It's over $1500. You can buy a top of the line shotgun mic for that much.
How useful are matteboxes anyway? Does anyone have sample picture of a image with matteboxes and othe same without? If it's flairs you want to remove, can't you build a mock-up mattebox system with cardboards? And generally they are used for outside shooting, so are they useful for controled lit sets
sure you can build one.. i did before .it had positionable french flags and collapseable side wings and all . could even hold filters at the end.. then i bought one- they are always usefull considering that they hold filters and rotate them easisly and quiclky, but build one if you like.. if you dont have the $ then you dont have any other choice.. unless you rent.