Building a 35 foot crane?

johnhafner

johnhafner

Active member
I'm DP for an upcoming no-budget ($300 total) 7 min short where it calls for a birdseye view as high as possible. I'm shooting on my Canon 7d and since it weighs less than 4 pounds with the lens I got the crazy idea of build a TALL crane or other type of support and hoisting it up real high.

I'm considering building a 35 foot crane out of two aluminium ladders bolted together and steel cable I have laying around. Is this totally insane or has anyone done something like this? [Yes I know it's prob not the safest thing. I wouldn't let anyone get near it but me till I load and wind tested it before hand. Renting a jib or anything more that $100/day enough is out of the question.]

I also considered building a tower with 4 support beam made of 3X 10'pvc pipes each. Also crazy I know. If anyone has any other ideas let me kniw

Oh, and the shot should twirl downward and end up in a close up on the talents upturned face. Gotta love these writers.

Has anyone built or bought a cage or other support type system I could dangle the camera on? I've got a few shots in another project I'm directing I would like to run a cable and have the camera glide down it but I have no idea if this is even worth my effort.
 
johnhafner said:
Oh, and the shot should twirl downward and end up in a close up on the talents upturned face. Gotta love these writers.
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I think you are going to have to tell the writer that this shot is not absolutely needed to move the story forward. It is a cinemagraphic technique to be sure, but ultimately, for your budget undoable safely, and beyond persona/camera safety, not guarenteed to get the effect you seem to be wanting, since it apparently involves camera motion and change of position.

So, ot only do you have positioning and pointing issues, you have 'motion control' issues.

For some shots, still shots, I have gotten on top of a 18' ladder, Hasselblad in hand, with people stabilizing the ladder, and shot down on the subject. However, this is only a last resort.
 
On a $300 budget, forget any fancy shots like this. (On a $30 million budget, it would be fine :) )

A handmade 35 foot crane is very likely to result in someone or something falling 35 feet, possibly hitting someone or something as it lands. Seriously.

Talk to the director about a more practical shot that still meets the film's needs - if the script doesn't work without such a fancy show-off shot, then it's a crap script.
 
If you're thinking about building a tower, just rent scaffolding. It's surprisingly cheap and sounds a lot safer than anything else.
 
all sounds very dangerous...how about finding a footbridge or similar that the talent can walk under (make sure everything has a safety cable or similar attached).
 
Although not the smoothest movement, you could rent a man lift to get you as high as you need and then lower you. I think the beginning movement would jolt but the high to low transition should be smooth enough to get a good shot.
 
And remember that if the movement needs to end at a specific shot, it might be better to shoot it backwards, starting at the desired "end shot", and then lift the camera on a cable and let it turn as it goes up (which it will do naturally unless you stop it.) Of course, it is trivial to reverse the direction of the video clip in any NLE.
 
35 feet wow- yeah most of the DIY cranes I've seen are in the 7' range. How handy are you? The guys on homebuiltstabilizers.com seem to have some success but it seems pretty involved, even when compared to DIY dollies, steadicams and sliders. Here are some examples: http://homebuiltstabilizers.com/greyjibsncranes.htm

a video: http://www.vimeo.com/1794348

and a tutorial on how to make one: http://www.videomaker.com/video/watch/tutorials/121/do-it-yourself-crane-tutorial/

He says it cost him $500 so yeah. The jib on the same site cost $50, but it's a lot shorter.

If you want to build it out of two ladders or pvc pipe, you could try it I guess. You'd still have to build all that other stuff like the camera cage and mount to tripod, and add heavy weights. You could also try doing it with an RC plane or helicopter but not sure if that would be any easier or cheaper.

here's the cheaper 7' one by the way- http://home.closetfilms.com/default.asp?action=jib
 
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