What's the coolest or cleverest home-made thing yo

[Matt Pacini]

I thought I'd start this thread, so we can share ideas on cheap ways to do things that the pro's pay big bucks for.

I have quite a few. Here's some of the more useful ones:

1. I had a friend (machinist) build me a jib arm, which I have mounted to the handle bars of a wheelchair I got at a thrift store ($15.00) for a rolling, dolly/crane setup.
It's really smooth, and give me great moving shots.

2. I built my own fluorescent light box, that holds 12, four foot 5K daylight tubes. (LOTS of light!) and mounts to a 5/8 pin, or can hang from cables.

3. My "steadicam" like thing, I posted on another thread, that uses a monopod, a barbell weight on the bottom held by a small wood clamp, and I mounted a fluid tripod head on it, so I can pan & tilt, as well.

4. I'm not done with this one yet, so it may not work (I'll keep you posted).
I call it the Poor Mans HMI light!
I got some 175W Multivapor Lamps on ebay. You know, those lights that light up parking lots, nice & blue, and brighter than hell! (Supposedly, something like 7 times as bright as an equivelant tungsten light) and I'm putting it into an old Kodak lab light housing & reflector, with a separate ballast.
If it works, this is going to be great for my night shoots, because I can just string these babies up in the trees, pointing down!

5. Foamcore boards, with silver mylar on one side. These reflect almost as good as a mirror, or I can flip them over to the white side for soft bounce. Much cheaper than those discs (which I have 3 of also).
I got some reversable mylar, gold on one side, silver on the other, so some foamcore I have gold on, if I want to really warm someone up.

Matt Pacini

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[mattias]

i also built a "light box", but it uses 16 regular bulbs and a white piece of plexi glass for diffusion, as well as an "egg crate" to control the light. right now i've finished building "rods" (or whatever they are called) for my camera, to hold a matte box i'm also working on (based on the cokin filter system), as well as the anamorphic adapter i will buy, if i ever find a reasonably priced one that gives me 16:9.

/matt

[Nigel]

I saw the Maysles brothers had this really cool arm off the bottom of their camera that held an incident meter and filter holder as well as a rearview mirror. It was less obtrusive than a matte box and was much more useful.

I made one for about ten bucks and the mirror was from a bike helmet. TThe thing is the shit for doc work. Good Luck

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[8th Man]

Nigel,
Can you please explain the rear view mirror concept? I'm not sure I understand the purpose.

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PRM

[Matt Pacini]

Another thing I've done, is get a camera platform, to mount my Nizo 6080 or Bauer 715XL-S to, that has a platform that you can move forward or backward, because those cameras are so freakin' front heavy.
This balances them perfectly.
(I think several companies make these, one is Manfrotto. You can get them at any regular photo store).

Also, I now keep my camera, filters & accessories, and film, all in a backpack for fast shooting.
If you're trucking through the bush (like I will be next month) or moving fast, you can have a PA wear the backpack, then when you need film, or a filter, you can just tell him to turn around, & you can access everything.

Matt Pacini


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[Nigel]

8th-Man,

The rear-view mirror is so that in documentary situations you can see what is happening behind you. Think about being in a hotzone and only looking at what is going on in front of your camera. Many thing happen behind you that you need to be aware of. Good Luck

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[MovieStuff]

Nigel,

I think the idea of a rear view mirror is brilliant. Elegantly simple. I can think of many times that something happend behind me that I missed while doing doc work. Good move, dude.

Roger

[Nigel]

Don't thank me--It was the Maysles Brothers that I got it from. Good Luck

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[Matt Pacini]

Here's a couple others I've discovered from various sources.

This first one is great expecially for all you broke filmmakers:

1. Can't afford a $100-$300 Microphone boom pole? Go to the hardware store and get one of those collapsible paint roller poles. They work just as well. Just make sure to get a good shock mount for your microphone.

2. Same as above, but use for a boom for lights.

3. I did this after I saw a picture in American Cinematographer with some on set photos of the new Planet of the Apes:
Get a plastic globe that they put lights into (the bigger the better, like 15 inches).
Get a light socket, and the attachemnt to hang a light from. Get a piece of metal or wood, about 9 inches by 2 or 3 inches wide, drill a hole to mount the light socket into.
Stick that into the opening at the top, and you have yourself a hanging Chinese lantern!
Then, hang it from the painters boom I just described above, and you can either mount it on a stand, or have a PA carry around to follow your actors in moving shots, etc.
It makes a great fill lite.
I also got an enclosed dimmer, so I can dim the light at will.
This is an awesome setup, and I'm going to use it for fill on my night shoot in Oct.
I'll have the results on my soon to be up-and-running website.

Matt Pacini

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[MovieStuff]

When working on Jet Benny, we had to do some flying shots that would be seen in the front window of the Maxwell spaceship. I used some brass rollers from a sliding glass door and built a sort of "T" shaped bracket out of wood with a roller on each end, parallel to the top part of the T. On the bottom of the T, I used an L bracket to attach my Canon 1014 using the screw socket on top of the camera. The end result was a camera hanging from a trolley that could ride on some narrow rope smoothly.

We went to a sand pit where they had dug down so far they had hit water tables and it all had a really nice miniature mountain look to it complete with a small "lake" where the water table was. My assistant went up on to the outer rim of the pit, across the miniature lake, and attached the rope to a large metal stake. I tied the other end around my waist and leaned hard against the rope, making it super tight. My assistant then placed the T-rig on the sloped rope and let it go. By adjusting my placement I guided the camera as it "flew" inches above the water and down some miniature gulleys that came across as valleys and gorges on film. We had the camera pointing away from me and then reversed the film when inserting it into the cockpit windows. Looked pretty convincing, like we were flying through these gorges and valleys then out over the water.

The rig worked so well that I made a similar rig just for quick dollies. I would string the rope between trees and tighten it using a wench. Then I could walk the camera along (on wide angle of course) sighting it with a sport finder I attached to the side of the rig. That worked really well and I've done the same thing on some video shoots since then.

Roger