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(film rolls)
Hey, everybody, welcome back to The Frugal Filmmaker,
the place where dreams can come true.
Now, in the last episode, I teased everyone,
saying that this episode would feature the number one
most requested piece of DIY gear.
And as you can tell from the title,
it's a camera crane or a jib.
Essentially, a camera on the end of a pole.
It allows you to get swooping, up-and-down shots,
low-angle shots, high-angle shots, all kinds of things.
But they're expensive, so,
people ask me to build one inexpensively.
Now, the criteria that I had for this build
was it had to be under $30, it had to be transportable,
and it had to be made from off-the-shelf parts.
And this is what I came up.
(stately classical music)
Now, I must add a disclaimer here, saying that the $30
does not include the heavy duty tripod you'll need,
the monitoring system, or the counter weights.
All of those things you can do in a variety of ways,
which I have no control over.
But I will show you how I did mine.
But the $30 is, essentially, is the crane itself.
Now, that being said, let's build the thing.
Okay, here's your parts list.
You've got a 10-foot piece of steel chain link top rail.
Notice the tapered end.
That's important.
You've got a group of PVC parts here, half-inch PVC.
There's a three-inch piece of PVC pipe
and a five-inch piece of PVC pipe.
You have a T-joint, you've got an elbow joint,
you have a pair of plugs, and you have an end cap.
And here's some quarter-inch bolts,
they're an inch and a half in length.
And you've got a couple of nuts to go with them.
You've got a pair of training wheels here.
These are pulleys.
They have plastic wheels and rubber grooved tires.
Very important.
Here's a hook and eye turnbuckle.
It's the smallest one you can find.
Here's some 50-pound test line.
That's fishing line.
You've got a dumbbell handle with screw collars.
You've got this piece of steel angle used
as our camera platform.
You've got a three-inch bolt.
That's a 3/8-inch bolt.
You've got some 3/8-inch nuts.
You've got a pair of 3/8-inch fender washers.
You have a quarter-inch machine screw
and a couple of nuts and a lock washer to go with it.
You've got a quick plate from your tripod.
You've got a four-inch, 3/8-inch bolt.
You got a pair of 3/8-inch fender washers.
You've got a regular 3/8-inch washer
and a lock washer.
And you have four 3/8-inch nuts right here.
One, two, three, four.
Oh, and I almost forgot.
You need a way to screw your camera to the platform,
so here's a quarter-inch screw
with a cool knob attached to it.
You need about five or six threads
on your quarter-inch screw.
Here is another quarter-inch machine screw
with a quarter-inch wing nut.
That's about two-and-a-half inches.
Okay, here's your tool list.
You'll need a hand drill,
along with an actual, real drill press.
You can't drill through that steel without a drill press.
Here're some scissors.
You have a pair of screwdrivers.
Phillips and a flat head.
You've got two different wrenches here,
actually similar in size, a 9/16 and a 14.
Then, you've got a 7/16 wrench.
Also got a pair of PVC ratcheting cutters
to cut the PVC with.
And we need some way to cut metal.
This is a cheap, flimsy hacksaw.
I wouldn't recommend you use this.
Use something like a chop saw or a Sawzall
or something, but if you have to use a hacksaw,
I feel sorry for ya.
(cheerful xylophone music)
Okay, when you get your top rail at the hardware store,
have them cut it in half there.
Go to your plumbing aisle.
They should have a pipe cutter there
and they'll cut the top rail in half for you.
Just makes it a lot easier than trying to do it
at a later date.
So, make them do the work.
They'll do it for free.
Now, take the end you just cut off, not the tapered end,
and drill a hole two feet from one of those ends.
That's a 3/16-inch hole right there.
Then take your tapered end, flip it around,
and we'll drill the size hole one inch from the end.
It's also 3/16.
Now flip both ends around.
And insert one end into the other,
drilling a hole through both pieces.
This is how you join your ends together
and secure them so they don't fall apart.
Next up, take your dumbbell handle
and cut it right in half.
This a solid steel bar inside, so, hopefully,
you have something with some power behind it.
Now, take your top rail with the hole drilled
two feet from one end, and take one of your dumbbell halves
and grind down the edge on a sidewalk,
and pop it in the end.
Now, originally, the idea was to take the dumbbell handle,
insert it into the top rail, and hit it with a mallet
or a hammer to get it to stay,
but I actually found if you took the dumbbell handle
and put it into the top rail and turned it like a screw,
it would go right in.
Now, this would shave away a little bit of the padding
on the dumbbell handle, but it works amazingly
and it looks like it belongs there.
(cheerful music)
For your tilt lever assembly, you're gonna take
one of your training wheels and drill two holes
opposite each other in the rubber of the tire.
Do the same thing with your half-inch PVC plugs.
These are quarter-inch holes.
And you're using them because you're gonna use
a quarter-inch screw, one of your quarter-inch screws
is an inch and a half long.
Assemble it like so.
Your quarter-inch nut goes here.
Hold it with your finger
and tighten it with your Phillips head,
if that's what your screw requires.
Then, just insert a flat head screw driver against the nut
so that it stays put.
And tighten the thing up.
And do the same with the opposite side.
Then, you can assemble your PVC parts like so.
The smaller PVC pipe or three-inch pipe
will go in the middle of your two joints.
And your five-inch piece will go in the end of your T-joint,
like this, as your handle, and your cap goes on the end
to complete the look.
There you go.
(cheerful xylophone music)
Now, here are the parts for your camera mount.
Take your second pulley or training wheel
and drill another quarter-inch hole in the rubber like this.
This will allow you to take your quarter-inch machine screw,
inch and a half in length, and pass it through
a lock washer and a fender washer, and through the pulley.
Put a nut on the other end, and then tighten it up,
using your, one of your screw drivers
and your 7/16-inch wrench.
Now, take your steel angle and put it over the protruding
machine screw and quarter-inch nut.
Follow that with a fender washer
and another quarter-inch nut.
Tighten these down with the wrench and the screw driver.
(metal clanking)
This is gonna give you your camera platform,
but I must say that after I did this,
I had to take the whole thing apart and actually bend
the steel angle upwards a little bit
because the weight of the camera was causing it
to give too much on the rubber, giving me a crooked shot.
So, I had to go back and put the steel angle in a vise
and beat it with a hammer a little bit,
so that it would compensate for the weight of the camera.
(cheerful xylophone music)
To start your wire assembly, you're gonna take
your 50-pound test fishing line and cut off 18 feet of it.
Next, you're gonna take that 18 feet
and measure seven inches in from one end.
Bend it over and create a loop.
Do the same on the other end.
Then, take one of those loops and pass it through the eye
of the turnbuckle.
Take the opposite loop and pass it through the first loop.
And snug it up tight.
And you're done.
Just remember that when you store it,
you're gonna need to wrap it around a spool of some kind.
Otherwise, it'll tangle easily
and you'll have to do the whole thing over.
It's not fun.
Okay, let's put some of these pieces together.
First, we're gonna take our tripod head
and tilt it completely downward.
I'm gonna put my quick plate inside of that,
which exposes this great 3/8-inch hole
that my Bogen 501 head quick plate comes with.
This allows me to pass through our four-inch bolt.
I've got mine padded with some washers and a lock washer.
I can just put it through this hole here.
And then cover that with a fender washer.
3/8-inch fender washer.
And I take the rear section of the pole,
with the weight screw collar on one end,
put it on like this.
And then cover it with another fender washer.
And lock it down with a nut.
Now, it's important to lock these down pretty tightly
because if you've got your holes aligned properly,
it'll only be level if it's snug against the quick plate
or the fender washer.
I'm gonna tighten it down pretty good here.
And then, you're gonna put a second nut over that
and tighten them against each other.
Next, goes on the tilt lever assembly.
And you're gonna put two more nuts over that
to hold it on.
Now, it's important that this is snug and doesn't rattle.
But not too snug because then you won't be able to turn it.
Actually, it might be a good idea to put a washer
in between the nuts and the plastic,
'cause the plastic was getting shaved off,
I was noticing.
Then, tighten both those nuts against each other
when you have it in the right spot.
Next, join your two halves together.
Line up the holes and pass your quarter-inch machine screw
through both pieces of pipe,
and secure it with your wing nut.
You don't need to tighten this with a screw driver,
you can just use your hands because all you wanna do
is keep it from falling apart.
(metal rattles)
Okay, now, rest your opposite end on a chair or something,
since now you've got a 10-foot pole to deal with.
And pass your three-inch, 3/8-inch bolt
through the hole that's an inch from the end.
Secure it with a nut and then tighten the whole thing down
with your two wrenches.
Next, take your camera run assembly
and slide it over the protruding bolt.
And then put two more of your 3/8-inch nuts
over this.
Make sure the pulley isn't rattling, but is secure
yet somewhat loose.
And then tighten the two nuts against each other.
Okay, let's attach your wire assembly by wrapping your wire
around your tilt lever on one end
and your camera pulley on the other.
You'll then take your open loop
and attach it to the hook on your turnbuckle, like so.
Next, get full tension by turning you tilt lever
around like this, and bite the wire into the pulley.
If you don't have enough tension, tighten up the turnbuckle.
All you have to do now is attach your camera.
Now, the counter weights are of the half-inch variety,
which are the least expensive.
You can get used ones at a thrift store
or new ones at Walmart for about a dollar a pound.
The most important thing about counter weights
are that you'll know when you're balanced
because you can let go of your crane and it won't move.
That's what you want.
Now, if you wanna see what you're shooting,
you're gonna need some kind of monitoring system.
I've recycled my old video camera to use it as a monitor.
I've got a cable running from the video output
to my HD camera on the end of the jib,
to the video inputs on this SD camera.
The nice thing about using an old video camera
is that you probably already have batteries,
and it's got a built-in mounting system.
Now, I've got the video cables wire tied
down the length of the entire pole,
but I've got a coupler in the middle,
so that when I break down the pole,
I can also break down the cables and leave them attached.
Okay, now, the biggest problem you're gonna have
to contend with is probably the canted angle
or crooked shot that you might end up with
that you didn't plan on.
This is because the platform isn't bent enough,
or it's giving too much on the pulley.
Or, the top rails aren't, the holes aren't properly aligned.
Or whatever.
You just have to tweak these things until you get
the straightest shot you can get.
And even if you can't get the straightest perfect shot
'cause of all these factors, you can always turn
the thing in post.
Just take your frame and tweak it a little bit.
You can do this in Vegas with the pan-crop tool.
I'm sure other editors will allow you to do the same thing.
And that's your frugal camera crane and or jib.
If you liked this project,
please come to thefrugalfilmmaker.com for more.
And please find us on Instructables, Twitter,
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And if you have a comment, question, or request,
please send it to thefrugalfilmmaker@gmail.com.
We'll see ya next time.
(stately classical music) (film rolls)