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Flying my camera with a bicycle wheel... really.

Quite a while ago I posted about my DIY rig to "fly" my camera as well as stabilize while flying. A good friend of mine snapped some shots of me while doing the "flying" at the April Fools Fest at the Sculpture Resource Center in Tucson, AZ. I was "flying" my Canon T2i along with a Audio Technica shotgun mic covered with a nice "dead cat". Someone once asked me how difficult it was to get that "dead cat". I told them; "I don't really know. I never killed a cat."

So here are a few shots of yours truly shooting with my modified aluminum rim, or simply a bicycle wheel extremely modified for my purpose. But hey it works...

Photos by Ron McCoy - Ron McCoy Photography - Tucson, AZ

Some sample shots from this event while using my recycled bicycle wheel rig.

DIY - Camera rig for "flying" shots and image stabilizer.

I like to build things. I like the DIY concept if at all possible. I have several reasons for this.
1. When I build stuff, I get exactly what I want and how I want it.
2. It usually, and I emphasize "usually" costs a lot less than purchasing a finished product.
3. It solves a problem that I needed to solve.
4. It can be fun to build stuff. Sometimes.

Now this is not say, go out and build everything. Somethings are just not worth building. But some things really are. This just so happens to be one of those things. I looked at the prospect of purchasing a "FigRig" (a trademarked name by the way, as well as a patented product.) But for me at the time, it just seemed too cost prohibitive. It is a great tool. It is diverse. It is functional. It is a very slick piece of equipment.

The never ending discussion about frame rates and lots more...

Not too long ago I was involved in a discussion about frame rates and this and that with a local "Indy" guy. He was showing off his T2i and some home made rig stuff. He talked about what they were shooting etc... and then he said the words that to me sounded like someone was pulling their fingernails across a blackboard. "We shoot at 24 frames for that cinematic effect." - Huh? Are you kidding me? So I asked for him to explain the "cinematic effect" to me. Basically, what does the "cinematic effect" look like? Or, what do you mean by "cinematic effect"? I waited.

Cheating: Turning a DSLR into a powerful motion picture camera.

When ever people see this type of footage of mine,



they always go "ooooh" and "ahhh" and then it never fails... the question arises; "how'd you do that?"

Of course there are occasions where simply put, you let a camera roll for 20 minutes up to an hour (tape length) or so and then speed things up in post production. This is somewhat a long process and sometimes can yield weird results as well. For me, this does work after hours of experimentation, fighting with artifacts, hick-ups and ...

But a really clean way and also a very super hi-res way is with my handy dandy Canon Rebel series DSLR. But really any brand of DSLR will work as long as it has a so called "bulb mode". Sort of. Let me explain why you don't want to settle for less than that feature. Please note, I am not talking about the new DSLR's that also have HD video features. I am talking about "run of the mill" DSLR's that only take still shots.

Look, I am not telling you to go out and by a new camera for the sake of a new camera if you don't have that "bulb mode" - you can still do this process. But I can tell you, you will get some weird results by going fully auto on everything.

By not having "bulb mode" and going auto everything, you will get different light settings (brightness), shutter speed, f-stop, focal length etc.. for each frame depending on the action in frame. If a dark car is in frame, the camera will compensate and try to balance the whole shot... but that car no longer exists in the next frame, so guess what? Understand? It will take a bit to get used to. Of course sometimes this might actually make for some good "grunge style" stuff. :) Here is an example of this:




So, by having bulb mode, you can now concisely control the consistency from frame to frame. Hence, you won't get any of those irregular bright flashing, drive you insane and may trigger an epileptic attack feature. Here is what a smooth session looks like with everything manually locked in:



I know this is a subjective call, but this last or prior clip really works even with the stray light and shadows. Hence the changes in light had no effect on the camera settings because they were locked in. Cool? Or in other words, if this was on automatic, it would have been a good half hour of my life that I would never have gotten back.

So moving right along, what else do you need to be successful with this method? So here are some camera possibilities:




Here is a very important, no, mandatory device you will need - and make sure it works with your camera model. These devices are called timers, remotes, intervalometers, incronometers and probably many other scientific names.. but here is a good variety for starters:


And last but not least, you need something to hold that camera super still:



As an alternative to tripods, I have been known to use sandbags, the type we use as weights or counter weights on lighting equipment and I have also used a plastic bag filled with packing popcorn, but the best is a strong cloth bag filled with real popcorn seeds. This will easily "grab" and hold the camera nicely as long as you don't overfill it. If you use a bag of this nature, do not set it on a car hood, roof or anything that can even slightly move or shake from the wind (or people getting in or out of, while slamming the door). (Experience talking here!) - It's a real problem when you have the camera moving, particularly if you use things like, oh, let's say a 400mm zoom lens.

In any case - this is just one method to make your digital still shot camera become a very powerful video camera. Very cool indeed. Stay tuned.. there will be more to come on this topic.

Visiting NAB 2008 in Vegas – Quite a trip!

NAB (or National Association of Broadcasters) had an interesting phenomenon this year.. HD here, HD there, HD everywhere. Basically it was almost impossible to find anything of past resolutions any more. Yes my fellow photags, video gurus and film people – HD is here in full blast!

Sony had a gigantic booth. Canon had a large booth. Then of course there is Panasonic, JVC and so on. But Sony was from my point of view the busiest booth of all. The only problem with that was that I could not get any time with anyone to figure out my next “rig” purchase. Ok, so I may not be the most important videographer in the world. But it was virtually impossible to really get anyone’s time. And that is understandable by any means. Sony had so many toys out there, I felt like a kid walking into a candy store. Of course that simply made any decision more difficult too.

Actually, the whole show made me feel like I was going to have a sugar high. Everyone showed their latest and greatest. Cameras, cranes, and lights oh my! I can only say that I am glad not to be a journalist covering all this wonderful stuff. It would be overwhelming to say the least.
Stock footage is hot! If you shoot, then you should submit. There are many places to sell your footage, and many more to come. But this industry sector is learning quickly that what used to be common may not be so common any more. Competition is getting fierce between the various footage houses. Some have figured it out, and some are going to learn the hard way. But no one really does or understands the concept of automating the managed rights method yet, at least not efficiently for all parties.

Some of the facilitators are more cumbersome than others, and some need to let go of their ego to save themselves. It will be interesting to see how they stack up in about year from now.

B-roll, stock or whatever you want to call it, is here to stay and will grow immensely due to increases in the “Indy” world as well as more Internet based environments. Perhaps we will even see a legal battle in the film/video industry as we did in the music industry several years ago. Remember Napster? It’s all about staying legal, getting rights, and protecting copyright.

Now please don’t hold it against me for not getting into too much detail here. If I did that, this entry would be about 20 miles long and you would get bored. But if you really want to get the scoop on things, read, read and read more. There are plenty of journals, newspapers and magazines to confuse you, enlighten you and help you. Just my opinion. :)