Gallery

Counterbalanced guitar rig with auto-tilt.

The goal was to rig the camera to the end of the guitar to see the tuning knobs and the neck. We couldn’t drill into the guitar at all which left very limited options for rigging. Couldn’t bite onto anything on the neck because we’d see the clamp.

To rig a shot like this traditionally you would rig a few points off the neck or body of the guitar to the camera and support the weight of the camera. This makes it hard to operate the shot because you need to support the camera and awkwardly maintain the angle as the guitar moves around. Controlling the movement of the guitar is tough in this instance.

For this rig we created an inner ring and an outer ring both built out of speedrail. Almost like a dumb version of a gimbal with no motors. The inner ring was free to pivot on the x axis to allow the camera to tilt up and down independent of the rig’s vertical movement. This meant that as the rig got higher, the camera would tilt down. If the rig got lower the camera would tilt up. The tilt was in relation to the angle of the guitar - it wasn’t something the operator had to control.

You could raise and lower the rig by holding onto the outer ring without having to worry about whether you were aiming the camera straight down the neck of the guitar - it did it for you.

Ran a pulley from the top of our rig up and over to some counterbalance to make up and down movement effortless.

Pulled the bumper for this rig to access hard mounts on the frame. Integrated speed rail starter onto the frame and built out with speedrail and hollaenders.

Used over unders for our main hard mounted support piece to add rigidity. Could have used steel pipe but we didn’t have any on hand.

Triangulated near the camera mounting position with more speedrail to 10” & 6” suction cups.

Sometimes when doing vehicle rigs I like to ommit using any sort of leveling head and just mount the dovetail straight to a cheeseplate. I find those mini ball heads slip unless you can triangulate the crap out of them and this is sometimes a better solution.

At the end we put the bumper back on.

Water bottle rigged to a Sony FX3. We used 5/8” rods & hardware to secure this water bottle to the camera for a series of shots.

This rig lived in 2 variations: the handheld variation and the handheld variation rigged to a bike. We wouldn’t normally do bike rigs like this but we kept the handheld rig together so we could match the same exact frame for match cuts in post.

Utilized an end jaw cardellini to clamp the bottle, 5/8” rods and modern studio hardware, 9. Solutions 5/8 gags, and LA Rag House 2” mighty mini grip heads. Secured into the camera with stubby baby pins, making sure not to protrude into the camera body.

Rollercoaster rig for Top Thrill 2’s media day. This ride went 120mph and was Cedar Points newest and baddest ride. Camera pointing forward and another pointed backward at the news reporters.

Flew in with gear packed into pelicans. Travelled light but efficient with DP Jeff Nolde’s complete coaster rigging package.

Ratcheted all our parts to the coaster multiple ways, multiple directions. Coaster had holes under the seats we slid speedrail through and ratcheted it down. Hard mounted off that for added security. Ball leveling heads for the cameras and obviously an extreme amount of triangulation.

Sony RXO II mounted to a mountain bike.

This bike flew down the mountain at Griffith Park. Couldn’t use any form of attachment that would fall off easily such as a cardellini. Those and other type of hand tightening clamps loosen up over time with vibration. We opted instead to go with hose clamps.

Mounted small bicycle starters (I see where they get their name now) to the frame and made sure to protect the bike. Made sure all rigging was out of the way of the pedal and foot motion and triangulated the crap out of it.

We were asked to help the DP/Dir set up a foxhole that we can dive through an any position in the forest that fits best for the vision they had in mind. It required us to work closely with art department and camera because one key issue was to be centered within the foxhole and be able to adjust and maintain that position regardless the choice of lens or bodymountoptions thrown our way and to perform that task off the main road and as fast as possible.

8x8x4 softbox / moon box on a JLG 1255 gradall.

Built with ModTruss 6” & 12”. Built the upper skeleton of the box out of 6” and beefed up the carriage attachment points with 12”. 12” vertical allowed for pipe triangulation to the box corners.

Strapped it together with 2” ratchet straps, chalked behind the 12” to sit securely against the carriage. Taped the chalks in place to make sure they didn’t fall. Hard mounted SK’s to the carriage and secured to the 12” vertical with short pipe and hollaenders.

Diffusion was full grid and box contained 6x Skypanel S60’s. Duve side was removed to turn it into a moon box for some setups.

12x12x4 moonbox on a JLG 800S condor.

Rigged the center of gravity as far toward the back of the bucket without interfering with any bucket tilt capabilities in order to help with adjusted weight.

Attached the 12x12 box to the condor basket with some pipe verticals and triangulated more pipe to each corner for rigidity and safety. Created a separate frame for the 4 skypanel S60’s inside of the box and secured it to both a box cross section and the condor bucket.

Diffusion was 1/4 grid.