Show off your DIY's (innovation at it's best)

Totes_Magotes

Totes_Magotes

Active member
So in this day and age of film making and photography, things can get a little pricey. That's a given. But a nice rule of mine is to always try to beat the system. 'Do It Yourself' creations are a nice way to get 'prosumer-ish' quality for very very VERY low cost. Seeing as the typical Media and Arts NSer always has a little eye for innovation and creation, I say, why not show it off?

Here's a nice little format to make things clear and easy for others to marvel over.

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i) Name (either your own name, or common name) of your creation

ii) Pictures and Video to show either physical look of it or how it performs

iii) Price it cost to build

iv) Time it took

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So without further ado, here's my example---

i) Glidecam (/wigglestick)

ii)
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iii) About $40 even

iv) 4/5 hours of build time / 2 trips to home depot

i) Camera Slider (Tripod attatchment)

ii)
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iii) $15 for material --- $40 for used tripod

iv) 4/5 hours of build time / 2 trips to home depot (as well)

NOW YOUR TURN! LET'S SEE WHAT YOU GOT!
 
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This is my crane i built, I made improvments and painted it and what not. I also have a pvc dolly which I dont have pictures of and a cable cam that kind of works. But my crane is my favorite DIY of mine.Here is a video I made with it.../static/images/flash_video_placeholder.png

 
i made a cable cam

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my friend welded the bottom box on the wrong way, but i just use it with my gopro so it doesn't really matter, i can just hang it off the bottom

i use my slackline to tighten it

it cost about $40, the checkout lady screwed up and i got 75' of 3/16" coated cable for $14

it took about an hour

I haven't had the chance to use it a whole lot, it is moving in one shot i think in this edit, and strung across the river for a few

Waterfall edit from Matt Sklar on Vimeo.
 
I made a glidecam this summer based of this design: http://diycamera.com/stabiliser/index.html

It was pretty easy to do (balancing it can take some time) and worked better than I expected, costed around 40$ to make.

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Here's some footage with it, might want to skip to 03:31 if you don't like outrageously long intros :P

2010 Juvass Edit from Robbin Gälliner on Vimeo.
 
I built lots of filmmaking stuff. My favorites include a Fat Man Kino Flo Light bank, Dolly, Crane, and Snorricam.
The Snorricam is probably themost interesting thing I've built. It's a harness system that you useto film yourself. Aaronofsky uses it in Requiem for a Dream and Pi.

I don't have a picture of it, but essentially I used scrap woodincluding an old skateboard deck, a few L brackets, and some webbing toput it all together.
You can see some sample clips in this video: 0:38 until around 0:54. There are also a few samples of the dolly in there as well.

Tommy Yacoe - Demo Reel 2010 from Tommy Yacoe on Vimeo./static/images/flash_video_placeholder.png

I found this pic on the internet. It's not My rig, but mine is similar. Cost maybe around $20 total.

 
pics would be sweet

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Tommy Yacoe - Demo Reel 2010 from Tommy Yacoe on Vimeo.
 
Here's my updated fig-rig that I posted a while back. Added a quick release mount, battery grip, and Rode Videomic.

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Here's a picture of a similar device.
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Mine looks a lot like this only it has one long arm instead of two arms with a hinge in the middle. It definitely makes for some cool shots.
 
My very own dolly. I am stoked about it but the two rails were not welded parallel so it kind of does not go in strait line, but since then I made another one more stable, and I use this one skiing by simply holding it from the tripod and use it as a stabilizer.

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Heres a list of what I have home made:

- dolly system

- green screen including easy to transport rack

- Snori chest mount

- a rig like the smoking circles in that 70s show.

- a plate to shoot in 3d with two gopros and shoot with a third camera simultaniously.

I will post some pics when eventualy Im just never home.

in the mean time heres a video with most of my creations: green screen is in the intro, dolly and snory are in there too.

 
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I made the rail system out of acrylic, probably cost me $40 or maybe a little more for all the plastic and a couple weeks working in wood shop at school to make it.

bought the 35mm adapter off of some guy for $120 new but im pretty sure he made it... I could have made myself one but i was too lazy

Lego follow focus was free obviously

Viewfinder cost like $10 for the magnifying glass and I made the rest out of cardboard and duct tape.

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I also made myself a steadicam type thing, no gimbal or anything but the PVC and stuff cost less than $30 and took me about 10 minutes to make.

I can take more/better pictures if anyone really wants them. I'm probably gonna make myself a slider of some sort to finish off my video gear. I really enjoy making it more than actually shooting with it haha
 
I was going to post a picture of saran wrap and say its my DIY condom, but got lazy. this is me subscribing to the thread. props on all of you DIY innovators
 
i made a real legit dolly using L bracket aluminium, solid plywood, and skate wheels/bearings but it ended up being way too big and way too heavy, so I'll need to build a more compact one.
 
Thanks man! It took some thinking to figure out how to build it, but roughly 4 days just because I only worked on it a little bit every day but I bet you can build it in one day.
 
did you have plans or instructions or just figure it out yourself?

i am gonna make some sort of steadycam in the next few days, and any tips or instructions would be great!
 
newkid900: I use a Nikon D90 and I think this design is aimed at lighter cameras but I guess it depends on what material you built it off (the one in the link below looks quite sturdy)

GreenHorn$: I based it of this design: http://diycamera.com/stabiliser/index.html and with some own solutions, there are more simple designs but I liked the challenge.
 
For the steady cam did you end up buying that universal joint that guys talks about?

Where did you get all the metal and was it difficult to bend?

And is it easy to film skiing with?
 
Yes, I bought that exact traxxas 5151 joint. The metal was found in a dumpster in my dad's garage and wasn't hard to shape. I've only filmed with it one week and I'm very happy of how well it worked, the technique can be improved since you have to learn how to move it for best result and such + I had to ski super careful because I had a torn Acl & Mcl damage that restricted how I could ski.
 
Not as cool as what other people have made, but I made film canisters for 120 film buy cutting the bottom out of a 35m one and sticking it in another one. It's pretty much two stacked on top of each other.
 
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