As a cyclist there is nothing more thrilling than riding in the mountains.  The scenery is breathtaking, the toil as you slog your way over peak after peak, the thrill of the descent down the other side, the pureness of you and nature alone.  From the saddle it’s one of the finest things possible.

It’s perhaps understandable therefore that people want to share their journeys, and a growing number of cyclists (and others) record their exploits on video cameras mounted to their equipment or person.

Alas, whilst it is often exhilarating in person, it’s usually much less so watching it on video, and many of these amateur videos are rather turgid to watch.

Making amateur videos more interesting

A new startup is attempting to change that by providing people with an easy to use mechanism for editing their footage into something slick and watchable.

The company, called Shred Video, uses smart algorithms to automatically edit footage at the push of a button.

The software analyzes footage of video or music to create short movies very much in keeping with the best sports videos on the web.  The output is generally two minutes long and is designed to be watchable (and shareable).

Whilst the company liken themselves to Instagram in the ease with which users can do interesting things with their raw material, the inherent complexity of video in relation to images makes their offering all the more impressive.

“It takes more than a sepia filter to make video great, it takes curation, pacing, synchronized audio and video,” the company said recently.

An algorithmic director

Of course, software isn’t able to make creative decisions, so the viability of the tool rests to a large extent on the relatively formulaic approach to video making that many of the successful sports videos take.

For instance, many will begin with a slow moving, establishing shot to set the scene for the video.  It will then move on to more high octane action in the middle, before winding down the video with scenic shots.

Footage is selected via the time stamps and patterns of acceleration of each frame.  It can also use algorithms to mix any song provided by the user into the footage.  So, for instance, the introduction of the song will be played in the establishing section, with the chorus played during the action laden middle.

It’s certainly a novel, not to mention ambitious, concept that will be well worth keeping an eye on, and trying out if you happen to have a lot of footage that you’d like to play around with.

To get an example of the kind of footage you can produce, check out the video below.  It was produced from six gigabytes of raw footage taken on a surf holiday, and took just 5 minutes to put together.

I think it looks pretty cool.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.