Gas Station Dance Tutorial: How to Film It Shot by Shot

The gas station dance is not a choreography you have to learn. It is a 15-second, three-shot format copied from a 2024 road-trip clip filmed by Russian blogger Mikhail Litvin with his friends Ravshan and Adel Veigel at a gas station stop. Get the three shots right and the video reads as the trend. Here is how to film it.

What you need

• Three people (or one person filmed three times): a dancer, someone for the selfie and someone to step out of the car.
• A car and an open lot or quiet forecourt next to it.
• Low, warm light: sunset or just after. The trend's look is golden hour or a dusky sky with lights coming on.
• A phone filming vertically at 9:16. Clean the lens.

Shot 1: the dance by the cars

The dancer stands in the open next to the parked cars and freestyles: loose sways, shoulders and arms, building up to raising both arms high. Keep it relaxed rather than precise; the charm of the original is that it looks spontaneous. Film full body, from a little below chest height, and let the camera drift or circle slowly rather than staying locked off.

Shot 2: the front-camera selfie

Switch to the front camera. The second person holds the phone at arm's length, face close to the frame, with the station or the sky behind them. A grin, a nod to the beat or a quick hand gesture is enough. Hold the phone slightly tilted; it should feel handheld.

Shot 3: the step out of the car

The third person opens the car door and steps out in one take, then dances in place by the open door, hands clasped together, while the camera pushes in slowly and then pulls back. Film from a few steps away so the whole car door is in frame when they first appear.

Cut it to 15 seconds

1. Trim each shot to roughly a third of the clip. The dance usually runs a little longer than the other two.
2. Put them in order: dance, selfie, car exit.
3. Add the song and move each cut onto a beat. See which song the trend uses and how to add it.
4. Export at 1080 × 1920 and skip filters that crush the sunset colours.

Filming at a gas station: stay safe and polite

• Park away from the pumps and never block a pump or the exit.
• Keep clear of moving cars; film in a quiet corner of the lot.
• Ask staff before filming on private property, and do not film other customers without asking.
• Never dance on the road or the forecourt lanes.

Learn the format by watching it

The fastest tutorial is the original and its remixes. Watch them back to back in our gas station dance video collection and read how the trend started and how it is built.