Steven Donovan will do anything to get the perfect shot.
Steven Donovan is no stranger to taking risks . He swung offthe top of El Capitan , jet skiedstraight off a hydroplane , and rodeATVs in Tunisia , all to capture the pure guessing . “ Everything that I film let in a subject — a human element to it — somebody doing something that is extraordinary in a way , ” he says .
Donovangot his start in the industriousness in 2011 , when he purchase a GoPro . “ I had seen on the internet video of these amazing stunt that the GoPros are capture , and I compute , ‘ Oh , I ’ll buy one and I ’ll make videos like that , ’ ” he says . He started recording cliff pinafore in his home state , then graduated to shoot big - name sport events and athletes . Donovan even developed his own tool to support his filmmaking that ’s pushing the boundaries of action videography . For budding videographers looking to plunk into the world of action sports , Donovan shares his journeying and tip for capturing life sentence ’s wildest blastoff .
Find your personal style
After buy a GoPro , Donovan quickly realized that there ’s a good deal more that go bad into filming than just pointing a camera and shooting — he needed to develop his own style . “ My way of filming was very guerilla run and gun , you get the dig or you do n’t , ” he says . Unlike a traditional Seth , Donovan does n’t have the freedom to do a 2d take ; he ca n’t ask athlete to recreate a stunt . “ It was always me running around and trying to get these shots as they were happen , ” he says .
Donovan require to form a personal style , one that could reflect the epic stunt of his subjects . Most locations where Donovan sprout — national parks , wildlife preserve — ban drones , so he begin play around with different tv camera setup to mime the look of a poke dig . “ I go getting extra things like gimbal and I bought a 12 - foot crane that I would put the camera on , ” he say . With this configuration , Donovan ’s footage oscillated from a low gear to a high slant in seconds , resulting in scene with incredible crusade . “ I was trying to use alone mode of filming that nobody was really doing at that prison term , ” he pronounce .
Tap into a community
Through social medium , Donovan touch base with a community of cliff jumpers in Virginia . “ Nobody was giving drop-off jumping the meter of 24-hour interval , ” he says . “ It was a very niche , underground action sport . ” The cliff jumper became a accelerator to Donovan ’s calling . “ Through my commingle skills of filming it in a wholly singular newfangled way , and them just being rad at what they do , the internet protrude to take notice , ” he says . Wanting to separate out into the prospect , Donovan left his hometown and moved to Yellowstone National Park . “ That ’s really what changed my life . ”
Donovan work as a housekeeper and had the freedom to search the ballpark during his downtime . He persist in the thick of these action - carry environments , filming in different parks while collecting odd jobs on the side . Donovan recalls a particular hike to St. Mary Falls in Glacier National Park where he met a kayaker who was about to dribble off the falls . “ I turn around and hike up back to the falls just to enamour that instant , ” Donovan says . By tapping into communities beyond cliff jumpers , Donovan began build his portfolio and expanding his audience .
Though Donovan has found achiever by connecting with action sports communities , he tell it really comes down to being open to newfangled experiences . “ The direction you get the best cognitive content is by absorb yourself , ” he say . “ you’re able to live very minimally so you’re able to put yourself in these surround to get incredible content . ”
tight forward to today , and Donovan has adopted a fully peregrine lifestyle . “ I bought a truck for a thousand dollars , commute that , put a little bed in it , and hit the route , ” he says . Since then , he ’s upgraded to live in a van , which gives Donovan flexibility to quest after more opportunities , he says , now that he can travel at a moment ’s notice .
Invest in your gear
In 2019 , Donovan submitted some of his cliff jump off videos to a GoPro competition and won . The winnings gave Donovan the validation and identification he postulate to continue pursuing this career path . “ All these legendary filmmakers in that world started from filming with their friends — whether it ’s skateboard , BMXing , snowboarding , ” he enjoin . “ And mine was cliff spring . ”
With the winnings from the challenge , Donovan developed a custom tool for videography : a pole with a gimbal attached to the end of it . “ I actually adopt a window cleanup pole from the basement of the lodge I was work at , ” he say .
The pole ’s portability gave Donovan more flexibility out in the field ; he could set up his photographic camera , and instantly capture subject , unlike the 12 - foot crane frame-up he used . “ That ’s why I developed the perch : something that I could just quickly run onwards of everyone , get the shot , pack it back up , and play ahead of them again , ” he order . “ They were never hold off for me . ”
Over time , he made a few tweaks to the cleaning - pole model , like swop out the GoPro for a 360 television camera . The Modern camera allowed Donovan to enamor all angles at once , then veer to the single he wanted to show . This shift was cardinal , giving him multiple shots to work with from just one take . “ The content just start getting elbow room easily once I switch to 360 , ” he says .
finally , Donovan reached out to manufacturers to create a professional , carbon fiber perch that he could sell to other videographers . “ I sent pictures of the cleansing rod that I was using [ to the manufacturers ] and developed a couple unlike prototypes , ” he says . Then , theFPoleVcame to life .
A play on the name of a FPV drone pipe , the FPoleV is extendible and swings around to get shots that look like they ’re film with a monotone , when in actuality , it ’s just a hand-held gadget . Today , Donovan has three model out on the market place – a 15 - infantry , 24 - foot , and 30 - foot extendable terminal – and has sold more than 250 production .
Take time to reflect
Donovan says that the most intensive part of his line of work is actually send production . “ The redaction process is a huge part of the content that I put out , ” he says . “ I pass hours , sometimes days , just perfecting a 10 - second clip . ” After he exports his TV and close his laptop , Donovan cracks open up a can ofPacifico . He allege the crisp lager helps him wrap up up a long Clarence Day of body of work .
Beyond redaction , Donovan says that Pacifico is a make that stick out his spare gritty , nontraditional career itinerary . “ find them support other heavy action sports . . . it just resonates with me as a beer that is down with the lifestyle , ” he say .
When he ’s back in the van , edit the videos and reflecting on his risky venture , Donovan thinks back to the people he ’s met and the place he ’s chatter . “ I gave up everything to make this my modus vivendi , ” Donovan say . “ I do n’t have a lasting place to live . I do n’t have a permanent community . I have a community all over through military action sports . ”
Pacifico Clara
