This is basically an in-depth look at fimling techniques, concentrating on the Basic methods.



You need


At least 1 Video Camera (duh) preferably mini-DV although you can use analogue if you need, it still comes out quite well


A "fish-eye/death/wide angle" lens, you simply can't film any sort of skate video without one, if you do it just won't look like a pro-job (see phaze 1) They are absolutely essential for runs, they allow you to get right up there in the action, rather than being 10 feet away.


A board, preferably with wide, soft wheels, you can't film a run with no board.


Editing equipment, you won't need anything too hot, although the pinnacle editing series are great. Although it's obvious, editing equipment is used to put music on your video, special effects (not pyrotechnics, slo-mo) etc, see Simon's Editing 101 for more information.


That's IT! For a basic small scale skate video
that's all you need.


Okay, now you need to know how to actually film the fook, it's not as easy as simply pointing a camera in the direction of a trick so pay attention.


Runs - When filming a run it is very important to stay very close to the skater, and it may be worthwhile to invest in some sort of handle for your cam so that you can stick the camera close but retain a sensible distance yourself. Now, there is no set angle for filming runs, it all depends on the style of the filmer and the style of the skater, and obviously which tricks the skater is doing, eg if skater A is doing a f/s flip it would be sensible to film it from the frontside, other wise cameraman B will chance getting nailed, some people don't think about this, or compensate by keeping a distance, which is in contracention of the first rule of filming a run (stay close) One of the easiest angles to shoot from would be the "slightly to the left" angle, behind and to the left, this means that provided you can hold your camera out in front of you you get a great shot and don't get in the way at all.


One thing I can't stress enough on is that you gotta film almost everything low down, when filming a line try and crouch down, and hold the camera as low as possible, it makes everything sooo much more professional.





Still shots - These are just one trick shots, and they can be filmed 2 ways, with or without fish-eye.


With FE


This will make the trick appear quite fast, so it's not a good idea to film your gnarliest hammers on fisheye, you should use fisheye for standard tricks, that way you can't tell if they're pussy weak or not.


Without FE


This way you can really see how gnarly something is, so if it's very visually impressive you shouldn't use FE, if a gap is massive, don't use FE cause then you can't tell, you understand?





That's about it, I can't be arsed to right more, if there's anything else you want to know post it up on the message boards.