Low-angle shot
Also known as: low angle, ground level shot
A shot taken from below the subject and angled up, which exaggerates height and speed and is the cheapest way to make action look big.
Updated
What it means
A low angle looks up at the action. The subject towers over the camera, the sky fills the background, and anything passing overhead reads as considerably larger than it was.
It is the correction for the main weakness of mounted footage. Wide lenses make everything look small, and putting the camera on the ground is the simplest way to get the scale back.
It is the counterpart of a High-angle shot, and the two serve opposite purposes. One shows the line through a feature; this one shows how big the feature actually is.
How it works in practice
The camera goes on the ground rather than near it. Resting a body on dirt, snow or concrete and leaving it running produces the angle, and a Adhesive mount or a small tripod makes it repeatable.
Close and wide is the combination. A rider passing a metre from a wide lens fills the frame and leaves the sky behind them, which is the shot people remember from park footage.
It wants something passing overhead. The effect depends on the subject crossing above the camera, so placing it on a landing or in a transition is what makes the angle do anything.
What to watch out for
The camera is in the way. A body on the ground at a landing is a hazard and a casualty, and the shot is worth the risk only where a rider knows it is there.
Exposure fights the sky. A frame half filled with bright sky underexposes the subject, so Spot metering on the rider or a deliberate compensation is what keeps them visible.
Dirt and water reach the lens immediately. At ground level every pass throws something at the glass, and a Lens protector plus a wipe between runs is the difference between usable clips and a smeared card.
How RawClip handles it
Low angles tend to score well during selection, because the action fills the frame and the motion is unambiguous. Filming at least one pass from ground level is the simplest way to give a sequence a shot with real scale in it.