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How to build a massive DIY orbital spinning camera rig

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Making cameras move in ways that are different can be a challenge, especially as cameras and all their associated bits seem to keep getting bigger and heavier. In a recent short film release, Skywatch, filmmaker Jason Levy needed to produce a camera rig which orbited around an object in a scene, early on in the film. There was no commercial solution available, so he made his own.

It’s called the Spin Rig and we’ve seen similar such rigs before, although mostly on a much smaller scale or designed for lighter weight cameras like GoPros. The Spin Rig, however, is much more substantial. If you don’t want spoilers, watch the short film first (it’s at the bottom of this post).

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Here are five hilarious DIY rigs for filming on a tight budget

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How many times did you have a great idea for a video, but then you realized you don’t have the budget high enough to get all the gear you need for it? Well, the DIY approach always comes to the rescue in these situations. In this video, Dan Mace shares five of these DIY ideas he calls “sh*tty rigs.” Some of them are just hilarious, but hey – they work!

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How to set up a complete YouTube studio on a single desk

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Recently, Caleb Pike showed us his studio on a stand. Now, he’s back with a new video, showing us how we can set up something a little more permanent for YouTube or other content creation by setting up a complete studio on a desk. If you’re regularly shooting at the same location, perhaps doing tutorials, or even just spoken pieces to camera, having a more permanent, efficient setup often makes more sense than one you can wheel around.

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How to build a full YouTube studio on a single light stand

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One of the big excuses I hear for people who want to do YouTube but don’t is that they don’t have the room. There’s just not enough space where they live to be able to set up lights and cameras and microphones and everything else. Well, Caleb Pike to the rescue!

In this video, Caleb shows us how we can create a complete recording setup for YouTube which includes the camera, light, microphone and other doohickies on just a single light stand in order to be able to shoot whenever we want, wherever we want, and have it take up as little space as possible.

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How to make a cheap DIY bullet time rig with a lazy susan and some drawer slides

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It’s 20 years since The Matrix was released (don’t you feel old?), but the bullet time effect is still incredibly popular. I don’t know what the deal is with the title they gave for this video, but The King of Random just put up this video covering how they made their bullet time slow motion camera rig using a handful of off-the-shelf components. It’s a simple design, but very effective, producing some fantastic final results.

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This robotic camera rig creates 3D light painting animations

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We’ve seen and featured some awesome light painting projects so far. But Josh Sheldon has taken light painting to a whole new level. He has combined a camera rig with 3D animation software. So, with some light and long exposures, he creates trippy 3D animations painted with light.

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This wooden DIY camera rig is about as frugal as it gets

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When push comes to shove, the kinds of DIY solutions people come up with to solve photography and filmmaking problems really can be amazing. Take camera rigs, for example. DSLRs aren’t exactly the most ergonomic of devices when it comes to shooting video. But camera rigs can be very expensive, even relatively modest ones. So what can you do?

For Ghana-based filmmaker Abass Safian, the answer was obvious. Make his own. And that’s exactly what he did with a few pieces of wood, some basic tools, and a little time. It’s a great looking DIY rig and probably does the job as well as some of the commercial options.

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Use a light stand with a boom arm to make an easy overhead camera rig

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There are so many different ways to mount a camera for overhead shots. But it always surprises me both how many people don’t know how they can do it, and whenever a video shows another method. We’ve posted about plenty of DIY options in the past for building fancy rigs, but this one utilises gear you probably already have.

Peter McKinnon’s recent video taking apart his Canon 1DX Mark II required an overhead shot. He wanted to be able to show the camera what he could see while he was doing it. So, he came up with this solution. All you need is a light stand, a boom arm, and a ball head.

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New GorillaPod “octopus” lets you mount all you need for “pro smartphone videos”

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GorillaPod has a new member of their family of flexible tripods. JOBY has announced GorillaPod Mobile Rig, aimed particularly at smartphone filmmakers. This rig has the same flexible design, but with an extra pair of “arms” in addition to the three legs. So, it lets you mount the additional accessories for a better smartphone video or vlog.

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This custom DIY shoulder rig will turn your camera into a video making monster for $200

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If you shoot video with DSLR or mirrorless cameras and you want to get serious, you really should consider a shoulder rig. They basically turn your camera from being Bruce Banner into The Hulk. You get so much more stability, capability and control. They’re more versatile and dynamic than a tripod or even a monopod. But they’re also often expensive.

Filmmaker, Tom Antos put together his own DIY rig to turn his Sony A6500 into the perfect shoulder mounted camera. As well as giving you the steadiness and manoeuvrability of a much larger camera,  they also help to overcome the shortcomings of smaller DSLR and mirrorless cameras. Like, decent quality audio, lighting, larger screens and battery life.

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