Adventure footage can be surprisingly difficult to edit. A ride, flight, hike or dive may have been exciting while you were doing it, but that doesn't necessarily translate to an interesting video.
The difference is often in the edit. The viewer doesn't have the context you had when you shot the footage, so the job of the edit is to keep the parts that communicate the experience and remove the parts that don't.
1. Cut More Than You Think You Should
Long action-camera clips often contain a few seconds that are much more interesting than everything around them. Use those few seconds.
- Keep moments where something changes, happens or develops.
- Use the strongest part of a clip rather than keeping it simply because the whole shot was difficult to capture.
- If two shots communicate essentially the same thing, keep the better one.
This is particularly important with long POV sequences. A trail, road or flight may have been interesting for several minutes while you were doing it, but several minutes of similar-looking footage can feel much longer to someone watching it.
2. Give the Opening a Reason to Be There
The beginning doesn't necessarily need to be the fastest or most dramatic moment in the video, but it should give the viewer a reason to continue.
That could be a particularly strong shot, an unusual moment from later in the video, an establishing view that puts the activity in context, or the beginning of something that hasn't yet been resolved.
Long introductions and setup sequences are usually worth shortening unless they add something important.
3. Vary the Pace
Fast cuts don't automatically make action footage more interesting. In fact, if everything is fast, the faster moments have nothing to contrast with.
Mix shorter action shots with longer shots when the scene deserves more time. A sequence might move quickly through several details, pause on a wide landscape, and then return to the action.
The same applies to slow motion and speed ramps. They work best when the change in speed serves the footage rather than simply drawing attention to the edit.
4. Keep Some of the Original Sound
Music is useful, but removing all of the location sound can make outdoor and action footage feel disconnected from what is happening.
Look for usable pieces of sound such as:
- Tires on gravel or dirt
- Water, snow or wind
- Footsteps and gear movement
- Motors and mechanical sounds
- Impacts, landings and other distinct moments
You don't need to use the camera audio continuously. A few well-placed pieces of natural sound can add considerably more sense of place and movement.
Music cuts can sometimes work well on a beat, but don't make every edit follow the music mechanically. Cutting slightly before or after a beat, or allowing a shot to continue through one, can make the sequence feel much less predictable.
5. Give the Footage Some Progression
You don't need a complicated story, but it helps if the video feels as though it went somewhere.
For an adventure or action sequence, that might simply be:
- Where are we?
- What are we doing?
- What happens along the way?
- Where do we end up?
A mountain-bike video might establish the trail, show part of the climb, move into the descent and finish at the bottom. An FPV video might establish the location before getting into the more interesting parts of the flight.
Even that small amount of structure can make a collection of otherwise unrelated clips much easier to watch.
6. Use Slow Motion and Speed Ramping Selectively
Slow motion works best when slowing the footage actually reveals something: a jump, impact, movement through water or snow, a fast maneuver, or some other detail that would be difficult to see at normal speed.
Speed ramps can be useful for compressing an unimportant section between two useful moments, or when a change in speed is part of the shot itself. Used repeatedly, they can quickly become more noticeable than the footage.
Motion blur affects how both slow motion and speed changes look, but more motion blur isn't automatically better. Footage with some natural motion blur generally produces smoother-looking movement, while excessive blur can become distracting when footage is slowed substantially.
We cover the relationship between shutter speed, frame rate and motion blur in more detail in our guide to frame rate and motion blur.
7. Don't Forget the Human Moments
Action footage doesn't always need people in it, but a small human moment can add context and give the viewer a better sense of the experience.
That might be a reaction at the end of a run, someone getting ready, a laugh after something goes wrong, or simply a quiet moment before or after the action.
These shots can also make useful transitions and endings, particularly after a long sequence of POV footage.
8. Know When to End
It's easy to keep adding footage after the video has already reached its natural ending.
Once the sequence has delivered whatever it was building toward, finish it. That could be reaching the destination, landing, completing a run, a reaction, a final wide shot, or simply a natural stopping point in the action.
You don't have to use the rest of the footage just because you recorded it.
Final Thoughts
Good editing is often more about removing things than adding them.
Keep the shots that provide context, show change, move the sequence forward or communicate something about what the experience was actually like. Vary the pace, retain useful natural sound, and don't let a sequence continue after it has said what it needs to say.
A shorter edit that leaves out good footage is usually better than a longer edit that includes all of it.
Have an editing technique that works particularly well for action or adventure footage? Let us know in the comments.
Related: 7 Tips for Shooting Epic Outdoor Footage (Without Fancy Gear)