DIY gear you'd like to see.....

adamrahn

adamrahn

Well-known member
Hey folks, coming up on another lovely winter here in Illinois so per my usual Dec/Jan schedule I've got a bunch of DIY projects, gear, and tinkering awaiting my attention on my workbench (and my plan is to turn most of them into tutorial videos). I was curious if there were any projects or specific gear you'd like to see done in a frugal/indie/DIY manner? Just to give some ideas... I have not done videos of them but I've made a 6' jib/crane, a Dana Dolly, and apple boxes for substantially cheaper than retail versions (like all my gear they favor durability and functionality over price though, so not the cheapest route). A few currently in the works are DIY quasar tubes, DIY kinogrips (wooden handgrips), retrofitting old stage lights/Fresnels with LEDs, and a DIY lazy susan (I've got a few ideas on using bike parts for DIY projects...). Just wanted to see if the DIY community here had any interest on stuff being created, made, modified, etc. that I could try and tackle this winter. Let me know!
Thanks!
Adam
 
I wish I had your skills. I have a few projects I'm wanting to get done this winter.
1. A receiver hitch mounted camera mount.
2. A jib that mounts in the rear of my van and shoots out the rear
3. A small remote pan tilt head (action cam) for my camera pole
4. Build out the interior of my van

Now I just need to get well and get time to draw this stuff out so I have a plan
 
Thanks for the compliment! As for the skills I usually have to learn them as I go along :) For the receiver hitch / jib for your van I bet you could do a combo rig that would work for both. Like have a stable tripod-ish mount back there that swaps out via QR plate or something else so you could put your jib/crane on. Might be just as costly and easy to put a small gimbal on a heavy duty pole and make a pseudo jib move that way though. In regards to building out the interior I would love to do so to my RAV4 right now, but I use it for personal stuff sometimes too, so I have yet to come up with a good solution that would be easily removeable but allow sturdy shelving space for my production gear. Mostly I just layer it in. I also LOVE that my Prius seats fold entirely flat, and there's minimal space difference between that and my other vehicle so I end up using it a ton as my production vehicle.
 
Here's one I've been thinking about. There are lots of solutions out there for repeatable motorized dolly movements (back and forth for interviews, etc). But I've never seen anything that would emulate the handheld look; maybe something that would move back and forth in a figure 8 at random to add just a little motion. This would allow for a one-man handheld shoot to look like a two-man handheld shoot. It would let the user set such a device to handle the wide while they followed the action with a handheld close up shot. Does anything come to mind?
 
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Probably simple, but I haven't seen it done. C Stands are pricey, and even budget lighting stands can cost quite a bit. DJ style speaker stands are cheaper, and very strong, rated for lots of pounds of weight. But they don't have a 5/8ths baby pin. Any way to adapt them to take grip gear and lighting units?
 
In regards to the motorized 'handheld' shot: That sounds SUPER complicated, and beyond my current skillset haha, but seriously neat idea. I bet there is a way w/some like Arduino components and small motors though - I mean we can program random movement on graphics in AE so I would guess we could do that w/physical gear too. I'm jotting that idea down but it will likely take some brainpower above what I have to do it :)
As for the DJ speaker stands.... I've looked at some before but honestly they were always WAY too big for my liking. I would say a decent way to adapt them would be to drill and tap a 3/8" hole in the top, then screw in a 3/8" threaded rod, cut it off like a half inch above the top of the stand, and then attach a baby pin that way (maybe using an adhesive for all the connections). At first glance that seems to me like it would be pretty sturdy. I bet you could also find a way to attach a grip head, hollywood/junior head to one and use those connections to mount gear from. Depending on the diameter of the tube something like this might also work to give you some options....
 
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