Video editing is a niche skill.
It can take time, practise and plenty of hours to hone your craft in order to become efficient.
For Lucas Mauragis he didn’t need endless hours of university tutorials or much of a helping hand. He taught himself entirely.
It has led him to now work with the PFA to create highlight reels for a number of players right across Australia and New Zealand who are seeking an updated showreel.
“This was all self-taught… I used to just do it on iMovie,” Mauragis told pfa.net.au.
“I guess when I was in back in school, we used to work with iMovie a lot in particular classes… I did have some experience, I knew how to use it here and there.
“I had some skill from just learning it in school and classes and things like that and then everything else was self taught. I didn’t really go into any courses or anything to try and understand the software more.”
Mauragis’ foray into video editing came through his football aspirations as a teenager looking for an opportunity at the highest level.
Mauragis began putting feelers out through video packages of his own games playing in Canberra, which eventually landed on the doorstep of the Newcastle Jets, who handed him his first opportunity in an A-Leagues system.
“I think it started when I was 13-14 years old and I was playing in the NPL system in Canberra,” he said.
“I needed to get myself out there a bit. So I started putting footage together of myself and putting the video packages in each year.
“Some seasons I was doing videos per-game, just videos of myself to try and get people interested.
“Eventually one of them was sent to Newcastle Jets when I was about 18, and I ended up getting a trial from a video going out to Daniel McBreen, who was the youth coach at Newcastle at the time.”
From there, the rest was history as Mauragis has gone on to forge a promising career, playing for the likes of the Jets, Wellington Phoenix and now, the Mariners.
But how did he go from producing highlight packages of just himself to now, players right across the country?
“I remember talking to Emily [Figueroa], who was our [PFA] club rep, and it was mostly about what you’re into, and hobbies that you want to do in your spare time,” he recalled.
“And I told her a hobby of mine that I’m pretty good at was creating football videos for myself, and I quite like doing it, and I always saw it as maybe something I could get into down the line.
“It opens up a big window of opportunity, not just editing videos, but doing analysis on players and things like that.
“I was talking to Emily about it, and she said: ‘why not start with the PFA? They’ve got an opportunity there where you can help them do videos of players’.”
Since then, Mauragis has worked with the PFA’s Player Relations team to produce a myriad of highlights packages for players right across the nation, even coming up against players who he has edited showreels for in the past.
“I’ve made plenty of videos for players that I played against, and it’s good to know, you kind of learn about them too.
“I’ve made it for teammates as well. And, yeah, it’s been really good.”
He also believes being a professional player helps him curate packages which are tailored to players’ needs, having had experience of what he would be looking for in his own highlight reels.
“I think for me, looking at it specifically, if I had someone that was around the game doing my highlights video, I’d be pretty happy,” he said.
“For myself, when I’m looking into it, I can see what makes a good player, and sort of things that they do on the pitch.
“I can see if it looks effective, and compared to someone who doesn’t really [have a feel for the game] maybe just looking at the stats and things like that, where I can see quality and use that.”
Despite the potential avenues video editing can open down the track in other industries, Mauragis doesn’t want to look too far ahead.
However, he hopes to use his skills within the football industry for years to come.
“Anything in football, really,” he said.
“I haven’t really looked into it too much. Obviously, I’m just taking it one step at a time, but I’m definitely aware of all those avenues and things like that, and it’s something that does interest me a lot, but I probably won’t look into doing much more until that time comes.”
