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Shooting straight down over bed??
Hi, I didn’t find a grip forum here so hopefully it’s OK to post this question here.
I am about to DP on my first Red One shoot and we want a shot above a bed, camera aimed vertically down at the bed. No tilting or paning necessary in the shot.
Now here’s the tricky part; It’s a (close to-)no budget student shoot so we cant finance anything particularly professional.I have been thinking down the lines of bolting a hi hat onto something that is held up on each side of the bed etc etc but maybe this is unnecessarily arse-about-face? Is there any cheap-to-hire jib arms that can hold the Red? or is there a tried and tested ingenious solution that you wouldn’t mind sharing?
Many thanks,
Arvid -
6 Replies
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Ronford Baker Sticks + Riser columns + offset + a head that can tilt down a full 90 degrees (O’Conner should do the trick, I think it’s 90 degrees on the tilt down).
Risers and offsets run about $20-40 a day, a piece (If you’re a student, I’d be surprised if they don’t have these in the department anyways). Safe, easy and I assume you’d be working on Ronford Baker/O’Conner or similar anyways. Since it really throws off center of balance, make sure to throw some ball busters on the sticks and prepare to use the camera in a minimal configuration.
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This has been covered before. Some of the other ideas on th elow-budget side included:
Leave the heavy and expensive camera on the ground and just fix a cheap mirror up there, say, from a gobo arm. Zoom into the mirror. Flip the mirror reversal in post with one click.
Stepladders straddling the bed, clamp a long board to the ladders, and clamp a hi-hat to the board. Cost; the lumber and c-clamps. Assume crew members bring the ladders from home or at least one ladder is on-site.
Two boards and some rope: the boards are vertical, with the rope attached to the tops of the boards between them. Stagehands each hold one vertical board and as they lean the boards away from each other, the rope lifts the camera up. Like the sticks and string of a “diablo” toy. Some creative gaffing needed to join the rope to the camera, perhaps a mesh net bag with a lens hole.
Put up a flip cam on the ceiling with a magnet or double-stick tape, left running free. FLip cams are so light you could just hang it off a microphone fishpole boom.
You could also cheat, lean a mattress, pillow and blanket pinned up against the wall, keep the camera on a tripod, and do everything “standing up”. It adds a surreal look.
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I like the mirror idea. I also like the idea of using $20 worth of PVC and connecting it up that way. If you do, use 3/4″ schedule 40 PVC, good cement, and do it like a dual truss or scaffold.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293 -
thanks for that! although i’m not sure i understand how the camera mounts to that? And would PVC hold a min 12kg camera?
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Thanks for the reply!
Yeah the stepladder suggestion is kind of what i thought…but instead of clamping a hihat (which would mean adding the weight of a big fat o’connor head, I’m thinking about drilling a hole in the wood and using a bolt and a big washer going straight into the camera. but would one bolt be safe to hold up the Red? don’t want to flatten the actors or break the kit…the mirror solution is also good but unfortunately theres no space at the foot of the bed…
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12kG might be pushing it for weight tolerance considering there aren’t any cross-members in the illustration I did. I was thinking of a lightweight video or DSLR camera which is only a couple kilos. For 12kg, just to be safe, consider going with wood or aluminum. You can also use one of these multipurpose adjustable ladders: https://www.buy.com/pr/product.aspx?sku=203229033&sellerid=23348424 – I’ve used these for all sorts of things including a makeshift riser for dolly/track and they are light and very strong. May have to get 2 to make this work for your bed scenario.
Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293
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