video to a coach it's best to talk to him first and ask what format he prefers. Either DVD or VHS. Most recruiting videos today are presented in the DVD format and are easier to handle both physically and technically because they can be accessed through menus thus saving time when the coach is reviewing your material. They're easier to carry home in a brief case or even a jacket pocket but in some rare cases the coach still may prefer VHS.

The Elements of a Good Recruiting Video on DVD

The Menu

The Main Menu should allow the coach to access either the Highlight Section of the disc or the Full Game.

The Highlight Section

The first thing a coach  should see when he plays the highlight section of your video is a screen that has the following information and a picture of you in your uniform. This screen should rmain up for about 6-7 seconds. If you have so much information that you need a second screen then it should follow for another 6-7 seconds but without the picture. The coach can pause the image if he needs more  time to review it.

Name

Address

Home Phone

Cell Phone

Email Address

School

Year in School/or Class of

Age

Date of Birth

Height

Weight

Coach Name:

Coach Phone

Coach email

Position

Uniform Number

Uniform Colors: Home

Unifrom Colors: Away

GPA:

ACT:

Scholastic Awards if any

Athletic Awards

Athletic Stats

This gives the coach all the essential background information he needs before he reviews your plays. It's in one place and can be paused if he needs more time to review it. This information should be also be printed on the face of the disc so he can find you quickly if he needs to and he'll have all your info at his finger tips.

The next screen should identify the season and the number of plays:

Season Highlights 2009

29 Plays

Identifying the Play

Each play have a chapter marker inserted by the editor during the editing process so each play is easily accessible by the coach if he wants to review certain plays again.

Indentifying the Player on Screen

Each play should start with a freeze frame of the set up and the player clearly identified with a circle or an arrow so the coach knows exactly where to look on the screen. This should remain for approximately 20 frames on screen then be released for the action to play through.. In some cases, the editor may have to zoom in and out to locate you on the screen and in some rare cases, if the player is off screen when the play begins, the play will begin then freeze when the player enters the action, the player will be indentified with an arrow or circle and the play will continue. If the action is very fast, the action may be slowed down.

Number of Plays

The number of plays should be determined by the quality of the play itself and the athlete's performance within the play. A good number is between 20 and 40 .In some case, less is more. The important thing is to convey how you do your job in a given situation and the consistancy of your performance.. It makes no sense to show 15 really outstanding plays mixed in with 15 marginal plays just because the number of plays is limited by the editing facility. The old show biz adage of "Allways leave them wanting more" rings true here..

A Complete Game

It is becoming a common practice to include a complete game at the end of the highlight section of your presentation.

Pick the game you  and your coach feel is your best work and include it at the end of your highlight section with separate access through the menu..

Pre-production

Logging the Plays

Any highlight video is only as good as what's on the tape, so it's really important to get foootage from as close to the original source as possible. Now days most schools have moved on from VHS to miniDV/DVD which allows for copying from tape to tape with no loss in quality. VHS, on the other hand, loses quality with every generation of copying. A VHS copy of the original game tape will suffice but be slightly lower quality than the original. A mini-DV or DVD copy of anoriginal VHS will yield the same quality as the original VHS tape.

For each game tape, start the tape at the beginning after resetting the tape counter to zero. If your footage has been transfered to DVD, the time or location of the scene can be view by pressing the display button on your remote.

When you reach a play you want to include in your highlight reel, pause the playback and make note of the time or location of the scene as it appears on the tape counter. Log the time each play starts and ends onto a log sheet with a brief description of the play. Log sheet forms can be dowloaded here: http://allsportsvideos.com/Prodwksht.PDF or you can make your own.  Make a separate log sheet for each game tape.

Text Elements

All text elements that will appear on screen, like your bio and stats, should be created in a simple text editor and submitted to your editing facilty via email as a text file with a .txt file extension . Be sure to run it through a spell checker first because they will most likely import the file into their editing software "as is". In this case, you are responsible for providing with the correct information.

Music/Graphics/Special Effects

Overuse of music, garphics and other "creatiuve" elements detract from the overall statement your are trying to make, so they should be used sparingly or not at all. Most coaches turn of f the music anyway.

Review Before Duplicating

Ask your editing facility to post your highlight video on the interenet for a final reivew before duplicating copies. If you need something changed, added or deleted then is the time to do it. Before it's "carved in stone".

When to start

The Junior year is the best time to start sending out recruitment packages with a follow up package in your Senior year. A well planned highlight reel would include both Junior and Senior years.

A professionally produced and edited highlight reel will pay for itself for years to come if it results in a scholarship. A college education today costs upwards of $40,000.00 per year and you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Tom Conner is the President of

All Sports Videos.com

www.allsportsvideos.com

A company that specializes in Highlight Video Production

1-800-728-2614