Jason Miller
Veteran
yayaya untill you got pics you got nothen!
lol can't wait to see them.
lol can't wait to see them.
Hypercam Camera Stabilizer
- Thread starter Gary Sconce
- Start date
Gary Sconce
Veteran
Hehehe... yup!
Gary Sconce
Veteran
Here is the much improved V3 Hypercam! This is the full set up waiting for Shane Foster to put on the vest and go for it on 'Project Psych Light' a Ruff Production.
The rig rocked on the production. Notice that the gimbal is at the top of the sled, on the 'lower' high rig here. There are two high rig settings, two mid rig settings and a low rig too with the Hypercam. You can also fly the sled by hand easily. Notice there are two weight holders on the base plate of the sled that are completely adjustable all over the sled for proper balance.
This shot shows the change from V2 to V3. The front arm is 1/5 the length it was. The rear part of the arm is now welded at 90 degrees to the left and the arm articulation with the vest is longer with an added 20 degree angle. All arm joints have new bearings.
The external springs are removed for running light rigs like the HVX. The arm is very versatile. It can work a heavy Red One and still be used for a DVX. You will notice that there are two 1/2" solid steel pins that hold the rig on the vest. I believe in overbuilding when a steadycam rig must carry a possible $100,000 of lenses and camera.
A possible monster hand (tease, tease) from the film points out that he (she? it?) likes the Hypercam!
See the Hyperdock? It has a balancing pin and a fork for quickly resting from the rig between takes. All of it is on a strong C stand.
Shane Foster straps on the Hypervest.
He is not a giant guy, but he wore it all night long comfortably. He is such a great DP! Extremely talented.
DVXuser Bryan with Shane taking direction for the Hypercam shot from Director Troy Ruff (off screen).
The rest position is pulling the rig close to the body to alieviate work.
Actor Sam Woods looks on as Bryan and Shane go through a few movement dry runs up the walkway.
Last dry run. Watch out for the edge, Shane!
A pic of an actual shot in the film by the Hypercam. Great work Bryan and Shane!
Notice that the gimbal is flipped and the rig is now on the highest setting for a slight look down on the action. See that there is only a 1/2lb weight on only one holder on the sled base. The rig is almost perfectly balanced.
Bryan, Troy and Shane mugging after the cool Hypercam shot in the film.
I am so pleased that the V3 works so perfectly. It was a lot of work to finally perfect the rig. When I do the build thread, it will be for this version. Alpha testing is over. Yay!
This shot shows the change from V2 to V3. The front arm is 1/5 the length it was. The rear part of the arm is now welded at 90 degrees to the left and the arm articulation with the vest is longer with an added 20 degree angle. All arm joints have new bearings.
A possible monster hand (tease, tease) from the film points out that he (she? it?) likes the Hypercam!
Shane Foster straps on the Hypervest.
DVXuser Bryan with Shane taking direction for the Hypercam shot from Director Troy Ruff (off screen).
Actor Sam Woods looks on as Bryan and Shane go through a few movement dry runs up the walkway.
Last dry run. Watch out for the edge, Shane!
A pic of an actual shot in the film by the Hypercam. Great work Bryan and Shane!
Bryan, Troy and Shane mugging after the cool Hypercam shot in the film.
Gary Sconce
Veteran
I have now started a build on a dolly to haul around the Hypercam for full speed running shots. Check it out as I build the 'Hyperchariot' in real time. Fun, fun, fun! 
Gary Sconce
Veteran
Jason Miller is going to borrow the Hypercam this weekend for his shoot. YAY! I love to help.
Gary Sconce
Veteran
Hyperdock build
Hyperdock build
That would be great Charles. I posted pics of Shane Foster shooting on 'Project Psych Light'. It is pretty clear. I'll get a good shot of the rig up close when it comes back from San Francisco.
The Hyperdock, or mounting bracket for the rig was misplaced after the shoot, and in order for Jason Miller to have the whole rig for his shoot I had to re-fabricate the hyperdock mount. Here is the build.
I found an old brace from a 1979 Camaro engine bay. It is around 18" long and is really thick tubular stock with interesting crimps on the two ends to meet my needs. You can use any approximately 3/4" tube stock for this that is sturdy.
See the cut in the above photo on the right?
I cut off the vertical end and left a little of the crimp to fit my 1/2" steel stock.
I the ground it to perfect fit.
I check fitted the stock to make sure it fit well then welded perpendicularly. Weld this well as it will balance the steadycam with a possible $100,000 in camera and lenses!
I cut the 1/2" solid stock pin by first measuring it to the Hypercam sled and marking it.
Use a 90 degree magnet to be sure of the angle. I had to shim this at the back of the magnet with a scrap of wood due to the crimp.
Millermatic awaaaaaaay!
Then grind the welds for smoothness. More coming...
Hyperdock build
That would be great Charles. I posted pics of Shane Foster shooting on 'Project Psych Light'. It is pretty clear. I'll get a good shot of the rig up close when it comes back from San Francisco.
The Hyperdock, or mounting bracket for the rig was misplaced after the shoot, and in order for Jason Miller to have the whole rig for his shoot I had to re-fabricate the hyperdock mount. Here is the build.
I found an old brace from a 1979 Camaro engine bay. It is around 18" long and is really thick tubular stock with interesting crimps on the two ends to meet my needs. You can use any approximately 3/4" tube stock for this that is sturdy.
See the cut in the above photo on the right?
I cut off the vertical end and left a little of the crimp to fit my 1/2" steel stock.
I the ground it to perfect fit.
I check fitted the stock to make sure it fit well then welded perpendicularly. Weld this well as it will balance the steadycam with a possible $100,000 in camera and lenses!
I cut the 1/2" solid stock pin by first measuring it to the Hypercam sled and marking it.
Use a 90 degree magnet to be sure of the angle. I had to shim this at the back of the magnet with a scrap of wood due to the crimp.
Millermatic awaaaaaaay!
Then grind the welds for smoothness. More coming...
Gary Sconce
Veteran
I cut off the other side of the chevy brace tube so it will fit two 1/4" solid steel stock for the quick rest side of the hyperdock. Here is a test fit. (Blurry pic...sry.)
Then take two 9" pieces and bend them simultaneously around 20 degrees by setting them into a vise and smacking them with a hammer until they have the right angle.
Put them in around 1/2" and weld them so their bent ends end up parallel and around 3" wide. The tines of the quick rest will end up in around a 20 degree up angle. The parallax of this shot makes it seem that they diverge, but the two pieces are parallel.
After welding the tines in, measure and cut off around 5" from tube.
Weld a brace piece at 2" from the tube perpenducularly on the bottom of the tines.
Then cut off and grind the brace to fit the tines.
Leaving the construction upside-down, grind a strong piece of tubular stock (that fits your Century stand top pin) to fit the hyperdock tube perpendicularly and weld. Mine is around 4" long and I fit it to the top of my C stand before I ground it to fit.
More...
Then take two 9" pieces and bend them simultaneously around 20 degrees by setting them into a vise and smacking them with a hammer until they have the right angle.
Put them in around 1/2" and weld them so their bent ends end up parallel and around 3" wide. The tines of the quick rest will end up in around a 20 degree up angle. The parallax of this shot makes it seem that they diverge, but the two pieces are parallel.
After welding the tines in, measure and cut off around 5" from tube.
Weld a brace piece at 2" from the tube perpenducularly on the bottom of the tines.
Then cut off and grind the brace to fit the tines.
Leaving the construction upside-down, grind a strong piece of tubular stock (that fits your Century stand top pin) to fit the hyperdock tube perpendicularly and weld. Mine is around 4" long and I fit it to the top of my C stand before I ground it to fit.
More...
Gary Sconce
Veteran
Cut a brace from 1/8" plate or any other plate you have so it has a 90 degree edge to brace the mount.
Here it is welded in. Grind your welds as much as you can.
It's starting to look like the first hyperdock! (Wheeeere are you first Hyperdock..?)
Fit it back on your C stand to make sure it hasn't warped from welding and mark where the lock bolt will be mounted. Use a rat tail file inside if you need to clean it up. Drill the hole and weld on the nut. Always keep a bolt in the nut so you will be able to clean up the threads after the expansion of the nut from the heat of welding. To make sure you won't screw up the nut weld, just pop all of the 6 sides with minimal heat.
Here is the nut ready to weld into the lock hole.
Here is the finished Hyperdock prior to painting.
Painted and finished! (At this exact time, somebody is probably finding the other Hyperdock somewhere in a camera bag or falling out of a light box...)
The pin on the left is used to balance the rig. The quick rest on the right is used to deposit the sled off the Hypercam arm to rest between shots. The arm can then be taken off the vest and mounted on the left pin to completely unload the rig. There is a knob to tighten the Hyperdock on the C stand. The user always must be sure to place the weighted side over the longest leg of the C stand for balance stability.
When I get less busy, I'll still put up a complete Hypercam build thread. It works really well now and is quite versatile, with two high rig settings, two mid rig settings and a low rig with variable camera angles. It can carry a light weight camera all the way to a loaded up Red One camera.
Hopefully Jason Miller will take some BTS shots of his use of the Hypercam for his short.
Here it is welded in. Grind your welds as much as you can.
It's starting to look like the first hyperdock! (Wheeeere are you first Hyperdock..?)
Fit it back on your C stand to make sure it hasn't warped from welding and mark where the lock bolt will be mounted. Use a rat tail file inside if you need to clean it up. Drill the hole and weld on the nut. Always keep a bolt in the nut so you will be able to clean up the threads after the expansion of the nut from the heat of welding. To make sure you won't screw up the nut weld, just pop all of the 6 sides with minimal heat.
Here is the nut ready to weld into the lock hole.
Here is the finished Hyperdock prior to painting.
Painted and finished! (At this exact time, somebody is probably finding the other Hyperdock somewhere in a camera bag or falling out of a light box...)
The pin on the left is used to balance the rig. The quick rest on the right is used to deposit the sled off the Hypercam arm to rest between shots. The arm can then be taken off the vest and mounted on the left pin to completely unload the rig. There is a knob to tighten the Hyperdock on the C stand. The user always must be sure to place the weighted side over the longest leg of the C stand for balance stability.
When I get less busy, I'll still put up a complete Hypercam build thread. It works really well now and is quite versatile, with two high rig settings, two mid rig settings and a low rig with variable camera angles. It can carry a light weight camera all the way to a loaded up Red One camera.
Hopefully Jason Miller will take some BTS shots of his use of the Hypercam for his short.
Gary Sconce
Veteran
I let DVXuser JASON MILLER borrow the Hypercam for his wonderful short he is filming. We met at a McDonalds in Madera, California. Here are some pics of the V4 Hypercam. It is working perfectly now, and is really versatile. Here is the arm all folded up and sitting on the balancing pin of the hyperdock.
You can see the two 1/2" beefy pins that hold it on the vest. I love old bike turning tubes!
Here is the sled. The gimbal is flipped here making this the highest setting of the high rig. This shoots at around eye height. When you want to shoot around the chin/neck level, you flip the gimbal so it is directly under the camera platform. You can see the hyperdrive handlebars here. They are pin-removable and are used for effects and control.
The sled tube is totally adjustable in length and can be stretched by moving pins to 48" in length.
Here is the base of the sled. You can see that the weight towers are movable around the whole base and you can even add light weights to the sides of the base plate. It is double welded to the base and is so strong that you can trust it to hold the camera on its own without holding onto it. The nifty Hypercam art was done by Film maker par-wonderfulus and DVXuser Mark Aro (His 'Netherborn' is in post right now... Lots of Hypercam in that film.). The addition of 1/2lb to the front and 1/2lb on the rear towers is perfect balance for an HVX200 camera load.
Here is the whole Hypercam rig, ready for training Jason Miller in its use.
Jason Miller was such a nice guy! I was glad to meet him and even happier to help him with the free loan of a steadycam rig the HYPERCAM. :thumbsup:
Go Jason! YAY!
You can see the two 1/2" beefy pins that hold it on the vest. I love old bike turning tubes!
Here is the sled. The gimbal is flipped here making this the highest setting of the high rig. This shoots at around eye height. When you want to shoot around the chin/neck level, you flip the gimbal so it is directly under the camera platform. You can see the hyperdrive handlebars here. They are pin-removable and are used for effects and control.
The sled tube is totally adjustable in length and can be stretched by moving pins to 48" in length.
Here is the base of the sled. You can see that the weight towers are movable around the whole base and you can even add light weights to the sides of the base plate. It is double welded to the base and is so strong that you can trust it to hold the camera on its own without holding onto it. The nifty Hypercam art was done by Film maker par-wonderfulus and DVXuser Mark Aro (His 'Netherborn' is in post right now... Lots of Hypercam in that film.). The addition of 1/2lb to the front and 1/2lb on the rear towers is perfect balance for an HVX200 camera load.
Here is the whole Hypercam rig, ready for training Jason Miller in its use.
Jason Miller was such a nice guy! I was glad to meet him and even happier to help him with the free loan of a steadycam rig the HYPERCAM. :thumbsup:
Go Jason! YAY!
Jason Miller
Veteran
Hey Gary it was great meeting you too, and thanks for the loaner, tell you what until today I thought I had the firmest hand shake in California, but I think my hand is broken now,
Gary Sconce
Veteran
Aw sorry... Didn't mean to squeeze ya so hard. Must be the Bagpipes.
Please let me know when you are done. Maybe if you aren't done by Christmas, some of us Fresburg folks could come over and help you finish. All we need it a place to throw a sleeping bag.
Jason Miller
Veteran
Hey Gary thanks so much, we ran out of time and were only able to use it for two shots.
here is a photo
here is a photo
Gary Sconce
Veteran
Man! That steadycam operator is the size of the Hypercam! I was so glad to share it with you. I am sorry you ran out of time but was very glad to help.
It is being used this week by Blare Media for all RED camera steadycam work. I hope it is helping them too.
Matt Sconce and I will be using it on the feature shoot STRICKEN this spring. I will post pics of BTS shots with the Hypercam on set. We will be using it a lot in conjunction with the Hyperchariot that I am working on right now. There will be some fantastic running shots using it.
Gary
It is being used this week by Blare Media for all RED camera steadycam work. I hope it is helping them too.
Matt Sconce and I will be using it on the feature shoot STRICKEN this spring. I will post pics of BTS shots with the Hypercam on set. We will be using it a lot in conjunction with the Hyperchariot that I am working on right now. There will be some fantastic running shots using it.
Gary
Gary Sconce
Veteran
I hope Justin at Blare takes BTS shots of the Hypercam in action. They had it hard as I delivered the whole Hypercam set up to Matt who then gave it to Justin at Blare. I was not able to train them at all in using it. They are really smart and creative guys so I am sure they will figure it out. I was troubled a little when Justin's wife phoned and asked where to get an "extension on the waist belt". Man! That belt goes from 30" waist to a 44" waist and I wonder just how huge the steadycameraman was.
It was designed for using with the RED, so I am sure it is doing great!
Gary
Gary Sconce
Veteran
Sorry Charles. I have had so many irons in the fire I have yet to ask Justin at Blare to get me a pic of the steadycam with the RED One on it. Man, that was a year ago too. :undecided I hope he took a pic of it in action... :shocked: