The Beauty of the Long Lens in Skateboarding

The Beauty of the Long Lens in Skateboarding
Words by: Jason Lee

The long lens in skateboarding has been the bastard child to the fisheye for quite some time now. However, as time progressed and there was a need to push the cinematography in terms of skateboarding, we could see the people like, William Strobeck, Benny Maglinao, Logan Lara, and Johnny Wilson, taking advantage of a previously looked over style.

While the fisheye provides a unique and fast-paced feeling to it, the long lens allows the viewer to take in more minute details someone might not notice in a fisheye angle. The use of distortion in the fisheye has a profound effect on keeping us(the viewer) entranced in the action, forcing us to, in a sense, get a magnification on the skater and the object directly underneath, over, or beside them. The fisheyes downfall however falls in the part in which it can't quite allow us to fully take in the environment. Instead, we only see the parts the filmer allows us to see. Albeit, while this can be said for the long lens as well, in my opinion it still allows for one to notice different things after multiple viewings, unlike maybe the fisheye.

The long-lens as demonstrated by Strobeck, has the power to still give us the feeling of the skater's style and add to the film's mood. It creates more of a cinematic feel when used more frequently than the fisheye. Being skaters, we enjoy noticing or picking apart arbitrary things such as, what shoes someone is wearing, what deck they're skating, clothes, etc. Now, it's become easier and more noticeable than ever. If anything, it's become a more sought after stylistic choice because the items and brands become more prominent and a part of the clip because of the zooms and pans.

Thanks to the long lens, not only does it become more noticeable, but it almost makes the skater more marketable thanks to, as previously mentioned, zooms and pans that capture the tricks. As an example, for a company like Nike, the swoosh is already blatantly obvious in fisheye clips but becomes more so in long-lens clips. Focusing on the action, the shoe is always in frame allowing our brains to associate the trick being landed with the particular shoe. Subconsciously, we may take note that the shoe perhaps helped and was part of the reason as to why the trick was landed. Although it is not necessarily brainwashing us into buying Nike's or whatever said product, but when remembering the clip, we have a more vivid remembrance of the trick and the the brands associated in those minute seconds.

However, the magic of the long lens is not a solely marketable film style but a creative one as well. Because we can take into account how someone might push, set up, or make a facial expression before a trick, we can develop an image of what they are like as a person, and get a better feel for their style. This factor comes into play in moments like when the frame is focused solely on someone's feet, board, and obstacle, but we can still curate an image in our heads of how their arms, hips, head look while this is going on. I tend to think that this need to conjure up the missing parts not filled in frame allows us to inadvertently become more attached to the skater themselves and become more engrossed in the skating taking place. This however, would probably only work if one was open to the specific type of long-lens filming that has seemed to be trending.

This trend in using long-lens over fish in most scenarios is interesting and exciting but leaves me to wonder if it will result in the overkill of long-lens and cause a later resurgence of fisheye. It also leaves me to wonder what other lenses we might see utilized more often. Although not very popular, Ty Evans did use a super wide angle for his Flat Earth film. I'm curious to see what lays in store for the innovation of skate cinematography aside from the editing aspect.