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Skateboarding => USELESS WOODEN TOY BANTER => Topic started by: fineslime on August 04, 2022, 09:32:22 PM
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how do my PALS feel about the current state/ trend of skateboard filming aka, "stylistic camera operating choices and vision?" It seems that the most prominent trend in filming is 16:9 ultra crop... How do you feel about this? What era of skateboard videography do you enjoy the most, OR, do you think is the best?
What era of filming is best suited for modern day skateboarding?
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overrated but its type hard to not do the zoom shit while filming hd
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Personally I think yes but accept that it's down to different tastes. One thing tho is until maybe 2010 almost nobody had good cameras so those that did really put a lot of effort in to be good at filming. The world was also a lot harsher so some slightly dodgy filming was almost met with violence, these days everyone's nice.
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Videographers are avoiding death lens angles because skaters could potentially break their equipment. Fisheye lenses are also non-existent.
Therefore, the zoom in, pan down, film the board, miss the spot trend is in full effect.
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In my opinion HD is just a lot less forgiving. I prefer the SD era over HD as long as you set your whitebalance correctly.
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(https://static.turbosquid.com/Preview/2014/07/09__04_13_36/AntiqueCameraColor01.jpg1743f53e-d5b4-487d-a62a-a286bb84a7e8Large.jpg)
Anything else is too much fanfare 4 me no thnx
Great thread !
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I am totally biased since my most cherished time watching skate videos (before and after sessions as a kid) started around the time Mouse came out. So VX is the pinnacle of skateboarding videography for me, especially the era when filmers became really good at it. I filmed with a VX2000 myself for a few years, which connects me to the aesthetic even more.
That being said, I can appreciate HD, even more recent post-Strobeck footage, however I feel it is much harder to make all that zooming look good and most filmers fail miserably. So it’s not so much the aesthetic that I reject, but all the shit footage that is being put in videos. Strobeck does it quite well, you still get a sense for the spot and style, which is completely lost in shaky zooms when people fuck it up.
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Is the Pope a nonce?
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Maybe you are just getting old.
I'm about to be 25 and honestly my brain is fried from so many videos. I've seen way too many hpx face zoom in thumbnails of random teenagers recently that I just simply do not bother.
Honestly, my favorite clip of this year is the Kader one. Short and sweet, and very tasteful/powerful skateboarding. No filler. Just barn burners.
The best era will always be the shit you grew up on.
(https://static.turbosquid.com/Preview/2014/07/09__04_13_36/AntiqueCameraColor01.jpg1743f53e-d5b4-487d-a62a-a286bb84a7e8Large.jpg)
Anything else is too much fanfare 4 me no thnx
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overrated but its type hard to not do the zoom shit while filming hd
That's complete bullshit. There are plenty of people who can and do completely fine. If you can't handle proper framing then you have no business operating a camera, much less professionally. That's literally film making 101.
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I'm not a fan of the zoom in on the face, zoom out, zoom in realllllly tight on the board, zoom back out shit.
Strobek shit makes me feel sea sick, and also I'm not dying to watch artsy, slow motion shots of shirtless 15 year old boys smoking joints.
I don't like stairs and gaps being filmed from the middle, cam has to do a 30mph pan and lose all perspective on size of the gap.
I don't like it when they film from wayyyy too close. That dude Chase from Berrics films everything so low and close it's like you might as well just set the camera on the ground facing up and tell everyone to do their tricks directly over it.
Everything else is cool. Love VX, but I don't mind HD at all.
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If you cant see the whole spot and skater it's filmed bad.
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Its the watering down of skateboarding. Everyone has a camera in their pocket. Social media has people thinking their tricks warrant filming. Everyone with camera in their pocket presents this perception that its ok to film terrible tricks and film them terribly.
4:3 only 4 me.
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With some of these videos lately Id be much happier with a stationary shot on a tripod. You get no feeling for how big, small, crusty, smooth etc with all these tight crops the only way to know is if you're already familiar with the spot.
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I don't know if you could call it "worse", but it's definitely changed.
My favorite era would be 2004 - 2011 VX footy. I guess I feel like videos were just filmed with a smoother style more simple camera movements back then.
Examples like Bag of Suck, Jason Hernandez or Jon Miner videos.
I feel like VX footy in 2020's is just all death lens stuffed into the sneaker.
It used to be an unwritten law to never cut a skaters head in a line and it seems like the VX was held higher up and less upward tilt/more level with the ground.
Idk, I guess I'm becoming a sucker for nostalgia.
I don't have anything against HD footy, but everything is just trying to fit the Strobeck aesthetic now.
For HD stuff, I think HVX footage looks the best, and filming styles like Chris Theisen's Perpetual Motion video or the Alien Workshop Life Splicing stuff.
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Yes. It should be more like that Fred Gall part that just came out. It was beautiful. Maria’s part was filmed pretty decent as well I thought. Seems like too many people try to overdo the artsy stuff and it just takes away the focus from the actual skating.
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strobecc effect is massive and cus of that half of the tricks i see are out of frame and also almost everything is shot longlense which gets dull as fuck quick man
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Yes
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Filming is a lot better since the fish eye days for sure
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(https://static.turbosquid.com/Preview/2014/07/09__04_13_36/AntiqueCameraColor01.jpg1743f53e-d5b4-487d-a62a-a286bb84a7e8Large.jpg)
Anything else is too much fanfare 4 me no thnx
Great thread !
Me and the boys setting up to film a session.
(https://i.ibb.co/F3V0QnW/The-giant-camera.jpg) (https://ibb.co/F3V0QnW)
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I like modern filming. It looks sick but has downsides. Things can get so zoomed in it makes me nauseous to watch on my TV and begs to be watched on a phone or tablet. It’s hard to appreciate the era you’re currently in because you’re living it but I think these videos will have a style to them in the future we can appreciate.
I personally miss more lightweight cameras that moved. Everyone’s filming with that giant cinderblock camera so fisheye is planted most of the time. I miss the sense of movement smaller cameras like VX and DSLRs/mirrorless provide. Filmers were active which was fun on the sesh. rolling long lens and lines were more common. I just love the way skateboards move through space doing lines and cruising. It’s much more stunt and gimmick oriented now. HD 4:3 was fun.
The zoom in with a camcorder style now is throwback and let’s the filmer get a lot more clips when things get hectic. You’re not setting up tripods and getting angles which really places you in the action and helps when busts are a factor. Skaters are freed up and 1 filmer can get multiple dudes and b roll very easy. They can walk around to get other angles. They’re in the moment. It’s a welcome change.
VX it was hard to see because it was blurry and 480i. A lot of guys stood out by their style and spot selection. Videos kinda started looking the same with VX with the warm tones but it got better as time went on. My main complaint is that videos look so much the same now. The art direction is gone. It’s much more about fashion. What are you wearing in the clips and what tricks are you doing. Zooming in on little logo hits and footwear to show off product. I get it, sell stuff, but I miss the focus being more on the skating.
You just don’t see stuff like pyramid country, magenta, bronze, workshop videos anymore. There’s a lot less creativity in the editing. Videos blur together and give you this “everyone rips all over the world” feel. I’d like to see more art direction to help videos stand out. Editing is easy and cheap these days and there are tons of crazy assets and artists out there to work with. I don’t get it. Sure let’s dump all the footage with clean colors in a 15 minute part to some trendy music and no art like we did last time. Even the WKND skits were a nice mixup for me. Anything to break up the generic formula. Bag of suck, yeah right, zero videos, mind field, really sorry they all looked and felt so different from each other. Even something like frog gets me hyped because at least it’s different.
I’m glad we moved away from the Ty evans approach. It’s just not fun to go skate with a filmer setting up perfect angles and roll up clips and getting b roll like that. We don’t need all that camera gear and kick outs HURT when you’ve spent that time to set up. It would be cool to see some more vintage camera stuff going on but that got so played out. Also to note is the end of 16mm and 8mm b roll which also got super fucking played out.
More videos like that huf tour video please.
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Most VX filmers and editors are absolutely ass nowadays but I think people overlook it for nostalgia’s sake
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no, there are just a lot more bad filmers these days
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I tried to remain neutral and just accept that the trends changed and people just like different things now but just watched a random vid and couldn't believe it. https://youtu.be/oxNayz4ANt4
Anyone who says filming is in anyway better than it was the generation before has to just be lying. Even as shitty as the people I knew were at skating if you filmed someone's manual this bad you were getting made fun of. Certainly weren't posting it for everyone to see like it was something good.
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The standards for filming is so low nowadays. Alot of the newer filmers only make it in the industry because they are fortunate enough to own a Xtreme lense and have a lot of free time to pursue it.
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Sk9 filming has drastically improved. Drone cameras. Remember the running suit camera? Yeah. That might have been a lil too spensive to sustain much of a skateboard companies budget.
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I don‘t know what you are talking about. There are still a lot of great Filmers. The primitive videos are always filmed well and they are in hd. The Plan B video was filmed well, too. The last Patrick wallner helas Clip was filmed and edited real well. Taste and technique is more important as ever, even though technology has vastly improved and made it easier to produce moving images in high quality. Ty Evans uses all the latest technology, but his clips still feel just about as fresh as a can of warm Mountain Dew.
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my impression of strobeck's style is that he's saying the skating is garbage and not worth capturing
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Anyone inspired by Fat Bill sucks at filming. Otherwise there’s still good homies documenting out there
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overrated but its type hard to not do the zoom shit while filming hd
That's complete bullshit. There are plenty of people who can and do completely fine. If you can't handle proper framing then you have no business operating a camera, much less professionally. That's literally film making 101.
sometimes depending on the trick, spot and environment a clip can feel boring without the zoom. plus i always ask whoever im filming how they want it to look and most would prefer the cropped look. i definitely dig proper framing though as i get older
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Everyone watches everything once and usually on a small screen….why would it need to be done well?
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I feel like the edits contribute to this problem as well. A lot of people are trying to make their skate videos as "fast paced" as possible and the strobek zoom helps keep things moving to a certain extent. Obviously gets way out of hand sometimes but thats just my 2 cents.
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I tried to remain neutral and just accept that the trends changed and people just like different things now but just watched a random vid and couldn't believe it. https://youtu.be/oxNayz4ANt4
Anyone who says filming is in anyway better than it was the generation before has to just be lying. Even as shitty as the people I knew were at skating if you filmed someone's manual this bad you were getting made fun of. Certainly weren't posting it for everyone to see like it was something good.
Perfect example of everything wrong with modern day filming, imo. These clips would've gotten torn apart on skate perception back in the day, ha! Maybe that's what the problem is... Ever since that site went under basic rules of composition are long gone.
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I’d like to hear examples of actual full length or at least multi skater videos from yeasteryear that are good or bad compared to modern videos. For instance, I just rewatch Loophole’s New Doors Have Opened and I thought the filming was really good but many of you may not like it. As long as the skater is in the frame I am fine.
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Just watch Fritte's stuff. Fritte is the fuckin' truth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puVZ8UwBLZE&t=444s
They're working on a new Jante clip in Malmö and Gothenburg, so I got to hang with the boys a couple of days in the beginning and end of july.
I love them all, but wathing Gustav skate in person is something else.
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The worst was that sword fighting zoom in and out filming that Yoan Taillander and Mandible Claw always did. Aside from the ridiculous power slides, it’s why I couldn’t take most Magenta videos seriously.
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I like Chris Mulhern and Chris Gregson's filming. My dream is for someone to go full Ang Lee and shoot a full-length video in 120fps 4:3 4K HDR. It's 2022. We have the technology. Crisp, vivid, high frame rate video in a square-ish format makes so much sense for skate footage, especially when filming tech tricks on stairs and handrails. Before the bandwidth and RAM limitations of the early YouTube era, every video from Shackle Me Not to Mosaic was shot in 60fps interlaced video (exceptions being clips shot on actual film - Ban This, Mouse, The End, etc).
I like drones too, as long as the filmer doesn't upstage the skater with a bunch of jarring drone maneuvers. The equipment used to shoot shouldn't distract from the skating.
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Everyone watches everything once and usually on a small screen….why would it need to be done well?
You're not serious are you?
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I agree with the sentiment expressed by many in this thread. I'm simply burnt out. I could not even imagine wanting to pick up an HD camera and start filming with it let alone try to replicate the HD camera 16:9 look. Because most if not all of my influences were filmed with VX1000/mk1, I see no desire to try to film or watch anything that doesn't have that look to it, so I mainly stick around the 4:3 either vx1/mk1 or hd type videos. Of course thats not to say I dont watch and enjoy HD 16:9 footage, but theres a select few videos that I would bother watching again
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Most VX filmers and editors are absolutely ass nowadays but I think people overlook it for nostalgia’s sake
Brian Panebianco is insanely good. I know u said most but i need to point him out anyways.
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Expand Quote
Most VX filmers and editors are absolutely ass nowadays but I think people overlook it for nostalgia’s sake
Brian Panebianco is insanely good. I know u said most but i need to point him out anyways.
Yes, he‘s a good filmer. I wish he wouldn‘t make these retro edits, though. Everything is a complete 90s cosplay. I mean I liked the 90s, the style, the tricks, the music and all that. But: give me a little variation at least! Is the best we can do to try to come as close as possible to copying some lost past?
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The issue might not be is filming getting worse, but is there too much content?
Wheatley in Horses, Gustav in Sour Sol'n III, Millar in Roger 411, are some recent videos filmed so well.
There are many many more examples.
It just seems the irritating one stick out. If the fiming makes me feel sick, I just watch another video.
There is more content than can possibly be viewed and absorbed by any human.
Videos in the 80s and 90s weren't always filmed or edited better, but we were so desperate for content, we didn't really care....
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Just watch Fritte's stuff. Fritte is the fuckin' truth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puVZ8UwBLZE&t=444s
notice the skater's entire body almost NEVER goes out of frame in this entire video^ I agree, this guy does a great job at capturing the spot + the skater. feels like you get a good understanding of the spot + the steez in every clip.
with fisheye you have a tiny bit more leniency because the top of their body is so distorted its not a huge deal if it goes out of frame for a sec but i think ideally you still want to try and capture the arms.
that red bull clip was so bad because they were zooming IN on the feet when they should have been zooming OUT as the skater was getting closer so we could continue to see the arms and head throughout the landing.
if you are filming long lense I think you should be focusing on keeping the skater entire body as big as possible in the frame while still capturing the spot correctly. a lot of times on certain spots i dont like when i only have 1 angle because i like to have 1 angle where we can just see the spot in 1 frame in all it's glory. If the spot is very large, and we to try and shoot the clip this way, the skaters body will be very tiny :( and cant see any of the steez. so sometimes what i'll do is just try and get a roll up angle from the "establishing shot" and then my actual filming angle I will do something that we don't necessarily need to focus on the spot so much anymore because the audience understands where we are now - we can just focus on how the guy handled it.
not trying to claim like this is anything unique that i do by any means i think its pretty common sense, but hopefully helps someone out there :)