Over the past few decades, the art of skateboarding cinematography went from team-made video parts that would come out once every few years, to instagram clips that come out daily. Sony VX2100 cameras turned into Apple iPhones. There's been a slow shift in skateboarding culture that's made amateur content somewhat acceptable.
Professional skateboarders are regularly dropping clips on the 'gram, but there's always a level of hype that comes with knowing your favorite team or your favorite skater is releasing a video part soon. When we hear that term "video part" there's a level of expectation that comes with that, whether we're aware of it or not.
The expectations we have for these professional video parts not only comes from the tricks themselves, but from the experience we have watching it. There's a level of crafting and care that goes into the making that leads to the excitement. A level of quality that's "professional", matching the level of professionalism and talent displayed by the skateboarder.
The beauty of skateboarding cinematography is that it translates entirely to handboarding and even fingerboarding. We see a level of quality video content from fingerboarders far more often than we do with handboarders, primarily from the difference in the number of participants alone. But we don't have to let fingerboarders have all the fun when it comes to miniature skateboarding cinematography.
If the the handboarding community is to grow and become more appealing to skateboarders and others who are interested in the activity, promoting it visually is a decent place to start. Let's be honest, tricks like this look a lot better than a full body cell phone shot of a man sweating it out, hovered over his toy.
This article will help you wrap your head around some key concepts and principles that will up your filming and editing game. I can say with certainty that the level of hype you get from landing a trick you've spent an hour on and clicking the "export" button on that video you edited for instagram or TikTok are one and the same.
Styles of Handboarding Cinematography
There are three styles of cinematography we'll be focusing on in this article, the "POV Handboarder's Angle" made famous by @deckstra, the "Fixed Angle" perfected by @handboardofficial, and the highly produced "realistic video part" by yours truly, @squeezeandthanks. All of these styles of camera work can be achieved alone, making this accessible for anyone with a decent camera.
Of course handboarding can also be filmed from a fisheye lens by a friend in the same fashion you would with skating but that poses two issues. One, it's usually hard to convince your buddy to come over and film you sweating over your toy for an hour trying that combo that's just out of reach... and two, when you finally stomp it, he botched the framing because it's a lot harder when everything is scaled down. By learning the process for yourself, you'll be better off in the long run.
The POV Handboarder's Angle - @deckstra
One of the most consistent handboarders in the game, @deckstra has been crushing it for years. The video featured here was his very first instagram post from back in 2017. It was the first time I caught a glimpse of his signature "POV Handboarder's Angle". This is by far one of the easiest ways to capture yourself handboarding, but leaves quite a lot to be desired.
This type of handboarding camera work is achieved with the GoPro camera and a head band, a $15 accessory that looks like women's underwear. Bonus points to anyone brave enough to sport this at a street spot in public.
The Fixed Angle - @handboardofficial
My all-time favorite handboarder in the game @handboardofficial has been gracing the handboarding community with beautiful cinematography since I can remember. He's a full time cinematographer, so would you expect anything less? Having a background in cinematography myself, I've learned quite a bit from my conversations with Jeff and from watching his work progress over the years.
Notorious for his locked-down tripod "fixed angles", usually skating both towards and away from the camera, he achieves a look like this by setting up the camera further away from the subject and zooming in which compresses the image.
Lens compression is a term used to describe the effects of the background pulling in closer the tighter you zoom in. It occurs when you shoot with a telephoto lens, but it's not because of the lens or its focal length. It's because we tend to stand farther away from our subjects when we use a zoom lens. The combination of zooming in and the camera-to-subject distance gives the viewer the impression that distant objects are larger than they actually are. As a result, the appearance of the background has pulled in closer to the subject.
The opposite effect occurs when using a wide angle lens. When we use a wide lens, we tend to stand much closer to our subjects compared to a telephoto lens. Because of this relative closeness, near objects will look proportionally larger than objects in the distance. As a result, the background elements become much smaller and seem farther away.
So the skating movement both towards and away from the camera with this lens setup has a beautiful "compressed" look that keeps his approaches and ride-aways from getting too close or too far away from the viewer's compressed perspective.
His use of "b-roll" clips of both the handboard and obstacle can be peppered into the edit to keep it from getting boring and to give the viewer alternative perspectives of the setup he's skating. Lighting plays an important role too. More to be learned by studying "three-point lighting" here.
I can't help but talk about my favorite style of video he's put out using baby shoes. The extra level of realism that this brings to the table is sure to make anyone smile... and he makes it look easy! Skating with baby shoes makes everything 20 times more difficult and frustrating so huge ups to Jeff for mastering that!
This also brings me to an important key point that I must address. Handboarding Etiquette.
With skateboarding, style is everything. Handboarding should be no different. What makes Jeff's tricks so incredible is his style. If he rolls away from a trick half-assed, you better believe it's not going in the edit. He'll do it again and again until it's clean. If you're landing your tricks sketchy, including unintentionally landed tricks in the edit, stopping halfway through the grind to setup for the trick out or your fingers are falling off the board on the rideaway, clean up these amateur mistakes for everyone's sake. You're playing with a toy, not mobbing a 20 stair where you have to take whatever you can get.
The Realistic Video Part - @squeezeandthanks
When I designed my spare room into a handboarding skatepark, I wanted everything to look as realistic as I could make it, along with having function. The brick walls and corrugated steel roof facade lining the room was a good start. The foliage, the props and realistic granite slabs made for beautiful touch and the fake window lights served as a practical way of bringing more light into the area, perfect for slow motion.
To achieve slow motion you'll need to shoot at higher frame rates (frames per second) such as 60fps allowing for a 40% reduction in speed or 120fps allowing for a 20% reduction in speed. When the camera is shooting more frames, you'll need to increase the shutter speed, lessening the amount of light that hits the sensor of the camera. Having as much light as you can get is a good way of not having to compensate with digitally enhancing the brightness of your image by dialing up the ISO (technical camera jargon that might not make sense for newcomers but can be further explained here)
I also have a steel piping grid installed overhead which supports 4 positionable clamp lamps with classic incandescent lightbulbs (certain led lighting can sometimes be terrible for slow motion video). The grid also works perfect for mounting the camera overhead to get miniature drone-like shots.
Most of the shots I do have slight keyframing applied to them which animates the non-moving tripod angle making it look like it's moving. I do this using a professional editing program by Adobe called Premiere which has awesome flexibility and control with keyframing, but this is a pretty standard type of editing effect which can also be found in iMovie and other non-professional applications. I've seen this effect used in cell phone editing apps as well.
One of the main reasons I love the vertical video format of instagram reels is that you're able to edit horizontal footage within the vertical format and animate the clip left-to-right with keyframes. Adding in a slight zoom in or out can add another dynamic to it that gives the appearance that you are being filmed by someone when in all reality it's just a tripod angle that's been animated. Keep in mind that if you are shooting a clip horizontally to later be placed in a vertical format, you'll want to give yourself enough distance so you're not cutting parts of the trick out when you go to crop it.
Filming the same trick multiple times from alternative angles, just like we see in professional skateboarding videos, gives the viewer another chance to take in what's going on. Changing up your angles and using various focal lengths from wide to zoomed in will give your video contrast making it a little more interesting for the viewer to watch.
When editing your video you will feel tempted to edit your footage to your favorite song, however I would strongly advise you not to do that if you plan on sharing it to social media. Copy-written music is a fast way of getting your account temporally disabled or permanently removed. Search out "Royalty Free Music" along with what ever genre you're going after on YouTube and you're sure to find something that sounds good and gets you hyped without risking your account. You can always edit your footage without music too and just add that later by using features in instagram reels or TikTok, however syncing the tricks to land "on beat" will be more difficult to plan for.
The Main Takeaways
Not everyone has the luxury of using sophisticates cameras or fancy editing software but by using even a few of these principals, your footage will begin to look better. A lot of these principles can be used with your cell phone camera and editing apps.
Move Back & Zoom In or Frame Things Tighter - If we're seeing most of your body or the whole thing for that matter, it's just goofy looking. Don't be a sweaty man hover over your toy. Setting your camera up further away from your tricks and zooming in also eliminates unwanted camera shake from placing the camera on the same table or surface you're skating on.
Shoot Extra Clips - Film some b-roll of the obstacle, the board and multiple angles of the trick at different focal lengths for variation.
Slow Motion - If your camera or phone is able to shoot in 60fps or even 120fps, do it! Just remember with the higher the frame rate, you'll need more light.
Light it - Throw some extra lights on it or film near an open window on a sunny day. Avoid fluorescent lighting or cheap LED lights too as they can lead to unwanted "rolling shutter" and strobing effects at higher frame rates. Buy some cheap "video lights" on Amazon. These are meant for video and will most likely be suitable for your needs.
Edit Your Clips - If you get your hands on some editing software or a decent editing app on your phone, spend an afternoon and learn how to string together a few clips.
Royalty Free Music - Get familiar with the process of searching out and using royalty free music. There are websites available that charge monthly membership fees which might give you an easier time finding songs you like, or have higher quality options.
Add Realism - There are endless ways you can bring realism into the picture. From the style of tricks, to the objects themselves. At Handboard Warehouse, we offer high quality, realistic handboarding obstacles that will take your game to the next level.
In Conclusion
Handboarding is meant to be enjoyed not only by yourself but by the community around you. We love seeing newcomers posting and sharing new tricks they're working on and growing along with the activity itself. The more quality content we share, the more appealing handboard becomes and the more appealing it becomes, the more participants wind up joining in on the fun we're having.
I hope you've learned something new from this article on "how to film yourself handboarding". If you have any questions or comments, be sure to leave them below!
Comments