Filming a skate video with an iPhone 6s in Kuala Lumpur with the Thieves crew
While the majority of edits rely on the P2, I was extremely surprised to learn that the latest video by the Thieves crew was filmed using an iPhone 6s. A piece of equipment that would have undoubtedly given Ty Evans a stroke. Despite features that might seem outdated today, Apple’s phone revolutionized skate filming at the time of its release with camera-like functionalities, notably the ability to capture slow-motion footage in 1080p at 120 frames per second. The Kuala Lumpur crew pushed this setup to its limits to produce a solid montage. Curious as we are, we had a phone chat with the guys to learn more.
Can you introduce yourselves please?
-Hello I am Azhad Izzat Mazkamal . People call me Didat.
-My name is Aqil, I am 14.
It’s you who take the hard slam on the rail at the beginning of the video ?
-Aqil : Yeah, that’s me, I’m good right now.
-Nizar Hashim, the spokesperson : Actually, this is his first experience in the team because we just flow him previously. His part is more like a welcome to the team video for Aqil.
-Hello, my name is Ian Bin Nuriman Amri. But you guys can call me Ian. I’m 18 years old this year. Currently, I’m riding for Vans Malaysia and Thieves Skateboard. I’ve been skating for 13 years.
-I’m Nizar Hashim. People call me Ja. I run the brand Thieves Skateboards. I’ve been skating since I am 12 years old. And now I’m 36. My current sponsor is Converse Malaysia, Staycool Socks, Peak KL and Oakley Malaysia.
Can you tell me what it’s like to skate in Kuala Lumpur?
-Ian : It’s quite OK. But it’s not too easy out here because there are so many security guards. They always kick us out from the skate spot and the ground is very rough. It’s a pretty dodgy skate spot. Most of the skate spots in KL (Kuala Lumpur) are very hard for us.
-Nizar : For me, actually, the scene over here is quite growing after the Olympic effects in 2020 in Tokyo. Because when you’re living in Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia, it’s hard to get approval from the community over here. Especially for non-skaters because they still look at skateboarding as a negative vibe towards vandalism.
Besides, skateboarding is not that big, like football or other sports. It doesn’t make enough money from the government point of view.
They’re more towards contests. So, when I run Thieves Skateboards, we take the responsibility to encourage street skateboarding with our videos because that’s the core of skateboarding.
How people react to your fifth video “ATHVSTUDE” Nizar ?
Nizar – We got a lot of love from our local scene. I feel it’s slowly getting the positive impact towards the local scene. More and more skateboarders are going in the streets. There are more local skateboard brands over here doing their video.
What is the difference with skateboarding in Southeast Asia and Europe?
The difference between Southeast Asia skateboarding and other continents in the world is the weather. It is crazy hot. In the video, we have our friend from Barcelona. He always skates at a lot of famous spots in Barcelona. When he came here, I did approach him through Instagram DM to invite him to come join us. He came in Kuala Lumpur, he was like, “oh man, I can’t skate because it’s damn hot over here.”
What is your tip to skate with this heat?
Nizar – You have to prepare a lot of mineral water. -Nizar showing me a bottle of water ‘Ice Mountain’- As you can see, this is the tool in Malaysia. It’s easy to get dehydrated & heat stroke.
Maybe you should ask them to sponsor the crew. They could support the next video.
Nizar – As I spoke just now, it’s hard for us because our local industry, especially outside skateboarding, have to look at skateboarding as a positive sport. That’s the challenge for us right now.
Are there other local brands besides Thieves?
Nizar – Actually, there are plenty of local skateboard brands but we are the only local skate brand that’s active towards going to skate and filming. Also we did a tour across Malaysia and tried to support skateboarders outside from central Kuala Lumpur compared to others who just sell skateboard stuff and yet did nothing to the community.
How did the idea to create Thieves came in your minds?
Nizar – I’ve been around the local industry for 24 years. And I did my homework in terms of knowledge and connections. A lot of skateboarders , especially the OG skaters, are more focus on athlete development such as Olympics, Asia Games. But none of them in Malaysia, want to take the responsibility to bring the light on core skateboarding things. So, I took the challenge and applied it to my riders.
Why not we make a video, try to cooperate with all the skateboarders over here and pull a full-length video. I always tell them this is how it is in skateboarding. If you want to make a career and get more exposure, I think this is the best way. From there, we filmed 5 videos which are THVS Part One, THVS Part Two, COMME des THIEVES, BAD THVS* and the latest is ATHVSTUDE.
Why did you choose the name of Thieves? Are you like a guild of thieves in Skyrim?
Nizar – Back in 2012, that’s the time that our local skate industry had quite a peak time. A lot of local skaters were making skateboard decks and launching their own independent skate – brands. At that time, we have the access direct from China to make custom skateboard decks. Besides the shipping was quite convenient. That time was around 2012 , I was riding for this quite well-known local company called Sibling Skateboard and at the same time I was working at Krookz Skate Shop, which is the skate shop that brought a lot of multi – brands in Malaysia from the US.
At first, I didn’t like the brand I was riding for, so I confessed it to my boss, the one who own Krookz Skate Shop, I wanted to quit and why not try to create a skate – brand. Being a skateboarder, you want to represent a cool brand.
So as I told to my team at Krookz at that time, let’s do a skateboard company. Everyone started to gather their idea on the table and then my boss said “why not we call it Thieves Skateboards?” I asked him why and he responded to me it’s because you currently ride for Sibling Skateboard and we’re going to STEAL you and put you in the new brand. Long story short to make a proper name we named the brand “ THIEVES SKATEBOARDS “.
The video was filmed with an iPhone 6S. Honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed if you didn’t mention it in the video description. why did you use an iPhone 6S?
Nizar – It’s hard for me to explain because the filmer is not here but I will try to explain from what I know. We filmed our two first projects THVS Part One, THVS Part Two with one of our local filmmakers, Azwyn Amir. He uses a high-quality camera which is a Sony A7R iii .
At that time, I bumped into Mohamad Ghof . He always comes to the local skateboarding events. He shoots all the events and skateboarding contests with his iPhone. If you are an outsider and you see his work on Instagram, it’s clear that you won’t know that it comes from an iPhone. You will think he is using a camera.
I know that a lot of local skateboarding video in the industry uses a P2 but I wanted to make things differently so we can have our own signature in THVS .
How did he do it though for zooming in/zooming out ? Did he have a special accessory to be that precise or did he only use his fingers ?
He used his fingers; He’s super skilled with it. He also uses a red stick, or a Hot Shot handle. It works as a phone holder/gimbal with some minor modifications for the placement of the hot shoe mount and gimbal counterweights.
Currently he is using Deathlens for the fisheye, Blitzwolf Telephoto lens, Ulanzi hot shoe mount and Rode micro mic TRS to TRRS cable.
I did try using his equipment to film a few skaters in the street, I don’t get the same result at all.
Can you detail the whole filming process with an iPhone 6S?
Mohamad Ghof got 2 iPhone 6s. An iPhone 6S is quite cheap. It’s like 500 ringgits (104 euros). We use one for filming and another one for the backup. Currently he is using an iPhone 6s plus for filming because the screen is bigger than a 6s. Actually, my plan for him is like to stock up as much iPhone 6s as I can.
Usually, as I know, after the filming, he transfers all the clips into a hard disk. From there, he filters to know which clip he will use for the main video. He always brings 2 or 3 power banks just in case the filming process is dragging for long hours. The only difficulty the tropical heat temperature especially in Malaysia. The phone can’t endure so filming while under scorching sun is challenging for him.
There was a friend telling me that the iPhone 6s revolutionized the filming on phones. Because for the first time you could do some great slow motion. And the grain of the image was unique.
Yeah, that’s the reason why Mohamad Ghof choose iPhone 6s as his main equipment while filming. Actually, I had a conversation with him. I asked him why he doesn’t want to upgrade his iPhone like maybe an iPhone 7 or iPhone 8. But he wants to stick with the 6s. It’s reliably still great for filming if we know how to use it, as he said.
What about filming with an iPad?
Not really. Maybe a laptop. Mark Gonzales used his laptop for filming the streets. That would be funny but for now we will stick to the iPhone 6s.
