10'/20 Hypercrane Build

Well, I am on set of Troy Ruff's Project Psych Light with the HyperCrane. We were going to shoot with the crane tonight but the actress got sick and we had to move the shot to Sunday.

I have added a cool item to the head. I have a laser that is now on the head for pre-positioning and targeting, and have added a tiny microswitch back at the controls to actuate it. I also added a set of high quality video cables to convey the shot from the camera to a monitor where the director is.

I will have a grip take shots of the crane in action on Sunday and then post them with Troy Ruff's permission, of course. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
Jason Miller said:
tell him, you're going home and you're taking your toys with you, if he says no pics!!!
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Wow, Jason... we have a shot from the HyperCrane on 'Project Psych Light' where it drops from up in trees 20' up, down to street level and then does a wicked pan of over 35 feet with the head pulling an 80 degree left turn on the pan. I can't wait for you to see it. :)

Matt took a few stills of us building and working the HyperCrane that were good too. :Drogar-Love(DBG):
 
Right now there's a team of rebels... in the future... finishing a time machine to come back and prevent you from drafting up the death star plans that you were going to start a thread on next week.
 
MattinSTL said:
Right now there's a team of rebels... in the future... finishing a time machine to come back and prevent you from drafting up the death star plans that you were going to start a thread on next week.
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The HyperCrane goes up for Project Psych Light a Ruff production.
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I had a foot that was missing a bolt (stupid me, forgot it) so you see the sand bag on the one leg. Aw heck, it needed leveling anyway!

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Control cables go on while Troy Ruff and Shane Foster (with Hypercam vest on) look on. See the Hypercam sled in the foreground? I am in the background... Look how far away I am! Big crane.

"That cable goes on next."
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You can see the bilt in trussing and the sliding balance weight on the back well in this pic. Notice that the speaker tripod is significantly braced to the base of the gimbal.

Preparing to balance the camera on the head. The head is completely balanced and then the crane is final balanced.
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That is an HVX on the crane head.

Here is the balanced rig ready to shoot.
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See the second tripod as a hold for final balancing?

Testing a flight of the head.
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Troy Ruff is near to me on the left getting ready to direct. He really did a good job on this shoot! He is insane...

This is an actual shot of the HyperCrane shooting a long scene. Sorry for the blurriness, but the kid who shot this wiggled the camera. The crane has come down around 8' already and is heading for the floor. I was VERY pleased at the ease of controls. Shane Foster drove the lift handle on the back as I ran the head with the analog controls on the left side. It worked well. I will enlarge the wheel on the head and will brace it a little to smooth it out ultimately. But, overall I was very pleased with the performance.
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The guy on the right is shooting BTS with an HVX and the two on the left are: 1) holding the monitor and 2) wrangling wire. Guy up front is sound boom. We had a GREAT crew for this shoot. Fun, fun, fun!

A little less blurry, but still no great shot... The HyperCrane is ready to begin the left pan to the house (35') and I am getting ready to swing the head to the left while maintaining the balance of the Y of the shot. It went real smooth, but I could stand to practice a bit.
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Troy is on the left here directing. I think that this crane is the same value as a $10K crane. It kicked butt, really. YAY!
 
I found 2 more pics. Here is actor/grip Weston Grillo balancing the head.
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Shane Foster is looking on, waiting to final balance the crane.

Finally, with Bryan in the shot, this is the HyperCrane doing a shot after dark. Troy Ruff is on the near left, and if you look carefully you can see Shane driving the crane at the back handle, and me running the vertical and horizontal controls.
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:beer:
 
Just curious... Did anyone start a crane build based on this? It was sure a lot of work to post, so I hope it helped someone.

I will be happy to answer any questions or clarify anything you need.
 
Holy cow, this is awesome.... I'm totally gonna take a whack at this sometime. I have a friend who can probably make this happen as well... :)

Thanks!
 
New use... I cut down the rig by taking off the front 10', put the head on the 10' section, locked down the head with a small piece of tubing and two bolts and used the Hypercrane as a straight down bed shot crane.

I am also adjusting the jib to lock down with tubes and will be eliminating the cables as controls. I will be using the new incarnation this weekend on the STRICKEN feature movie shoot. :)
 
FLASH! Matt Sconce is putting a TEASER TRAILER of STRICKEN the Feature on Youtube today that shows a shot from the HyperCrane. Go check it out! :love4:
 
Here is the HyperCrane on set and ready to shoot a cemetary scene in the movie STRICKEN. It flew down from 21' up and then panned to a scene to the left of the frame. You can see part of the results of that shot in the Stricken teaser trailer at strickenthefeature.com and Youtube.com.
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Notice the HVX on the head is balanced with weights so head movement is smooth and inertia keeps the head from moving in moderate winds. You can see the lock-down rig is on the crane. It performed wonderfully in these scenes. :love4:
 
We used the Hypercrane on the last weekend for shooting the feature STRICKEN (goto http://www.strickenthemovie.com) and dropped down from behind our rain rig for some creepy 'outside-grave-in-the-rain-at-night' shots.

I have removed all of the control cables and pulleys from the rig now. I have been using a lockdown rig for the last three shoots as it is sooooooo much easier to set up and tear down. I will be going to an all electric hot head for the head movement and will not use the pulley system again. It was fun to build as a challenge, but impractical and rife with friction.

Here is a moving HVX shot from the Hypercrane behind the Aftershock Rain Rig with a single tungsten off to the side. This is from around 30' away. Notice the sharpness of the image as the Hypercrane is very stable.

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Actress: Stephanie French. (http://www.stephaniemichelefrench.com)
 
We used the Hypercrane for a pickup shoot last night (3/24/10) shooting a rain scene where an actor gets out of a car in the rain and walks away. Here are the pics of the crane. Director Matt Sconce practicing a shot with the Hypercrane on a test car. It would be a night shoot later.

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A closer look at the 21' crane with an HVX200 on a liquid head on the front. Notice I chucked all the wire stuff previously listed in the build.
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You can see it is a hybrid crane including both a trussed 10' section (the short rig) and a suspension support for the 21' rig. A speaker stand is the tripod. It can move nearly straight up to 21' and is so smooth it will pivot in a gentle breeze if not controlled. The addition of weight to the head counterbalances the camera and provides inertial stability for completely smooth movement, even in high winds.

An HVX on a liquid head is counterbalanced by only 150lbs on the tail. Notice the tail end has a padded control handle for the operator.
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The Hypercrane is lowered to the ground in this practice shot. Here you have a good view of the gimbal made from a dual bearing greasable industrial wheel caster.
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It is a little beat up paintwise after shooting a whole feature film STRICKEN http://www.strickenthemovie.com

I'll give it a new black paint job when we are all done. Here you see me with the head. Notice the tubular cam built in to provide mounting area for head counterbalances. Even a heavier 35mm or RED one can be mounted and easily counterbalanced on this rig.
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Here is Director Matt using the Hypercrane on the actual shoot. In the shot you can see our slightly bent Aftershock Rain Rig on 1/4 spew mode.
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Best to you! --Gary:engel017:
 
Great write up. Awesome job, Amazing crane. Crane shots add production value to a film. Hope to see more, the stricken trailer just showed maybe 2 sec for the graveyard scene. Thanks for posting.
 
wolf1200 said:
Great write up. Awesome job, Amazing crane. Crane shots add production value to a film. Hope to see more, the stricken trailer just showed maybe 2 sec for the graveyard scene. Thanks for posting.
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Thanks. With the Hypercrane we shot:

A Graveyard scene from two angles
A shot of Sarah Black's house
A shot of Jenny Hansen's house with police cars screeching to a stop in the rain
A short rig interior shot of Sarah Black in her living room
A bedroom scene shot by the short rig with the 90 degree look down rig
Shots of individuals in the rain outside in various scenes
A shot of the actors walking in downtown Fresno near the historic water tower and the Memorial Theater
A shot if Jenny Hansen getting out of her car in the rain

We used it over ten times for shots.

Check out http://www.strickenthemovie.com to see production grabs and BTS stills of the movie.

It is seriously nice to have a stable, tall, versatile, easy to construct, light crane for anything we want. The price was right too... Hehehe. :Drogar-Happy(DBG):
 
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