POV footage
Also known as: point-of-view footage, first-person video, POV video
Video filmed from the body of the person doing the action, usually with a head, chest or mouth-mounted action camera, so viewers see what they saw.
Updated
What it means
POV stands for point of view. In POV footage the camera rides along with the person doing the activity and records roughly what they see: the trail rushing under the front wheel, the lip of a kicker, a wave folding over the nose of the board. It is the signature look of action cameras, and the reason a tiny wide-angle camera became the default tool for mountain bikers, skiers and surfers.
The effect depends heavily on where the camera sits. A helmet mount follows your head, a chest mount shows your arms and handlebars, and a mouth mount gets as close to eye level as possible. Each position changes how fast, how steep and how immersive the same run looks on screen.
How it works in practice
Most POV is shot wide. GoPro's Wide and SuperView lenses, and similar modes on DJI and Insta360 cameras, exaggerate speed and keep the horizon in frame when you lean. Turn on in-camera stabilization such as HyperSmooth and shoot 4K at 60 fps, or higher if you want slow motion of a jump or drop.
Because the camera usually runs for an entire ride, POV produces long, continuous recordings. A two-hour session at a bike park easily fills a card with chaptered files, most of it climbs, lift lines and chatting at the top. Riders who also want a third-person view pair the POV camera with a follow cam or a friend filming from the side of the trail.
What to watch out for
POV flattens terrain. A steep chute or a big gap can look tame because the wide lens and the camera height smooth out the drop. Tilting the camera slightly down so the ground fills more of the frame, and adding shots from another angle, gives viewers a sense of scale.
The other trap is sheer volume. Nobody wants to watch forty minutes of first-person riding, and scrubbing through it for the five good seconds is exactly what makes most people give up on editing. Keep the camera rolling so nothing is missed, but plan to cut hard, and never expect the camera angle alone to carry a highlight.
How RawClip handles it
RawClip is built for exactly this kind of footage. Upload the full POV session, every chapter plus any clips from a second camera, and the AI picks out the jumps, fast sections and peak action, drops the dead time between them and cuts the result to the length you choose.