Innovative low cost versatile shoulder rig on Kickstarter
- Thread starter nutmegger
- Start date
The rig seems useful and provides some cool alternative setups/shots, BUT...I hate to say it but it looks too homemade and a bit too bulky. Plus there was no mention of mounting accessories such as mic, light, audio recorder, etc.
They choose wood to keep it cheap and to use the guy they have but I wonder if this same configuration made out of 15mm rods with two shoulder pads would be better?
They choose wood to keep it cheap and to use the guy they have but I wonder if this same configuration made out of 15mm rods with two shoulder pads would be better?
Mitch Gross
Veteran
But it's only good for just holding the camera. What if you want to touch the camera to make adjustments, like pull focus? And why make the thing so long when it could be right up near your nose? If all you care about is pointing the camera then I guess it's okay, but there's usually a lot more to shooting than that.
Darren Levine
Veteran
ugg, the people in the video should try dislodging the marketing stick from their arse's and try to come off a more real and not slimy idiots.
and good god, it's made of wood! i mean, i've tinkered with wood in DIYs, but i wouldn't try and sell it.
They make this thing out to be the best thing since the digital camera, but to me it looks like a tinker toy that certainly can be useful, and shouldn't be BS'ed into pretending it can hold up to the professional grade stuff. they seriously say it's a 'vital' tool... AYFKM?
if they just said: hey, we put this together, it isn't like your convetional pro rig, but look how useful it can be, etc, etc,... then i'd be more encouraging, but this is a bunch of guys trying to make something out to be far more than it really is
and good god, it's made of wood! i mean, i've tinkered with wood in DIYs, but i wouldn't try and sell it.
They make this thing out to be the best thing since the digital camera, but to me it looks like a tinker toy that certainly can be useful, and shouldn't be BS'ed into pretending it can hold up to the professional grade stuff. they seriously say it's a 'vital' tool... AYFKM?
if they just said: hey, we put this together, it isn't like your convetional pro rig, but look how useful it can be, etc, etc,... then i'd be more encouraging, but this is a bunch of guys trying to make something out to be far more than it really is
wgzn
Veteran
yeah its a fairly limited tool and yes, its not complex and anyone with a reasonable degree of handiness and a drill and a jig saw could do it themselves.
BUT for $69 you dont have to.
its probably only $40 or so in materials (unless you goof something up) but factor in your time to do it (including prep, clean-up, painting and more clean-up) i think $69 is a STEAL.
and it clearly does what they say it will. yeah, i would imagine more of its usefulness is as much accidental as planned. but there are a lot of commercially manufactured metal things you could spend $69 on that arent nearly as useful.
they arent trying to put zacuto out of business and they clearly dont claim that you can fit a rigged up alexa on it. though i dont know why you couldnt bolt a set of rails to it if you were so inclined.
i do agree that they come off a bit like turd-polishers. but i also think their presentation is probably just them using the same voice theyve seen in thousands of other kickstarter videos.
kickstarter isnt JUST for starting companies to manufacture pebbles and cineskates. there are tons of diy handcrafted things there. and i think its pretty crappy when folks dump all over people because something isnt full blown manufactured. lots of cool and useful stuff is made of wood. hell, my diy slider is made of wood and it slides, starts and stops better than ANY slider ive ever used at any price. and i also got shot down on kickstarter in part due to the DIY / wood thing.
i hate to be an "arse" but i think its kind of lame when people who pimp themselves in their signatures on forums slag others for having a lodged "marketing stick"
BUT for $69 you dont have to.
its probably only $40 or so in materials (unless you goof something up) but factor in your time to do it (including prep, clean-up, painting and more clean-up) i think $69 is a STEAL.
and it clearly does what they say it will. yeah, i would imagine more of its usefulness is as much accidental as planned. but there are a lot of commercially manufactured metal things you could spend $69 on that arent nearly as useful.
they arent trying to put zacuto out of business and they clearly dont claim that you can fit a rigged up alexa on it. though i dont know why you couldnt bolt a set of rails to it if you were so inclined.
i do agree that they come off a bit like turd-polishers. but i also think their presentation is probably just them using the same voice theyve seen in thousands of other kickstarter videos.
kickstarter isnt JUST for starting companies to manufacture pebbles and cineskates. there are tons of diy handcrafted things there. and i think its pretty crappy when folks dump all over people because something isnt full blown manufactured. lots of cool and useful stuff is made of wood. hell, my diy slider is made of wood and it slides, starts and stops better than ANY slider ive ever used at any price. and i also got shot down on kickstarter in part due to the DIY / wood thing.
i doubt that. thats more or less exactly what i said on my kickstarter video and a bunch of whiney brats still complained that it wasnt made of metal, too diy etc...
i hate to be an "arse" but i think its kind of lame when people who pimp themselves in their signatures on forums slag others for having a lodged "marketing stick"
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Darren Levine
Veteran
let me see if i got this strait; you're comparing that kickstarter which is trying to make a buck with an arguably poor product, to the two links that i have in my signature; one of which is a bucket of free tutorials for helping filmmakers, and my festival which also has a free, only pay if accepted submission process?
Yea, i'm definitely an arse for those links, matter o fact, signatures should only be for whitty taglines and emoticons. Certainly not for real names or anything like that.
I'm sure your wood slider works just fine, matter o second fact, i might have made my wooden slider long before yours and yes it works a treat, but it's not something i'd sell. People took to it very positively as a DIY instructional, and while some encouraged me to build one for them, i didn't take to it, why? because making and selling products takes a lot more time than just the build. if a product fails or falls short on kickstarter it could be due to more than just a poor product, or a good product that falls short, it could be the presentation of it and/or it's creators. THAT's what i brought to attention here, it isn't that it's a bad product, it's a product which they are marketing in a sleazy way.
Yea, i'm definitely an arse for those links, matter o fact, signatures should only be for whitty taglines and emoticons. Certainly not for real names or anything like that.
I'm sure your wood slider works just fine, matter o second fact, i might have made my wooden slider long before yours and yes it works a treat, but it's not something i'd sell. People took to it very positively as a DIY instructional, and while some encouraged me to build one for them, i didn't take to it, why? because making and selling products takes a lot more time than just the build. if a product fails or falls short on kickstarter it could be due to more than just a poor product, or a good product that falls short, it could be the presentation of it and/or it's creators. THAT's what i brought to attention here, it isn't that it's a bad product, it's a product which they are marketing in a sleazy way.
keylight
Veteran
$69 is a steal all right, but I'm not exactly sure who's doing the stealing! It would be cooler if they left it unpainted, stained it, then put a coat of varnish on it. Or I suppose they can sell it unpainted and let people customize it.
Regarding their video, I wish they didn't bury the lead.... Show us the prototype right up, talk about it's features, then put it into use to demonstrate. They did it backwards, and I kept wanting to stop, but didn't because I love learning about DIY projects. I'm not sure I'd mount expensive gear onto something like that, but one thing's for sure, you're more likely to NOT have your gear stolen if it's sitting on top of this thing!
BTW, I remember your Kickstarter slider. It was a nice idea but the problem for me was the camera falling off the slider. Easy for someone to bump and tumble it goes!
wgzn
Veteran
no. all im saying is that you dont need to be slagging anyone for trying to sell something. you dont know their motives any more than i know yours.
i apologize for calling you out. that was kinda crappy of me. i just thought your critique was a bit overly harsh. it's not like this was a hipjib ; ) now THAT was an oversold crock of poo
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wgzn
Veteran
completely agreed. and thats where i agree with darren. dont try to shine it up. let it be what it is!
thanks. and that was a VERY valid criticism. but everyone who used it said that it was totally obvious when you used it. so you generally keep your hands on it at all times. in fact that part of how it gets its stability.
Darren Levine
Veteran
no worries, but the point is that i wasn't criticizing them for trying to sell something, i'm a big fan of the little guy making a cool product. but sell it for what it is, not what you think will sell it. Like keylight said, don't paint it black so it looks like it's not wood, embrace what it is and it will be more honest and actually more interesting. heck, i zoomed in just to see what kind of wood it was, and it looks like a good quality ply wood, but instead of giving that detail, they chose to ignore it, like they knew wood was a questionable material to be selling.
I've been on the wall about plenty of DIY's i've come up with, whether i could sell them or not, but i've yet to pull the trigger on any of that just because i cannot allocate the time and effort to do it properly, and even done properly, the chances of success as you found out, are never guaranteed. And even if a product you make is successful, it doesn't mean it's worth it: The only product i ever had manufactured to spec and sold was carbon fiber 15mm rods, and even though i made good profit on them, had a great response from users of them, the amount of time to deal with the factory, QC them myself, clean them, etc... was simply not worth the time commitment considering the other things i had going on.
and looks like we'll finally get to see the digial bolex's outcome, lord knows myself and many others have given them PLENTY of grief about every single aspect of that campaign.
I've been on the wall about plenty of DIY's i've come up with, whether i could sell them or not, but i've yet to pull the trigger on any of that just because i cannot allocate the time and effort to do it properly, and even done properly, the chances of success as you found out, are never guaranteed. And even if a product you make is successful, it doesn't mean it's worth it: The only product i ever had manufactured to spec and sold was carbon fiber 15mm rods, and even though i made good profit on them, had a great response from users of them, the amount of time to deal with the factory, QC them myself, clean them, etc... was simply not worth the time commitment considering the other things i had going on.
and looks like we'll finally get to see the digial bolex's outcome, lord knows myself and many others have given them PLENTY of grief about every single aspect of that campaign.
on the kickstarter page they are offering a $29 backer option to donate rigs to film colleges, so they dont seem to be greedy pigs in my estimation