On Wednesday, February 20, 2013 4:36:59 PM UTC-5, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
how about an SSA sponsored prize each month for the best new video that promotes the sport? say $500 to motivate people?


I think a competition for the best promotional soaring video is a good plan.. At the annual soaring convention in the Netherlands there is a competition for best soaring video and some of the films I saw were amazingly well done.

I propose a slight variation on this theme to get the best video possible using a mass collaboration method.

People can participate in one of two capacities (or both).

1. Get interesting footage – Any pilot can help get as much good footage as possible. All of this footage will be collected in a central location (Dropbox or a designated channel on Youtube, etc).

2. Production - At the end of the year, anyone that wants to be an editor will have access to the raw footage and free reign to make the best video possible. The final product is judged in the arena of Youtube, the most thumbs up will win.

I think this mass collaboration method has some advantages considering the dynamics of our sport. The proliferation of small HD quality sports cameras means filming every flight is cheap and easy. While every moment of a flight may be exciting for the pilot, most footage is boring to watch. However, if the final product consists of the best highlights cut from thousands of hours of soaring, then statistically these highlights will be far more interesting.

This method of collaboration benefits from the fact that the pilots who can get the most interesting and exciting footage, are unlikely to be the best video editors/producers. This way we can tap hundreds of pilots for their most interesting moments of the year. Then those with the most artistic talent can compile the footage into the most interesting videos and target these videos to potential new glider pilots.

I volunteer as my contribution to strap my GoPro to the glider of one of the ridge soaring legends here in NJ and see what kind of footage we get.