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How to build a DIY Teleprompter

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Anyone who remembers my early videos knows that my command of the english language is far from perfect extremely creative. It was after several long days with many takes that I decided to test using a teleprompter. My first test was just placing an iPad with a teleprompter app and giving it a shot. We went down from million takes to three after 15 minutes of fiddling.

There was one caveat though, it was looking weird as my eyes were not looking at the camera anymore. This is when I decided to build a teleprompter. (In whole honesty, after living with my wooden, handcrafted prompter for several months, I did go for a more streamlined option. But for testing sake, several months of usage and about $15 I was quite happy.

If you think that you can benefit from a magical device that whispers your next line when you are doing video, hit the jump button for instructions.

3 Critical Tips For Setting C-Stands Up

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C-stands are undoubtedly one of the most important tools for a setting up (big) lights and other heavy equipment. But while using a C-stand may seem trivial, if not done in the right way it’s just begging for a broken rib/light/head or possibly all three.

The combination of “heavy” with “high” does require some know-how to avoid an accident. And the team at RocketJump Film School share the three critical tips to avoid a stand falling on your head.

5 Clever Microphone Mounts For Shooting Video

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Well, there are the trivial ways for mounting a microphone when shooting with DSLR (or with any camera actually), some sometimes, the traditional ways are just not compact enough, or versatile enough or quick enough. And this is where this quick video from DSLR Video Shooter comes handy.

Add to this Rode VideoMic Pro or VideoMic GO and you can create some interesting setups that can really up your audio game. At the end this is about how far away you (or your talent) are away from the mic, this video has five quick (and mostly cheap) ways to mount your microphone for either field or studio usage.

Watch This 1995 Film That Shows That A Grip Does

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If you are just starting your way on movie sets, you probably hear grip this and grip that. But what is a grip anyways and what do they do?

Well, they do pretty much anything that’s involved with movie magic. (special effects and CGI aside), they are guys who set up dollies, move tracks, place microphones and lighting gear. And basically anything that you’d say, but how the heck can I put THIS over THERE, they know how to put it THERE for you.

It is a hard job which is not often credited, so it was nice to see this oldie from 1995 made at Paramount Studios Grip Dept showing what the Local 80 brothers grip team are doing on their day to day routine. Imagine how would this movie look if they had GoPros, Drones and stabilized gimbals.

Get A Grip movie was made by Laura Jacobson (former Grip), and produced by husband and wife  Richard and Marcie Lestz Jastrow.

[GET A GRIP via reddit]

Mount A GoPro Anywhere With This $20 Clamp Mount

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Here is a clever way to attach a GoPro to just about anything. The best thing, it will cost you almost nothing.

Videographer Dustin McLean found out that you don’t need a fancy branded $50 clamp mount for a GoPro, you can actually build a good one yourself for about $20.

If you have your GoPro connected to a tripod mount (which you really should have) then it’s one of the easiest DIYs you saw here on the blog. It involved a Spring Clamp, A Small ballhead, a machine screw and two nuts.

Starting With C-Stands? You Should Watch This C-Stands 101

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There comes a point at any photographer or videographer’s life where they start using big lights or other big gear and migrate to C-stands. Ok, not every photographer. But if you have never used a C-stand you are definitely in for a treat. The only thing is that C-stands take a little more know-how to use safety than light stands. This is where Eric Jang and his C-Stands 101 comes in.

The movie is only about 10 minutes long, but is highly recommended if you are handling C-stands and even more so if you are doing it near people or in small production spaces. And is a must if you ever consider working as Grip.

Here are just a few tips that I picked up. Some, I already did out of habit or intuition, but hearing them said like rules just helps sort them out in my head.

The GaffGun Straighten, Tapes and Secures Cables In Seconds

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If you ever had a set with lots of cables you know how important it is to have them all secured. Even with the best insurance plan you really don’t want anyone stumbling over one of the ‘bumps’. In the ‘good’ scenario, they will stumble curse a little and continue, in the medium scenario they will fall. And in the worse scenario they will take down your $20,000 lights.

So what do you do? You get down on your hands and knees gaff like crazy. Sadly, Gaffing a cable to the floor, while classified as grantwork, is not an easy task. It involves tapping small bits of gaff on the cable and then going back and reapplying gaff to the whole thing.

And this is what the GaffGun is here to solve. The GaffGun is somewhat of a packaging tape dispenser on steroids. You drop a Gaffer roll in the thing and simply roll it on the floor. It has rails to guide the cables and securely gaff them to the floor. This means that it is almost trivial to run cables in a straight line.

Build Your Own Inexpensive Transport Equipment Cases

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Basic tools and carpentry techniques can save you a lot of cash when protecting your valuable hardware! Like a lot of video producers on a budget I’m always looking for ways to save cash while moving forward with the realistic hardware needs of various projects. The recent purchase of a pair of vintage Colortran 2K Fresnel lights nudged me to seek some type of protective storage and transport case option that wasn’t insanely priced. These are big fixtures and they call for big cases.

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