The Guitar Rig

This rig was an especially fun one. It was for a Fender Classics series commercial. Part of the initial discussion was about seeing enough of the background to feel the guitar movement. If all we saw was the guitar we wouldn’t have a frame of reference for movement and it wouldn’t feel like a rigged shot.

The Ask:

Rig a camera to the guitar so we can see people strumming the strings and playing chords. 2 different rigs, technically.

The Build:

We had duplicate guitars—some for picture, others for rigging—which meant we could rig without damaging hero props. I initially avoided drilling but eventually added a T plate to the back of the guitar near the base for a baby pin. For the other side, we clamped a 9.Solutions Python Clamp with grip joint to the neck (padded, of course). A 5/8” rod ran through the clamp’s integrated receiver, creating opposing mounting points for added stability. With baby pins into the sides of the camera, we connected with 5/8” rods and used 9. Solutions 5/8 gags for securing.

The Challenge:

Keeping the camera secure and wobble-free. Single-point rigs almost always shake, so we aimed for triangulation. Drilling gave us a strong anchor point that made all the difference.

Why It Worked:

Using 5/8” rods and a RED Komodo with a small prime kept the rig lightweight and compact. Proper neck clamping pressure held the rig steady during play, and the modular design let us move cleanly between guitars with consistent framing.

The Hairdryer Camera Rig

Object rigs always present a fun challenge because you have to make your own points. Just like with the guitar rig - we integrated our own point to the base of this hair dryer that gave us more versatility as opposed to a single clamp like a cardellini. This time we managed to make it non-destructuve.

The Ask:

Rig the camera to a hairdryer so we can see talent pick it up and use it.

The Build:

This rig was built with 5/8” rods, baby pins, 5/8” hardware, and bicycle clamps. We found our camera position and set our distance with an appropriate length 5/8” rod. We wanted to make sure the connection point to the hairdryer was strong. A singular clamp to the hairdryer wouldn’t have been as secure as we wanted. To clamp our hairdryer into the rig we attached two bicycle starters around the base of the handle. We hose clamped them onto the hairdryer and we were golden. The bicycle clamps were securely attached and gave us baby pin points forward and back - 2 points are better than 1. We also integrated a cheese plate adaptor into the bicycle clamps which gave us a lower triangulation point for the rig. This prevented twist and made it more rigid. To finish things off we integrated a kick stand into the rig so that when the hairdryer was resting on a surface the camera would maintain the correct positioning.

The Challenge:

With no integrated rigging points, finding a secure clamping method to grab onto the hairdryer was a challenge. We had to be non-destructive but secure. The bicycle clamps hose-clamped on worked like a charm and provided us with 2 points on opposite sides of each other.

Why It Worked:

The kickstand held the camera position while the hairdryer was set down, the bicycle clamps provided a strong connection to the product and gave us opposing mounting points, and the 5/8” rods kept things lightweight but provided enough rigidity to the whole rig. Our big savior was our small camera. I like to think of it as attaching the object to the camera - not the camera to the object. That mindset often leads to smarter builds.

The Beer Can Rig

Rigging objects to cameras already provides its own challenges but when you need to rig an object to camera AND need to introduce an additional motion element then things can get tricky. This Bud Lite spot was a fun one with a camera rig that required some extra planning.

The Ask:

Attach a Bud Lite beer can to the camera and follow it through the air as one person throws it to another. Also - make it spin while it’s in the air.

The Build:

Rigging a beer can to a camera is relatively easy. Most of the challenge comes from its hollow nature - when you try to clamp an empty can it wants to collapse. In this instance I would probably cleanly cut off the bottom and slide in a round 3/4” piece of plywood that fits nicely into the interior of the can. I’d hose clamp around the exterior of the can around the plywood and integrate that into a rig. In this instance, however - they wanted the beer can to spin through the air. We employed the help of a prop maker to help us create a servo motor that would spin the can on demand. The servo motor was custom-built and integrated into a camera rod system. This made mounting to the camera easy. We threw the camera in a gimbal and our camera operator used an Antigravity camera system to create the beer can’s flight arc. The servo connected to a remote controller that I operated during the shot to make the can start and stop spinning. We adhered the can to the base of the spinning servo with Butyl so we could easily swap cans between takes.

The Challenge:

Starting and stopping and precisely controlling the can spin mid-shot. We had help with crafting a system that made this fairly easy - My only wish? A slightly faster spin and a stronger connection point. Balancing easy swaps with a strong can connection was not an easy task so we had to make the butyl attachment method work for us.

Why It Worked:

This shot, despite its downfalls, worked beautifully in the edit. They were able to speed ramp the move and trim the in and out cut points. It added fun motion to the highly choreographed spot and gave me a jumping off point for another rig just like this down the road. Despite the on-set time constraints, this rig was a great learning experience and a fun challenge.

The Sunglasses Rig

There’s no easy to pull off a sunglasses rig. Especially in camera. Any sort of solution requires some post-vfx cleanup for both rig and reflection removal. I’ve done a few sunglasses rigs at this point and they’ve been some of my most challenging rigs to date.

The Ask:

Rig various pairs of sunglasses to the camera. They wanted to see the glasses getting put on, people moving around while wearing the glasses, and similar frames for multiple different types of glasses.

The Build:

Ok, this took some thought. 5/8” rods would have been way to bulky. We want the rigs to be secure but we also don’t want to take up a large part of the frame with rigging infrastructure which would make vfx cleanup a nightmare. 3/8” rods might have worked but our only attachment methods are somewhat bulky 3/8 gags - which brings us back to our previous point. I happened upon 3/8” armature wire which worked beautifully for this sort of rig. Here’s how it worked. We determined the rough sunglasses placement relative to camera. We measured the armature wire length and cut it to size. We found that the 3/8” armature wire would screw nicely into 3/8” female baby pins which provided a strong connection point on the camera side. To attach the wire to the glasses we ran the wire down the sides of the frames and attached them on with heat shrink tubing. The tubing provided a strong enough connection point between the wire and the glasses and hardened after it was set. It ended up working beautifully and gave us a strong enough connect point to the glasses while keeping things lightweight but still relatively rigid. We connected armature wire from each side of the camera to each side of the glasses. We secured some 3/8” rod triangulation to the armature wire in some instances which helped with stability. We toyed with the idea of adding another point to the actor’s heads but ultimately couldn’t find a way to do it. In the end we integrated a hand hold into the bottom of the camera which made it easier for the actor to help control the camera movement and operate it while performing their actions while wearing the glasses.

The Challenge:

The big challenge here was coming up with the initial mounting solution and then maintaining framing consistency between multiple pairs of sunglasses for match cuts. The armature wire provided us with the flexibility (quite literally) that we needed in order to meet both of those demands.

Why It Worked:

The armature wire was small enough so as to not make post vfx paint out a headache, it was rigid enough to provide a sturdy connection point. The heat shrink provided the most secure mounting option to the glasses while keeping the mounting gack to a minimum.

The Overhead 360 Rig

Some fads seems to die away as years go by - take titan tubes in frame for example. But some camera moves seem to stick around consistently. The overhead 360 spinning shot is one of them.

The Ask:

Spin the camera over talent in a circle.

The Build:

We based the rig off an overhead goalpost. We used Modulus-X truss (I carry some in the truck), but this setup could work with triangle truss or even speedrail. Our spinning motion came from a pipe spinning gag. We added some 1-1/4” base flanged to the outsides of our ModX truss and sent a 1’ piece of speedrail through. This gave us a connection point inside of the truss for a Jr. receiver grid clamp. We threw the grid clamp onto the pipe and attached the pipe spinning gag into it. Attaching to the inside of the truss gave us a more compact setup. The pipe spinning gag provided us with both the spinning motion and also speedrail integration for the camera mount. On opposite sides of the gag, we mounted 4’ speedrail. We integrated 4’ speedrail and strengthened the speedrail with a parallel run of pipe beneath it, connecting both with wide over unders. We attached the camera to one side and counterweighted the other side with a 25lb weight attached to a cheeseplate. We safetied the camera to the spinning rig, added a sandbag to help fine tune the balance, and got the shot. We pulled off this rig twice - once with a ModX goalpost and once with a mini triangle truss goalpost. Our first room gave us the width we needed to use the ModX truss and our second room didn’t give us enough room to walk our ModX pieces in.

The challenge:

Room size restrictions demanded that in order to get our necessary camera height we would need to keep the rig compact. This is why we went with Modulus-X truss and integrated our point into the inside of the truss. Since we built this rig off a goalpost we also didn’t want to see the goalpost legs. This was fixed by tilting the camera down at a roughly 45 degree angle to float above our talent’s eye line.

Why It Worked:

The ModX provided strong structural stability for the base of the rig, the pipe spinning gag kept things lightweight and allowed us to use speedrail - something we already carry in the truck.

The Rollercoaster Rig

Rigging to rollercoasters always demands careful consideration and serious attention to detail. If one piece goes flying off someone could get seriously injured - or worse. When coaster rigging the name of the game is redundancy, triangulation, and hard mounts.

The Ask:

Rig a camera facing forward to get a coaster POV and a camera backward to get a shot of talent.

The Build:

This was for Cedar Point’s brand new coaster - top thrill 2. This job was special because it was just myself and the DP, who was also a very competent roller coaster rigger. We worked together to build out a rig that would safely hold our 2 RED Komodos and adhere to the theme park’s safety standards. The first step when rigging a coaster is to lock out the ride. The name is just as it suggests - put a physical lock into the controls of the ride in the control room. This prevents any tampering or accidental ride activation. We built the skeleton of this rig out using speedrail. We integrated hard mounts for safety and rigidity and utilized a number of ratchet straps to secure it onto the seats. We used specialty speedrail pads to prevent the pipe from damaging the seats, and integrated hard mount lens supports to keep the lenses from rattling around on the cameras. Jeff, the DP, had a clean, travel-ready coaster rigging kit that made the whole job smoother.

The Challenge:

The time constraints were honestly our biggest challenge. We were there doing a media day and the coaster wasn’t open to the public yet. They were running constant cycles on the coaster to meet safety requirements for opening day. Their tests superseded our rigging needs. We had to work with their ride schedule which made for very late and very early hours. In total this rig took roughly 5 hours to setup.

Why It Worked:

We stabilized the hell out of this rig. We built a secure frame that didn’t move or come loose - not even once. Triangulation is key for any rig, but is extra important when you’re working with rigs that experience heavy forces - a lot of car rigs, and all roller coaster rigs. The park staff was courteous, professional, and cared about safety just as much as we did. Redundancy like this makes for a sound build.

Conclusion

Building camera rigs - especially the weird ones - isn’t just about solving problems; it’s about doing it safely, creatively, and with a sense of play. Every rig I’ve talked about here started with a crazy idea and ended with a frame that told the story better.

Whether you're bolting a RED to a guitar or figuring out how to make a beer can spin midair, there are a few lessons that come up every time:

Key Takeaways for Creative Rigging:

1. Triangulation is your best friend. Single-point rigs lead to wobble. Always aim for multiple attachment points to reduce shake and increase stability.

2. Weight matters. Lightweight camera builds and rigging components will always make your life easier, especially when rigging to objects or talent.

3. Think in reverse. Don’t just rig the camera to the object—think about rigging the object to the camera. It’s a subtle shift, but it changes everything.

4. Don’t be afraid to get destructive (when it’s approved). Sometimes you’ve got to drill. Just make sure you’ve got backups and picture-safe options when needed.

5. Redundancy and safety aren’t optional. When you’re rigging to moving vehicles or rollercoasters, everything has to be hard-mounted, backed up, and inspected. No exceptions.

6. Prep saves lives (and time). Custom parts, backups, and a well-stocked kit can be the difference between getting the shot and losing the day.

7. Keep it modular. From 5/8” rods to armature wire, modular pieces let you adapt on the fly and scale rigs up or down depending on the shot - this is the importance of having a well-stocked kit!

Hope this gave you a few ideas for your own builds. If you're looking to get into the rigging side of gripping - or just want to see what’s possible - there’s no better way to learn than trying weird stuff. Just keep it safe, communicate with your team, and always get that shot.

If you’ve got a wild rig you’re proud of, send it our way. We’re always down to see how other grips are solving the puzzle.