E-foil
Also known as: electric hydrofoil, efoil
A powered hydrofoil board that lifts clear of the water on a wing, silent and fast, and filmed almost entirely from above or alongside.
Updated
What it means
An e-foil is a board, a mast, a wing and a motor. Above a certain speed the wing generates enough lift to raise the board clear of the surface, and from that point the ride becomes almost completely silent.
That silence is the filming problem. Nothing about the sound conveys speed, so a clip with the original audio reads as slow however fast the board was actually travelling.
It is powered, which separates it from Hydrofoiling behind a wave or a boat. No wave and no tow is needed, so sessions happen on flat water in conditions nothing else works in.
How it works in practice
A drone is the natural camera. The board travels in long straight lines over open water, which is exactly the situation a Follow me mode or a tracking pass handles well.
The gap under the board is the shot. A low angle from a boat or a jetski showing water passing beneath the hull is what communicates that the board is flying rather than planing.
Audio has to be built rather than recorded. A music bed and a placed Sound effect replace the sound that does not exist, which is a normal requirement rather than a compromise.
What to watch out for
Water and electronics are a worse combination here than usual. A battery and a motor in salt water is a maintenance commitment, and a camera mount that loosens drops equipment into the sea.
Flat water offers no reference. Open water with no features gives the eye nothing to judge speed against, so a shoreline or a boat in frame does real work.
Reflections defeat metering. Sun on water swings exposure enormously, and a Polarizing filter (CPL) plus a locked exposure is what keeps a pass consistent from start to finish.
How RawClip handles it
Long travelling passes over water score well on motion and are straightforward to place against music. The silence means the music carries the pace entirely, which is handled during assembly rather than needing anything done at capture. Nothing is lost by recording the silence.