Downhill
Also known as: DH, downhill mountain biking
Mountain biking on steep, fast descending tracks, usually lift-served, where the speed is the thing a camera struggles hardest to convey.
Updated
What it means
Downhill is one direction and maximum speed. A track descends from a lift to a finish, the rider does not pedal uphill, and everything about the equipment and the terrain follows from that.
The filming problem is conveying speed. Thirty miles an hour through trees looks like fifteen on a wide lens, and most of the craft is in choosing positions that put something close to the camera.
It differs from Enduro in the repetition. A lift-served track can be ridden ten times in an afternoon, which makes it far easier to film properly than a one-attempt descent.
How it works in practice
Close and low is what makes speed read. A camera a metre from the line with something static in the foreground gives the eye a reference, which a distant wide shot never does.
A Chase cam is the other half. A following rider with a worn camera conveys the rate of a track in a way no fixed position can, and the two together describe a run properly.
Repetition is the advantage to use. Filming one section from four angles across four runs produces an intercuttable sequence, which is exactly what Cutting on action needs to work.
What to watch out for
Trees are a lighting problem all day. Dappled shade swings exposure constantly, and a camera on automatic produces a clip that pumps, which is why fixed settings matter more here.
Wide lenses flatten the steepness. A track that is frightening in person reads as a mild slope on a mounted camera, and only a side angle with a vertical reference shows the gradient.
Mounted footage is rougher here than anywhere. A handlebar at speed on rocks produces Shaky footage that even modern stabilisation struggles with, and a helmet or chest position survives better.
How RawClip handles it
Fast descending clips score well on motion, and the strongest material is normally the close side angles rather than the mounted run. Repeated runs through one section are reduced to the best pass, which rewards filming the same place from different positions.