How to make beautiful videos with an electric skateboard!

Do you know electric skateboards? Today we show you how to turn them into a directing tool

A few months ago we had the chance to talk on the EMC elettronica blog (to which we have been happy to contribute for a while) about the new smart mobility devices, from balance boards to Segways to electric skateboards.

Simple and eco-friendly, they take pre-existing shapes and means and combine them with modern remote-control technologies for a completely new concept of movement and travel.

Without going into the details of the mechanics and structure of the new smart mobility vehicles (explained in depth in this post), let's see how they can be used in the field of filming and audio-video.

In fact, many very young directors and film-makers, especially American ones, have found, thanks to devices like electric skateboards, interesting and "smart" ways to get around issues that are

• technical
• economic
• artistic.

Let's look at some of these directing "tricks" that anyone who can ride an electric skateboard can use:

Replacing heavy and expensive carts (also known as dollies)

Imagine using a steadicam or a professional compact camcorder to make a short film: the filming tool itself is professional and can deliver excellent quality footage.

But you know well that for a scene to be special it doesn't need only the shooting and the editing, but also the dynamics with which the footage is created. That is why directors with big productions behind them can count on jibs, cranes, dollies and other mechanisms that allow the operator to "glide" along the ground and capture wonderful long takes or the "dolly zoom" so dear to Hitchcock (the camera boldly tightening on the subject in the foreground, while the background seems to fall away backwards).

This last effect, which can give a very strong sense of vertigo and is often used precisely to express a character's unease or anxiety, is achieved with a dolly moving forward toward the subject while the camera zooms in on the character's face in a close-up, so that the latter appears to come closer while, at the same time and at the same speed, the background recedes.

In place of the dolly that Hitchcock probably had at his disposal, a beginner, or simply an innovator, can use an electric skateboard.

Replacing the drone in dynamic shots

Another tool that is useful for filming and indispensable in modern cinematography is the drone. It is useful, as we also said in this article, not only for aerial shots but also for dynamic effects indoors.

If you don't have a drone but you do have an electric skateboard, thanks to its remote control you can glide and follow a subject or perform a very long, high-impact long take, as the English director Joe Wright often does, without his equipment and with a small professional video camera (or even with a phone capable of shooting in 4K).

The GoPro Effect

Needless to say, the arrival of the GoPro among consumer tools for filming enthusiasts marked a small turning point, even though it is by now already considered outdated technology. Regardless of the camera you use, the GoPro effect is now a very specific method, with very specific expressive potential, and is part of cinematic terminology just like the medium shot, the aerial shot, the dolly zoom, etc.

The GoPro effect is basically a dynamic shot with an amateur look, in which the viewer knows and feels the presence of the director. Whether the subject is a landscape rushing by at full speed or a person walking, the viewer knows that what they are seeing is not just a scene but a specific narrative point of view.

Well, with an electric skateboard you can get the GoPro effect without a GoPro: any filming device will do, from a semi-professional camcorder to a phone with good video resolution. Just attach the camera to something close to the person filming (the helmet, the hand, a part of the body or the skateboard itself).

Do you have an electric skateboard? Have you ever made a video on board this green and practical vehicle? Share it with us on our Facebook page and by tagging us on Instagram.