tags:
Telehandler Rigging
Stage Rigging
Camera Rigging
Not every rig makes it to set. Some get priced out. Ideas change. Some just never happen. But the design work is rarely wasted.
I used to sketch everything out with pen and paper, but over the past year I’ve fully switched to designing in 3D. I’ll admit Vectorworks isn’t cheap, but if you’re constantly designing rigs or laying out stages, I find it essential. If you want to dip your toes into some more lightweight 3D design work first, Shapr3D is a great alternative. That’s how I started.
We do a lot of free work in the film industry. Gear lists, designing, talking on the phone. But at this point, I’m just happy to be doing any work at all if it’s moving me in the direction of a job. And honestly, designing rigs that don’t get used isn’t a waste - I reference old builds all the time.
You never know when you might need a 10’ x 40’ vertical frame on a telehandler with integrated lighting…
Here are a few designs that haven’t gotten used on actual shoots - yet.
10’ & 12’ Diameter circular softboxes
Are circular softboxes a thing? Is there even a proper term for these? Either way, I designed them.
We were prepping for a TikTok live stream and needed a way to prevent the audience from seeing off-set because of the vertical nature of the frame. Ultimately, the cost killed it, but not before I had the pipe rolled. It’s all good, production covered the cost of that.
We needed a super clean bottom for these and obviously regular hollaenders don’t fit onto rounded pipe so i came up with what I thought was a pretty clever solution - sour clamps from LA Rag House. Stick those on the bottom circle and that gives a great way to cleanly integrate verticals. Next time.
So if anyone in LA suddenly needs a 10’ or 12’ circular softbox, I got you.
10’x40’ Pettibone Bounce w/ Integrated Lighting
I designed this for a night exterior car commercial, but you guessed it, it was too expensive.
We went wider instead of taller because that is what works best for car reflections. You don’t need the height. You need the width.
We also didn’t want to deal with repositioning ground units every time the bounce moved, so the plan was to integrate the lights directly into the rig. The front of the 10x40 would have been wrapped in U=ultrabounce, with black material added in front of the fixtures to keep them from showing in reflections.
Be honest. Would this have worked?
Softsun Rig
This one isn’t quite as grandiose. It is really more of a backbone for VFX frames built from stacked and laminated 9” Modulus-X truss, attached to the telehandler carriage with blocks through the kingpins and ratchets.
But technically, it would have held a Softsun.
Cool.
Maybe next time.
Seesaw
Okay, this one wasn’t actually for a shoot.
I was going to build it with some friends in their backyard, and it was going to be sick. We just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
That is the benefit of owning fun gear. Sometimes you can just make stuff.
Designed with 9” Modulus-X truss and 9” bearings. I drew up two versions. The larger one would stand about 15’ tall.
So… should we still build it?
Rotisserie Camera Rig
This was for a specialty shot where the camera rotates as an actor jumps over it.
Could this have been done more simply? Probably.
But we were already going to have Modulus-X and a pair of bearings on the job, so I designed something that used the components we had available. Nothing crazy, but I could definitely see this concept scaling into a larger rig or even rotating people.
by:
Brendan Riel
