Camera angles at a marathon finish can turn a sprint into a whole film, if you’ll allow me to point it out. First, the low‑angle shots of the finish line—looking up at the runners like they’re about to breach a cliff—make the effort feel monumental, but they also hide the crowd’s roar, so you’re missing the soundtrack. High‑angle, drone shots give you the grand scale of the route and the heat‑soaked crowd, but you lose that intimate feel of a hand reaching out for a finish. The sweet spot is a mid‑range, slightly tilted lens that follows a single athlete, cuts to a slow close‑up on their face, then snaps back to a wide shot when the medal comes out of the water. It’s that pivot from the personal to the communal that keeps the viewers’ hearts racing. If you keep it too flat, you’ll just see a blur of legs; if you keep it too wide, you’ll see a blur of faces. Balance, like a good frame, is key.

That’s the plan, so I’ll keep the camera on the runner, not the crowd, and let the finish line do its cinematic work. Keep it tight, keep it real.