Stabilisers and Rigs

The single most important tool you can use with a camera, film or digital, movie or still, is a tripod. Stable, flat images. No handheld shakes. no drifting side to side. Plus it allows you to pivot for a pan or a tilt.

But sometimes that's not enough, sometimes you need to actually move the camera to make an impressive 'motion picture'. And when you want to impress on a tight budget, there aren't many options around. The web site www.homebuiltstabilizers.com has an impressive gallery of home made rigs, cranes, dollies and stabilisers but still require a certain amount of know-how and access to some decent hardware tools. Much more to my taste is Dan Selakovich's Killer Camera Rigs You Can Build which has kits in the 2 to 3 digit range, perfect for Independent Low-budget Filmmaking (which is different to Studio Low-budget, which can usually afford to hire the equipment they need).

There is also a very cool rig called the 'Touch of Evil' Cam, which is fundamentally the same as the first crane shot in cinema history. But for starters we'll be building a handheld stabiliser, a dolly and a crane with a tilt head. When I have time, money and energy to spare, I would like to build the car mount (two years ago we developed a script and storyboard for a project that would extensively use a car mount which at that time were elusive), and build a simple camera-control rig out of LEGO® Mindstorm (this last one isn't in Dan's book!), mainly to be used for a multi-pass stop motion animation (which, incidently will feature LEGO® characters).

My current tripod has a removable centre, which extends to 1.5m and can be used as a monopod. After an attempt to attach a counterweight to the bottom of this for a 'quick and dirty' stabiliser, the need for free, fluid movement becomes clear. I am sure that the construction, balancing and rehearsals of a stabliliser will require much patience, but I am also sure the creative dimension it will add to shots will be worth the investment.