I’ll try not too piss anyone else with my rudeness.
This is a question I have been asking for quite some time, I’m a camerman and have been for almost 18 years working for Tenwork Ten brisbane for almost 9 years and even doing such crap like Big Brother(thank god that got axed??).
Is surfing being shot to tight, what I mean by this are camermen using the zoom tooo much. Therefor not giving us the real perspectiveof the whole wave.
Thereason i ask this is in my last post I posted a video clip of mick Fanning in Kirra. I have seen a few other camermens shots of that day and they all shot it a lot tighter than I did. The reason I chose to shoot the framing I shot was to show the falling lip which Mick had to make and I think the other vision does not show that at all, but i could be wrong like I have been in the past.
I thought these other shots did not show the real perspective of the wave and not show how much Mick had to create speed to make the sections.
Another thing is with most videos lately is you never see the take off or the guy maing the wave…is this something that infuriates other viewers???
Is surfing being shot too tight and are we not seeing enought of the wave???
Being a cmaerman I really want to hear you answers??? PLEASE!!!
I agree with you, and I think a lot of surfers will.
But I believe the non-surfing part of humanity likes it in closer shots. Non-surfers have no knowledge of reading waves. They like to see the action more closely, while surfers like to see what the surfer does with his wave.
Take-off, same story. (I’d love to see them.)
This is just how I see it, I generalised it but I’m not sure it is true for all surfers/non-surfers.
yeah that too. surf camera crew need to learn a thing or two from stadium sports (basketball, football) coverage that give viewers enough perspectives to understand what’s going on with multiple cameras tracking the action.
if producers can’t afford fielding that much equipment & crew then they should give that sort of work to guys like you that actually play the sport. i don’t even remember seeing competition footage back in the late 70s of guys paddling out. remember gillette wide world of sports? that sort of limited coverage back in the day
Thank you for yuore comment boys, this is exactly what i thought but we have only have two commentors…maybe things willl chasnge and producers need to offer both sides of the fence.
I hope camerawork becomes more artistic providing the old shot we hope for but new angles that explain the feeling we get as a surfer.
I’m thinking not many camermen actually surf more than they shoot…as for me i couldn’t shoot until I have had my share of poundings. I think that is why I love the water based stuff so much.
Suggestions for angle and ways of creating excitment will be great accepted…so please give em up!!!
I liked your clip. A lot. I think it depends at least partly on what you think surfing is all about. Here, you will find people who are into the craftmanship and wave knowledge, it becomes at least a bit more about creativity and dancing w/ nature. At the beach and sitting in front of the TV you will much more find people whose approach to surfing or appreciating it is more about “how cool” the surfer is, “how athletic, how gymnastic and difficult” the moves and poses of the humans involved. I think each group will prefer one or the other approach, further back/more open showing the interaction with the wave vs tighter in featuring the human gyrations almost exclusively. The latter more like skateboarding where the surface and background is pretty much incidental. The more artsy fartsy types like me, prefer a stronger emphasis on the big picture, the natural world that needs to be reckoned with, harmonized with, worked with.
And definitely, the take-off clear through to the kick out or wipe out (as the case may be) is what I prefer. Occasionally, one spectacular ego move is nice to showcase, but othewise the entire dance is where its at I think.
Here’s my take on it. there was a time when the wave was as important as the rider when it came to stills and movies. With the advent of pro surfing, the focus shifted to concentrating on individuals and single maneuvers. More sizzle and less steak.
It correlates with my opinion that older styles of surfing and the coverage of same showing more ‘respect’ for the wave. For lack of a better term. I can’t watch most current day surf videos because it’s too disjointed and lacks context. Single moves by trained monkeys who might do some kind of acrobatic trick, yet not make the wave.
Kids these days want o bust airs before they can do a legit bottom turn, cutback, or kickout. Don’t even get me started about the ‘death’ of the kickout.
The more artsy fartsy types like me, prefer a stronger emphasis on the big picture, the natural world that needs to be reckoned with, harmonized with, worked with.
And definitely, the take-off clear through to the kick out or wipe out (as the case may be) is what I prefer. Occasionally, one spectacular ego move is nice to showcase, but othewise the entire dance is where its at I think.
I definitely prefer to see the take off, kickout and depending on the break (whether or not you feel like you can spot burn), some wide shots of the view from shore to give it all context. I’m not a huge fan of the endless closeup shots that show niether the take off or the exit and instead just twitch from one to the next like some board sob channel surfing with his remote. There is a line though, between the “artsy-fartsy”-staring-at-seaguls-for-five-minutes-between-every-wave and the chopped-up-nothing-but-close-up-aerials-with-no-landings-set-to-punk-music and I guess I would like my surf videos somewhere in the middle.
Just occured to me, I bet all these peeps w/ somewhat same aesthetic as mine are old geezers. Esp if you ask the 16-25 year olds you might get quite a different take on it. i would say, with age comes wisdom and taste.
Hahahaa, this is so true! I also don’t like the talkings about what their philosophy is. Because these layback guys all have the same “try to be original” philosophy. I put these talks in the same “staring-at-seaguls-for-five-minutes-between-every-wave” category. Don’t get me wrong, there can be some talking in the long movies. But no 2minute talking in a 5min movie!
Waves from take off to kick-/wipeout is the message. Even the battle for the wave can be interesting from time to time.
Right, if you want to add filler to a movie, rather than some long speech about how eco friendly your six hundred dollar wetsuit is (looking at you patagonia) how about showing some rides where they bobbled the drop or misjudged the section, you know, to make me feel better about my surfing.
Awesome replies thanks guys and it has provide infromation that I thought was true.
Someone touched on it that when a kid does an air and they don’t show him riding out, why show it at all? I love completed waves and completed moves. And your right kids are trying to do air before they learn to do a bottom turn??? I thought the bottom turn was were you set everything up?
Someone else did say it might have something to do with stickers…great point
So many surf vids are so one dimensional: they show endless full frame close ups lasting a couple of seconds (sometimes less) of surfers pulling off spectacular moves, but afer a few minutes of this the boredom level gets pretty high. Some of this close in action work is good but not too much. As others have said, I like to see the wave and also pans of the whole arena where the action is taking place.
Taking this context thing further, I find it amazing that although lots of vids are shot in exotic places, there are often no shots of the local area. Sometimes even when the location is not so exotic its still interesting: for example local shots of Oz locations may well be of interest to non Ozzie surfers and vice versa for other surf locations
And still further why not include some talk with some of the more camera friendly surfers involved, but please no corny attempts at humour.
Damn straight. Titty and female crotch shots generally get a nod with audiences of any age. It worked in "10" anyway - a popular non-surf movie awhile back starring Bo Derek.
I was thinking about this today while I was surfing and I had another thought. I like when, and I’m not sure where I’ve seen this done (probably dane’s blog) but regardless, I like when they have a section with no music and they run an ambient audio track taken from, I’m presuming, the days filming. So, the audio is one continuous stream with the sound of the ocean, people talking, birds, whatever and the video of the surfers is all edited just like a regular surf video. The camera position did not change much so it kind of felt like you were just hanging on the beach for an afternoon watching the surfers, but of course the surfers are really good and there’s no waiting in between waves.
A mix of camera angles including water shots helps break things up.
Movie makers, TV producers, and neuro techs like me know that a single non-changing point-of-view will lull the brain in to the equivalent of stage three sleep pretty damn quick.
That's why they have adopted a point of view editing rate of just a few seconds on average. I.E. the producer of a news program will change views of the newscaster with a different camera/different angle every few seconds. Children's cartoons have a change of view edit rate sometimes as fast as every second. No wonder we are a society of ADD victims.
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