If you were a GoPro fan back in 2014, you might have geeked out over their Professional Filmakers Guide book published in November that year. If you were like us and read it cover to cover 10 times, you might remeber the author talking about their narwhal mounts in chapter about mounting tips. It was this point that GoPro subtley dropped this nugget of information but never fully brought it out into the public. Since the, manufactures in China and sellers on Amazon alike have tried to create products as they described, but none have taken the exact form-factor.
Content creators around the globe have tried all sorts of ways to extend their camera off a mounts for years and some come out with decent footage. But if you look at GoPro’s Youtube channel, they’ve mastered the technique and include multiple shots in their videos that make us say “how did they capture that?!”
Fast foward a couple years and they still use the same tools from that book. According to James Trew in an Engadget Article in mid-2019, they use sticks around 10 inches specifically for 360 cameras. They say that distance is the sweet spot to allow a quality stitch line that masks out the sticks so it’s not even visible in the final video (just like the photo above).
Lately, GoPro’s media team has started to take advantage of the over capture effect and play with dynamic dutch angles. From what we’ve seen, this adds a lot of energy to their footage as it brings movement out of a mounted shot. Look closely above the roof of the truck below and you’ll see they mounted a 360 camera and captured a great angle that shows the horizon, moto, and the hood of the truck.
A traditional handlebar mount used to mean the camera actually sat on the handlebars. But with extensions, the rendered video can place a viewer in the front seat of the action. Take a look at the way GoPro mounted a 360 camera on the handlebars of Peter Sagan in their documenter video that achieved 845K+ views.
The beaty about extensions is that they’re maliable to any sport or disipline within a sport. Attaching an extension atop the helmet of some of the best in the world makes for a mind-blowing experience when they throw a backflip. Screen grabs below don’t do this moment justice so be sure to check out their video here.
Downhill longboarding is one of the most gnarly sports in our books as it combines style, fear, and precision in un-matched terms of other sports. It was no question that GoPro nailed it in their 2019 launch with MAX, They managed to mount an extension off the chin of a full face helmet and record (literally) a brand new perspective of the sport. Most angles cut off the board, let alone show the entire boarder in the frame.
Check out the screenshots below and put yourself in this guys blue Vans. Having full coverage of the rider and the simultaneously front POV is one of the coolest perspectives of the year in our books.
If going rediculously fast down hill with four little wheels is still too much, wingsuiting is no exception to extensions. The same concep applies from downhill longboarding where it captures the entire subject and the flier’s POV. Gizmodo’s Brent Rose was able to experience the extension life in his article about MAX and it’s ability to capture human flight.
