Skaters and non-skaters alike can agree that there is nothing more spectacular than seeing a skater succeed in a deadly grind or complicated heel flip. Filming your tricks, tutorials and skate sessions can help you share your gift with the world. Where to start? Get the right equipment, get in position to capture the best tricks and angles possible, and learn a few editing tricks to make a professional movie.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Getting the Equipment
Step 1. Buy a Mini-DV camera
that you record digitally on cassette. The quality is high enough, the cassettes are easy to store and this type of camera is easy to find at a moderate price.
- Small Panasonic or Sony cameras can cost between € 300 and € 400. The Sony premium are the most common Mini-DV among skaters, useful for their quality and lightness. More expensive options are the Sony vx1000, vx2000 and vx2100, which are professional quality, but overkill for a beginner.
- Make sure you have a Firewire 400 port on your pc. Theoretically, Mini-DVs should also use LP mode for maximum movie quality.
Step 2. Use fisheye lenses for the camera
Fisheye lenses are useful for keeping both the obstacle and the skater in the frame. These lenses allow you to optimize the width of the field of view, giving the impression of being very close to the action, but far enough away to be able to see everything that is happening. They also help smaller objects appear taller and wider. It is a very used, practical, psychedelic and very captivating trick.
Step 3. Get easy-to-use video editing software
You won't be able to worry about editing while trying to skate and do tricks. Finding easy-to-use video editing software will help you make your videos look professional and straightforward. Before filming, make sure you can easily make the necessary changes.
- There are many free video editing programs, such as iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Avidemux. While not exactly professional, these programs are simple to use and should ensure high quality video resolution, perfect for a beginner.
- If you want a wider variety of options during the editing process and even higher video resolution, you can opt for professional programs like Final Cut Pro and VideoStudio Pro.
Step 4. Find good obstacles to film
Before going out to film, look for suitable places to shoot the video. There is no point in wasting time and carrying around the camera while you and your friends wander in search of a place to film. Do this work in advance. Find a suitable spot, with obstacles that are easy to film, but challenging at the same time, so that you have something worth remembering.
- It would be good to find a location with different types of obstacles. A good grind handrail? A good set of concrete stairs? Search and find a park or square with everything you need for a good set of tricks and plenty of space to perform them.
- Make sure your chosen venue is skater-friendly and not privately owned. It would be preferable not to film in actual skate parks, to demonstrate acumen and creativity, but a skate park is still a good place to start.
Step 5. Film a group of skaters
Filming many skaters at once, whether they try the same trick or different tricks, helps you make better use of your time. If you film a single skater doing a 360 ° hard-flip, you will waste a lot of battery and memory waiting for him to restart. If you can film more skaters, however, you will end up with more footage to choose from for final editing.
Step 6. Make backups often
Try to buy and bring two of everything, so that you have a replacement in case of a problem. Get two batteries, two cassettes, and if you can, try to have an extra lens as well, if necessary. It's hard enough to organize yourself to have skaters to film, not run the risk of blowing up a day for a dead battery. Be ready for any eventuality.
Part 2 of 3: Filming a Skateboarding Session
Step 1. Focus on your movements
If you are the designated cameraman, be sure to stay focused on your skateboarding and stay safe, in any situation. Don't pay too much attention to how the camera works, rather focus on staying balanced on the table.
- If you are filming yourself, buy a tripod for the camera. Mark on the ground with chalk where you would be in the center of the frame, so you know where to complete your trick.
- If you're filming skateboarding, don't try to bully the board. Just think about running smoothly and holding the camera steady to film the tricks the way they deserve.
Step 2. Stay away from the trajectories of other skaters
Whether on foot or skateboarding, never lose sight of the direction you are going. Becoming a hindrance to your friends is a great way to end up with a broken camera, a bruise on your face, and to lose your friends.
Even if you are stationed at the bottom of a flight of stairs, stay crouched and don't move. Stand still and let the skaters move around you. Keep quite a distance from the ramp to give them enough space to land and roll for a few feet without hitting you, and give you enough time to move if necessary
Step 3. Keep the camera on all the time
Start filming early and go late into the evening. When someone tries to do a great trick, keep the camera pointed at them. You will never have too much material. If you leave the house with an empty box, be sure to return with a full one.
- Don't try to do a montage at the moment. Worry after editing the video. Think of yourself as a "collector" of moments that will come in handy in due course. Your job is not to finish the video the same day, but to catch the best moments.
- It also films the failures. Don't worry about just filming the tricks. A box full of spinning boards gets boring after a while, so it's a good idea to film your friends even when they joke, get angry, or compare skinned knees. Let them act for the camera.
Step 4. Always keep the entire skater in the frame
Footage of a pair of feet doing a trick isn't very exciting to watch. It will look silly, confusing, and less impressive to see only half of your friend perform the trick. Let the viewer appreciate the movement and athleticism required for a trick in its entirety.
- Try not to zoom if you are using a fisheye. Most fisheyes are designed to be used in the telephoto position and zooming in will cause you to lose focus. Playing too much with the zoom will also make the video seem very unstable. Don't be too extravagant, film the tricks and capture the magic of the moment.
- Don't shoot everything with a fisheye. In particular, fisheye lenses should be used for long jumps or sets of multiple obstacles, not more "compact" tricks. If the trick you will be filming is something big, use a wide angle or fisheye of.63x -.3x to get a complete view in any trick that needs a large range of movement.
- Use manual focus. Do not use the steady shot option with a fisheye, it will make the shot distorted.
Step 5. Film the stairs, not the skater
A common mistake that beginners make is moving too much with the camera to follow the skater. Instead, focus on the stairs or any other obstacle until a few seconds after the trick to make sure you keep it in the frame.
- Point the camera up so that both the skater's body and the stairs are in focus.
- A common and effective angle is 0.9m from the end of the stairs, away from the skater's path. Curl up so that the camera almost touches the ground. Start recording when the skater comes about 1.5-3m from the start of the flight of stairs.
Step 6. Help the skater land firmly
Leave as little ground as possible in the frame if you can to give the trick a better look. If your partner is having trouble completing the jump, leaving out the moments of instability and balance-seeking that follow the trick will make the video much better. Frame it so that you can see the skater clearly on landing and little else.
Step 7. Film a grind while skating at the same speed as the skater performing the trick
Another classic shot for which you will have to move while filming, preferably on the skateboard. If your friends want to try a long grind, or a set of tricks along a straight line, you'll need to jump on the board and film parallel to the action - try to keep the distance between you and the skater fixed while filming.
It is better to skate rather than run or walk fast, as the footsteps make the camera unstable and consequently make the video difficult to watch. Moving around on the skate will ensure a smooth and clean footage
Step 8. Be creative
There are no set ways to make a video: the choice of angle, the material to include and the final editing are all up to you. Keep trying until you are satisfied with the result. Write down the distances you feel and the one that gives you the best picture.
Try to film at different times of the day. This will allow you to have more material to work on to make the video varied and interesting
Part 3 of 3: Editing the Movies
Step 1. Upload the unedited movie to your PC and save it
Use the Firewire port to connect the camera to the computer and upload the movie. The specific process will vary depending on the program and camera you use, but never forget to save the original footage. Don't start the editing process until you have a saved copy of the material. If you make a mistake, or decide to use a different take for a particular trick, you need to have the source material to draw from to get on with the work.
Alternatively, you can leave the original movie on tape until you edit it completely, before freeing the tape itself, which will help you save space on your hard drive
Step 2. Start by cutting the footage you feel is unnecessary
The first - and most important - step of the process consists of cutting out the repetitions, the dead moments, and all those parts that are unusable for the final assembly.
- The best skateboarding videos will have a mixture of different types of scenes and tricks, moments of success and defeat, to give a sense of drama and tension to the video. A movie that contains only perfect and complicated tricks will be difficult to follow.
- Save errors to include in the video. If a friend of yours falls badly, it is a good idea to include the scene in the final cut, to remind the viewer of the risks and difficulties of being a skaters.
Step 3. Save some sounds
For the most part, skateboarding videos have music as their audio, rather than the sounds recorded during the shooting process. Most of the sounds recorded in a skateboarding session consist of a repetitive series of rustles and wheels beating on concrete, which is nothing interesting to listen to. It is good to make the sound varied and to insert the real sounds only in certain moments, when you deem it necessary. For example, include celebrations for a successful trick - it will make the video more engaging and fun.
Don't worry about having external microphones or other types of audio recording. Use only the camera recorder
Step 4. Adjust the colors and white balance
Many skateboarding videos are too dark or washed out, which means colors and contrast will need to be adjusted during the editing process. You want to make sure that the viewer is able to see every detail clearly and that the quality of the video is as high as possible.
Don't play with filters and other effects. Using silly transitions will make the video seem like a purely amateur product. Even if you just have to upload it to YouTube, make the product look professional
Step 5. Mount the various clips in the order you want
You don't have to assemble the tricks in the original order in which they were performed. Put them in any order you want to make the video exciting, dramatic and fun. Show failures and skinned knees before big hits. Keep the tension high to make the spectator crave the success of a trick.
Be careful not to make your video too dumb, or fast. Beginner editors tend to cut a trick just finished, or just started, which may "nauseat" the viewer. Leave a few seconds of footage before the trick, don't present it directly, and let the scene continue for a few seconds after the skater has landed. This will help create more suspense and the viewer will more easily appreciate what they have seen
Step 6. Choose a soundtrack
A good video needs a great soundtrack and most video editing software makes it extremely easy to match the music you want to the images. What music pushed you onto a skateboard? You can choose to write the soundtrack yourself, or you can always count on the classics of the skate genre. Choose what suits you best.
Punk, instrumental hip-hop and thrash metal are perfect soundtracks for a skater. There is no perfect album, but you can't go wrong if you use OFF! or the Gizmos. Skate videos need to be rebellious, humorous, and fun in equal measure. Choose a soundtrack that makes this clear
Advice
- Call a lot of skaters. They will spur each other on and you will have more to film.
- Stand still and keep the camera fixed.
- Don't scold a skater for failing a trick.
- Don't talk and don't celebrate while filming. It might be hard to resist the temptation, but try not to spoil the video with your cheers. If you can't resist, try to hold back for a few seconds after the trick ends, then run to your friend for a high five.
- Make sure you have a charged battery, a cassette, and a camera storage bag that is easy to carry around.
