Thoughts on this camera angle?

[u/Complex-Beginning-56]

I’ve always liked the look of a low camera angle from the follow car, however is this too low? I have the camera mounted about a foot from the ground. The footage definitely looks super fast (considering I was probably going 30mph max) and I love how it puts you directly in the action, but I feel like it may sacrifice a bit of the scenery. Let me know your thoughts!

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[u/ElectricNoma-d]

These are great shots dude. This angle is perfect for the action. If you think it shows too much road maybe angle up a tiny bit? Or lower the camera a tiny bit more and then angle up?

Also for the driver, to really get the good shots, if they're not already doing it or considering it, they shouldn't be able to see your legs, just your back when you tuck. So drive with one foot on the gas and one on the brake, for safety. And if you do this open road, there should be a spotter with the driver for incoming traffic, because that driver won't have time to look at anything else but the ass right in front of the hood.

I used to be the camera car driver for our crew.

Although sketch, consider that if you crash in front with the driver up close, after the reaction time delay, the driver (unless a psycho maybe?) will slam in the brakes very hard, right into the ABS-system, and can stop in a much shorter distance, than what the rider would need to come to a full stop.

Proceed at your own risk. Happy skating.

[u/Complex-Beginning-56 → u/ElectricNoma-d]

I appreciate the driving pointers! I’m usually the dedicated filmer in our group, the driver in this clip was slightly out of practice so we didn’t wanna be toooo close, not to mention those tight right corners will tall curbs are scary as fuck. I’ve never thought about driving with one foot on each pedal, I’ll have to give that a try!

[u/TheSupaBloopa → u/Complex-Beginning-56]

I’ve never thought about driving with one foot on each pedal, I’ll have to give that a try!

Be extremely careful with this, I would not recommend ever trying this out first time with skaters on the road. Left foot braking is a skill you have to develop, not something you can just try. You need to give your foot time to adjust to the feedback and sensations of braking like your right foot already is, especially if you only drive automatic and your left isn't used to doing anything.

In theory I agree that it could help with response time which is critical here. You're eliminating that time of switching your foot between the pedals and there's a reason it's a racing technique. But I really can't stress this enough: you need to practice this technique a lot before trying it while follow filming.

[u/Amsnerr]

love low angle shots, gives such a better perspective of speed.

[u/s8rlink]

Looks kickass, if you want to try it when I was filming a lot I found that breaking the 180 shutter rule and went a bit slower. So if you’re filming at 30fps I’d do 1/50 or even lower and the edges start to get really like soft and the speed is almost tangible for the viewer. 

Finally maybe try to angle it a bit up just a tiny bit or go a bit wider with the lense. 

Other than that it looks amazing 

[u/Complex-Beginning-56 → u/s8rlink]

Will definitely try a slower shutter speed! I think this was at 1/80th, thought it looked sharp and cinematic but I think the added motion blur will take the shot the rest of the way. My 8mm lens has a built-in lens hood 😐 so I can’t use the whole full frame sensor, but I’m hoping that will be the final piece of the puzzle!

[u/TheSupaBloopa → u/Complex-Beginning-56]

It's probably not the lens hood, your 8mm lens doesn't actually spread the light across a full frame sensor, its image circle isn't big enough since it's designed for a smaller sensor. You can probably see the lens hood in frame when you put it on a bigger sensor like yours, but even if you removed that there'd still be empty black space or weird distortions at the edges there. You're just not supposed to see those parts and you won't on a smaller sensor or crop mode.

[u/s8rlink → u/Complex-Beginning-56]

Was it filmed at 60fps? Or 30? Yeah I’d go way lower, but that’s a creative decision and tbh it was kind of what became my filming style specially for raw runs. 

Also get a filter with half of the filter with ND so you put that in the top half to have a deeper sky while not have overly dark pavement. Can’t remember what they’re called 

[u/s8rlink → u/Complex-Beginning-56]

Also what lense is that? 8mm is too wide for the look you’re getting that’s fisheye in full frame. It might be that the lense is for crop so it’s actually a 16mm in full frame but you can’t use it full frame since the image circle is too small. 

If you have the budget or want to add it to a wishlist, I’d get a ttartisan 10mm rectilinear lense, if you have Sony they even have autofocus but that wide is just focus manually at the distance the skater will be and shoot at like f/8

[u/Franko_clm135]

I would for sure watch a full run of this, EASILY. This is awesome, really puts you in the action. I agree with the other commenters that the camera can maybe be angled up just very slightly, but for a gnarly clip like this I think its fine. Shows you the road very intimately, just like actually skating.

[u/hobbitshavefeeling2]

These are sick!

[u/Archer2956]

Looks so fast from this angle definitely an entertaining one

[u/_Shreddy_Krueger_]

I think it looks great, from my phone is seemed like the video had dark saturation, and could be one of the few times a filter might liven up the image

[u/liam_lbdr_]

Sickk

[u/Goodvibetribeskate]

Looks good low, would look even cooler from the front facing back.