Tips & Tricks For Shooting And Editing Slow Motion Video From Skate Cinematographer Russell Houghten

In this installment of "In Focus", the filmer responsible for Curren Caples incredible Monster Energy promo breaks it down and let's us in on his two reasons to use slow motion:

1. To focus on a particular part of a particular trick

2. To increase the drama of an edit
 

For those unfamiliar with the concept of shooting slow-motion – or shooting over-cranked footage in film-world terms – the basic concept is that the camera shoots at a higher frame rate then you are going to play back the footage at and that results in a slower than normal playback rate. For example, if your camera shoots 60 frames per second and you play it back at a normal 30 frames per second, the resulting footage will be 50% slower than real-time. Bam. Simple.

Of course, as Russell explains, there are also ways to do this "in post" (in the computer after the fact, during post-production) using programs such as Adobe Premiere, After Effects of Final Cut. The problem with this method is that it is left up to the computer to draw/create the extra frames, and no matter how sophisticated technology gets it's never going to be perfect. That said, if you're in a pinch this could help add a touch of class to your edit.

And then there's time-remapping, the process of applying keyframes (animation points) to your slow motion footage to achieve the effect where a clip starts slow and then speeds up, or vice versa. While seeming a bit complicated at first, once you wrap your head around it, it becomes super simple and is an extremely classy way to present your footage.

Last but not least is the most important tip of all, "Don't overuse slow motion!". 

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Russell Houghten is onr Instagram andVimeo.