Skydiving
Also known as: parachuting, freefall jumping
Jumping from an aircraft with a parachute, where the usable filming window is under a minute and everything has to be mounted beforehand.
Updated
What it means
A jump has a fixed structure and a fixed clock. Exit, freefall for under a minute, deployment, then a canopy descent, and the footage is divided between those phases whether anybody planned it or not.
Nothing can be adjusted once the door opens. Every camera is mounted, set and started before exit, which makes a skydive one of the few disciplines where the filming is entirely decided in advance.
A dedicated Camera flyer is the specialist version. Somebody whose job on the jump is filming rather than participating, flying relative to the subject, which is a skill of its own.
How it works in practice
Helmet mounting is the norm and it is regulated. A Goggle mount or a helmet plate keeps a camera out of the way of the rig, and most operations have rules about what may be worn.
The exit is the shot that reads. Everything in freefall looks similar after a few seconds, where the moment of leaving the aircraft gives a viewer the only real sense of height and transition.
Canopy time is the quiet material. The descent under an open parachute is slow, stable and scenic, which is the section that makes an edit breathe after the Freefall has spent itself.
What to watch out for
Wind noise destroys all of the audio. Two hundred kilometres an hour across a microphone produces nothing usable, so the entire soundtrack is built rather than recorded.
A snag is a safety matter rather than an equipment one. Anything protruding from a helmet can catch a line, which is why mounts are chosen for shape as much as for angle.
There is exactly one attempt. A camera that was not started, a battery that was flat or a lens that fogged for want of an Anti-fog insert has lost a jump that nobody is going to do again for free.
How RawClip handles it
A jump produces a short, dense file with a clear structure, which reduces cleanly: the exit and the deployment read as peaks and the canopy descent supplies the quieter material. The audio is replaced entirely, since what the microphone recorded is wind.