Casey Neistat is more than your everyday YouTube personality—in fact, he has become one of the leading voices among the next generation of creatives and storytellers. So, when the fella says he's got camera hacks, everyone that has a camera to hack seems to stop and pay attention. In this video, fellow filmmaker Peter McKinnon stops by Neistat's famous studio in New York City and, while he's there, manages to get a few pretty weird, super useful camera hacks. The bit comes in at about the 5:07 mark, so check it out below:

Who knew that packing tape and what is basically a shoelace could be so useful for filmmakers. If you weren't able to watch the video, here are Neistat's hacks.

  • Swivel Screen Packing Tape Tab: Okay, this hack only works on cameras that have a swivel screen. Take some heavy duty packing tape and cut a 1/2"x3" strip. Attach the sticky side to the back of your camera's swivel screen and then fold the remainder of the strip in half to make a tab. Boom! Now you don't have to fumble around and look like an idiot when you're trying to flip your screen out.
  • Important Cable Shoelace Anchor: Cables are good at two things and two things only: 1.) making electronic connections, and 2.) disappearing the shit out of themselves. So, if you want to keep important cables close to the thing they connect to, you can tie a shoelace or something similar around your cable, and then thread the shoelace through one of those plastic cord clips that you have attached near your XHD, computer, or whatever.

Like I said, pretty weird but super useful. What are some other random camera hacks that you use? Let us know down below.

Source: Peter McKinnon

camera hackshackstrickscasey neistat
Cinematography & Cameras