» Posts Tagged ‘rig’
While hand-held shooting has basically been around since there was a camera light enough to do so, it’s safe to say that the Steadicam (which is technically a Tiffen name) constitutes a cinematographical revolution all its own. Hand-holding dates back as early as 1911, but it was a long time before cinema gained the dolly’s fluidity of motion coupled with the hand-held operator’s freedom of travel. Audiences would first meet the ‘Steadicam shot’ in 1976′s Bound for Glory, and the first impressions were enough to earn the film an Academy Award for Cinematography. Larry Wright of Refocused Media recently created a supercut called The Art of Steadicam, paying homage to the ground-breaking invention and the artists who helped reshape the possibilities of cinematic movement — check it out below. More »
Danny Dodge is a cameraman and cinematographer who has devised what may be the most light-weight and portable curved dolly track system you’ve ever seen. Searching for a way to build the ultimate portable dolly setup, Dodge stumbled upon the fact that a draw string could be used to arch PVC track to any degree he wished. The SnapTrack Cinerails rig was the result. Combining a simple draw string device with seven Cinerails gives you up to eight feet of curvable dolly track that seems primed for low-impact DSLR shooting, weighs under ten pounds, and breaks down/sets up in about a minute. Check out the SnapTrack Cinerails below, and some pre-ordering info if you’re interested. More »
Learn How to Build a DSLR Shoulder Rig for Only $100 with Parts from eBay
Since the explosion of DSLRs, shoulder rigs have become almost a necessity for smooth handheld work. Some you can buy on the cheap, others you can build yourself for even cheaper, and one can even double as a portable jib solution. Name brand rigs will save you the trouble of a DIY assembly job, and should hold up well enough to use on just about any shoot, but they’ll cost you quite a bit more. Now we’ve got another how-to video, this time geared toward shooters who’d like to build their own somewhat heavy-duty shoulder rig for as little as $100. Check out the video and the full eBay items list below. More »
Another DIY Bullet-Time GoPro Rig (This One's Handheld!)
We recently featured several practical but effective techniques for creating the (by now) famous Matrix-esque ‘bullet-time’ effect — accomplished, in more than one case, by using an evenly spaced array of GoPros and some post-processing elbow grease. Clearly, the availability and portability of such cameras is catching on beyond conventional ‘action cam’ uses, and inspiring creatives of nearly any budget to create shots only A-budget Hollywood productions used to be able to pull off. GoPros make sense for such arrays, because they are forgivingly frameable (and decently affordable as far as rentals go). Now, another project has demonstrated what’s possible with these simple but adaptable cameras — in this case, built into a rig that can also be handheld. More »
DIY Builds: Portable Jib That Doubles as Shoulder Rig, Panoramic Head, Dirt Cheap Steadicam
There’s a variety of rigs out there for pretty much all your mounting needs — Cinevate and of course Kessler are go-to solutions for jibs running the gamut from heavy-duty to collapsible, respectively. The same goes for shoulder rigs, with options ranging from professional solutions to lightweight prefabs all the way down to homebrew kits. Of course, something that can pull double duty as a portable jib and custom shoulder rig — which you can put together yourself for $50, to boot — may be the best of, like, three worlds. Read on to check out some details — plus info on how to build your own 360 degree panoramic head mount, plus some hardcore DIY stabilizers — all geared toward the low-to-no budget but crafty shooter. More »
As a longtime owner of a Redrock shouldermount rig, a recent announcement from the accessory manufacturer almost makes me wish I had instead waited the eight-some-odd years to spring for the package today. Actually, it’s still pretty good news to me, and any other current rig owners, for that matter — because what’s announced isn’t a new Redrock rig unto itself, but instead upgrades for key components for any shouldermount setup. Bump the jump for the details. More »
If you want to do steady handheld work with most small cameras — like DSLRs — a shoulder rig is almost a must. They vary in price rather drastically, and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There are plenty of budget rigs around, some from better known companies than others, but not many of them can break $100 as a starting price point — but that’s exactly what the Filmcity FC-10 Shoulder Rig does. Click through to check out a video showing off the rig. More »
New from Redrock: Blackmagic/C100 ultraCages, lowBase, and an Exclusive NoFilmSchool Discount
Let’s face it, unless a camera is designed to go on your shoulder, it’s either going to need some sort of rig, or you’re going to have to get creative to achieve maximum stability. Not only that, but many of these smaller cameras don’t have any good way for you to grab them quickly. That’s where Redrock Micro’s ultraCage product line comes in. They’ve introduced two new cages that are specifically designed to fit snugly around the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and the recently announced Canon C100. They’ve also come up with the lowBase, a great solution to add rails to tall cameras without increasing the height of your rig. If all of this weren’t news enough, Redrock is also offering a 10% discount — exclusively to NoFilmSchool readers. More »
Zacuto has been getting quite a bit of coverage lately thanks to their controversial (or not, depends on who you ask) Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012. That particular shootout saw relatively inexpensive cameras go up against the best in the business in both a creative and empirical test. Besides being a rental house, Zacuto also makes a ton of rigs and support gear for cameras, and they’ve come up with some interesting designs for the much-anticipated Blackmagic Cinema Camera (which is hopefully less than two weeks away). Check out the video below featuring Steve Weiss and Jens Bogehegn. More »
There are plenty of interesting designs for follow focuses out there, and some just take the basic design and make it cheap and sturdy. Edelkrone is known for coming up with fascinating solutions to problems that exist with filmmaking gear, and the FocusONE PRO is no exception. If you’re using DSLRs and doing all of the shooting yourself, this looks like it could be a really innovative way to get marks quickly that can be repeated relatively easily. More »
One of the big questions with the forthcoming Blackmagic Cinema Camera is what people will use to power the camera after the internal battery is depleted. While the Cinema Camera has a fixed internal battery similar to the just-released Macbook Pro, it has a 12V-30V DC port which will allow you plug in any compatible power source to not only power the camera, but also charge the internal battery. If you’re looking for an inexpensive device to accomplish this, there is an interesting product called the Catclaw, which has a 15mm rod clamp, 5V, 7V, and 12V outputs, and takes Sony or V-Lock batteries. More »
We’ve already shown off one of the cheaper wireless follow focus systems from JAG35. Now Redrock Micro has partially redesigned their microRemote Wireless Follow Focus system by developing their own motor and creating a new controller (in addition to the iPhone controller). They’ve also got a rig system called the ultraCage that is designed to be form-fitting to cameras like the Canon C300 or the Canon 5D Mark II and 5D Mark III. I had a chance to talk with Brian Valente and Loren Simons at the Redrock NAB booth, and you can see that video embedded below. More »
I saw some nifty rigs from edelkrone at last year’s NAB, and while I haven’t done any real-world shooting with their products, their latest rig caught my eye: the aptly-named Pocket Rig claims to be the “World’s Most Compact and Light DSLR Rig.” Here’s the release video: More »
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