quick filming tips
 

I've been filming myself and friends for a while but always on borrowed equipment and making do with what i've got. finally getting my own camera and because of injury won't be wakeboarding myself so i want to focus on filming this summer and turn out something amazing. If you have any quick tips for filming wakeboarding like the golden hours after sunrise and before sunset to simple diy camera mounts and any other little piece of silly advice i'd be more than welcome to anything.

thanks

a couple tips, though more focused on editing than filming:

- shoot lots of video and edit it way down. You'll probably only end up using a few minutes out of every hour of video.

- be careful using long segments... bores the viewer. Each 15 second scene might be ok on its own and mean something to you because you were there, but string a couple of 15 second segments together and you get a long, boring video. Short 2-5 second segments showing tricks and activity usually flow better in a video (although be careful of overcorrecting and making it too choppy).

- consider some setup or transition shots. Taking a few seconds to set the scene, show the drive to the lake, launching the boat, the boat house, cleaning the boat afterwards... something to link things together.

- add people shots - stuff showing your passengers interacting with each other, pushing each other off the swim step, joking around, etc. You'll have to edit the hell out of it, but that's half of what a day on the boat is about. Plus unless your riders are WAY above average, the "tricks" you shoot really won't be that impressive. For most people wakeboarding videos are really much more about showing fun times than showing wakeboarding. Wakeboarding just happens to be the setting.

- shooting on a GoPro I assume? Gopole has some good stuff like the Bobber and floating sticks.

^^^Those were all good. I think the main thing is to film a lot. I usually have about 4 hours of video I narrow down to 2-4 minutes. What usually makes videos better is taking videos of random things like putting the board on, rope in the water, carrying the board.... Things like that for the intro help a lot. Just watch a lot of videos on YouTube and Vimeo and get some ideas from that and start filming. If your a great editor but a poor filmer the video won't be too good. It's all about how nice the filming is and that will make the video good

When we made Delta Sessions 1 & 2 - We averaged (1) minute of useable footage for 1 hour filmed. I saw shoot everything - sky, land, birds, bugs, tubers,houses, road trip, getting in and out of water, etc... You can always edit down - never the other way around!

sounds like you'll need lots of batteries and cards

when you first learn how to wakeboard, instead of focusing on doing a backflip right off the bat, you should learn board control. in this case i would stress focusing only on camerawork, if you are just starting out. remember, it doesn't matter how good of an editor you are; if the footage sucks, your final video will suck. the main thing you should think about is really just trying to keep the camera steady and as you progress think more about composition and things like that.

another big thing which relates to that is knowing the limitations of your equipment. if you're using gopro then ride doubles or get on a tube so that you can get close enough to the action that it will be entertaining to the viewer ( as opposed to watching an ant on screen off in the distance) , or if you're using DSLR make sure you can have the right type of lens to capture the action within the appropriate frame.

if you can focus on that first and foremost, you will be well on your way to making some good videos

Thanks guys, all super helpful!!
I've been filming as a small hobby for a while. gopros and DSLRs. finally got my own DSLR.
What is the best/easiest steady cam set up to keep it smooth while riding in the boat. Keep in mind I am dirt poor and this will be a DIY kind of set up.

Mitch bergsma has a video of how he keeps his sale steady on the boat for filming

best/cheapest way to keep camera steady is strong muscles!

Great Tips Orange...

How about best cheap editing software..... GP 2.0?