PSA: Your GoPro Deserves Better
A lesson in camera work from the ‘King of POV’
Produced in partnership with GoPro.
Joel Scott’s worn more hats than a milliner — each one fitting like a crown. A 20-year cameraman veteran for a mainstream news network, mixing fizzy drinks on the side, villa owner in the sparkling metropolis of Canggu, and proud advocate for nasal breathing. Through and through, the guy’s a hustler, if ever there was one.
He’s cut from the same grit-and-grind cloth as Gold Coast moguls Paul Fisher and Tai Buddha — proof that it’s not where you’re from, but how hard, and how loud, you’re willing to twist for it.
Even with a roster of successful ventures, JS isn’t one to flash his trophies. “You know those people on Instagram who look like a 10 but show up in real life as a 4? That’s me,” he laughs. “I’m no great surfer, but I know how to make surfing look great.”
Dubbed the ‘King of POV’ and the unsung godfather of the GoPro concept, JS is the guy you want for camera advice. Long before the masses started paddling into lineups with tiny selfie cams strapped to their boards, JS was getting paid to do it for the news.
“When I was working for Channel Nine, I used to gaffer tape a 20-kilo water housing around a mini DV camera, and slap it on the front of my 9-foot log,” JS recalls. “I had to shoot the surf report every morning, and I wanted that angle of looking back at the surfer. So, I’d be out there at 6 a.m., either at Kirra or Snapper, shooting Dingo, Mick, and Joel. It was a good time. Then the rest of my shift was bikies, murders, and car crashes.”
If the real measure of skill is how many people come knocking for advice, then JS must have camera talent by the boatload.
“Oh my god, I get hit up so much,” he laughs. “‘What camera are you using? What settings?’ These days, I’m so strapped for time, I figured I’d just funnel all those questions into a video for everyone.” The latest flood of inquiries came after Joel got a little experimental in the land of dust, floating sand, and a newly crowned local prince named Mitch Crews.
“I’ve always wanted to do this shot with one of those 360 cameras on a big pole, with me sitting on a jet ski,” Joel recalls, his voice lighting up with passion as he revisits the memory. “So, I finally got to do it in the pool — couldn’t do it in the ocean, too unpredictable. I had this 10-foot pole with a GoPro 360 camera on it, and Mitch was driving the ski while Fisher was surfing, and I’m holding this massive pole. When I uploaded it to Instagram, I got bombarded. People were like, ‘How the hell did you do that?’”
Just like that, Joel’s flooded inbox spat out the video we’re here to talk about. If you want real, no-BS advice to level up your GoPro footage, Joel Scott’s got a straight-to-the-point video that’ll teach you how to make your average surfing look better. Lucky you.
Watch the video above and let your curiosity rest. No more questions, please. The man has seventeen businesses to run.
To shoot GoPro like the King of POV click here.
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