How to film a cheer routine for scoring
The phone you already have is enough. What matters is where you stand, holding still, and keeping the whole floor in the frame.
Before you press record
- Ask first. Everyone in the video, or their parent, should agree to it being filmed and analysed. BaseCount asks you to confirm that every upload, because faces are not blurred.
- Turn the phone sideways. A mat is wider than it is tall. Landscape fits the whole team.
- 1080p is plenty. Stills are scaled down for scoring, so 4K only makes the file bigger and the upload slower.
Where to stand
- Front and centre, a little raised, where the judges sit. A few rows up the bleachers is ideal.
- Get the whole floor in, all the time. Do not zoom in on one group or follow a flyer. A sheet scores the whole team, and what is out of frame cannot be scored.
- Keep the lights in front of you. Filming into a window turns the team into silhouettes, and near-black stills are set aside.
While it runs
- Hold still. Lean on a rail or use a tripod. Stills are taken across the routine — two a second on a short clip, about one every three seconds on a two-and-a-half-minute full-out — and a blurred still is a moment lost.
- Start before the music and stop after the last pose. The announcer at the start helps BaseCount suggest a title.
- For one athlete or one stunt group, film closer. From the far side of a gym an athlete is a few dozen pixels, which is enough to score a team but not to coach one person.
Drills and full-outs
For a drill — jumps, a tumbling pass, one stunt group — 15 to 60 seconds is plenty, and a clip under a minute comes back fastest. Full-outs are the ones worth comparing with a judged sheet later.
How routines are scored explains what the stills are scored against.