(loud ripping)
- I don't know why I did that but today we're talking about
seven stupid things that'll save your life on a shoot.
Ooh, and it's the truth, let's go.
(rock music)
All right item number one, duck clamps.
Ooh, that's got some kick,
they are super sturdy awesome clamps.
I use them to pin back backdrops, drapes, clothing,
anything like that.
I used them to hold my acoustic blanket
over this massive window that I have and you can
pretty much use these on a constant basis
when you're on set or shooting something.
They always come in handy.
Secondly, they've got a little hole in the top
which is perfect for mounting different types of gear,
so you can throw a thread in there
and put a friction arm or a magic arm on that
and clamp it to the visor in your car
for some audio fixes.
You can put it on your desk
to hold the little aperture LED light or anything like that
but these things are invaluable, they're super small,
you can toss a few in your bag.
Mm, off to the races, duck clamps, that's number one.
Item number two.
No this is not a fashion statement this is item number two.
These are little red cable ties.
Now Think Tank makes these and these are amazing
for so many different reasons.
If you have stuff hanging off your camera bag
that you want to attach to the camera bag
you can use one of these.
If you've got a bunch of cables like this
that you need to organize in your backpack,
whatever the bag is that you're using.
You wrap that around, you pull this little thing in
and there you go, you now have a perfectly organized
little cable tie.
These things are so handy.
I have dozens and dozens of these,
mostly because I lose them all the time and I end up
giving them away to people who are like, can I have one!
Yes you can, but you can buy these in bags of like 12
or something like that, but they always come in handy
to organize things, and that's key.
When we're out there shooting we're trying to get
our stuff together.
You don't wanna be digging through cables,
you don't wanna be digging like a dog in the dirt
trying to find what you need.
We're just jerry-rigging here guys and that's the beauty
of these things, super versatile.
So versatile, versatile, vers, whatever.
They're amazing, that's what they are,
that's what you need to know.
That's item number two.
Item number three, is,
(loud ripping)
my all time favorite, gaff tape.
You can not go wrong with this.
I know some of you might think like.
Gaff tape can be used in so many different ways,
primarily taping cables down to the floor.
If you're on shoot and you've got boom mikes
and you've got big strobes and you've got video lights
and stuff like that, you don't want people tripping.
If you're the one who's in charge on set
and you got people falling and hurting themselves,
ugh, bad news.
So tape the cables down, super easy to do.
Gaff tape doesn't leave residue so you can pull that
right off the cable and you're not gonna have
a sticky disgusting mess.
And beyond taping cables down to the floor
you can use this stuff in a number of situations.
I tape GoPros to the wall, I tape them to the ground,
I tape them to my shoes.
I use this tape to tape GoPros to railings.
I pretty much use it for whatever I can possibly use it for.
It's an invaluable accessory that just always
comes in handy.
It's like one of those moments where you're like,
oh, we'll just use gaff tape!
Not only does it come in black but it comes in
a whole host of colors so that you can use it
to organize stuff.
I put it on my luggage, I put it on my camera accessories.
That way I know what is what
when I'm trying to grab something out of my camera bag
super fast.
Oh, so so good!
(loud rattling)
All right here's a little camera hack I showed you guys
way back, but this, these body caps,
I actually bought extra ones for this very reason.
I used a body cap, nestled with a lens cap,
in order to hold all my little micro SD cards
and all those stupid little bits that I always lose.
Check this out.
So these things here nestle together perfectly.
Inside is where I keep all the micro SD cards
and all the adapters, and then the cap goes on
and it locks in there, and I throw this
(loud crashing)
into my camera bag, into my closet, into my car.
Whatever it is I know that that's not gonna get lost.
It makes a lot of noise 'cause it rattles,
I'm never gonna lose it.
I can always find where it is
when I'm dumping stuff around.
But that's such a great way to keep those loose bits,
nice and tight together so you're never gonna misplace them.
(upbeat music)
All right, next up is a grip head.
Now not many people may know what a grip head is
if you're just getting into this.
If you're in the industry and you've done shoots before
you know exactly what a grip head is.
They are incredible little pieces of technology.
So what is a grip head?
Well this is a grip head, it's this big obnoxious
weird looking piece of technology
that you might think to yourself that doesn't look like fun
however this slides on top of your light stand
and then you lock it down, make sure it's nice and tight,
and then it's got all these different mounting options
on the side.
So you can stick a boom mike in it,
you can stick flags in it so you can block off light.
You can actually keep unscrewing these and then just
use that open area as like teeth or a clamp
in and of itself, and stick foam core in there
or stick other things in there to bounce light,
give yourself some fill, that kind of thing,
instead of having someone hold it or just trying to
balance it or lean it against something.
You know that you're always gonna have a mounting option
for audio, for flags, for bounce cards, for foam core,
whatever it is, grip heads,
they're not the most exciting thing
but oh man are they handy.
All right next up is an acoustic blanket.
Now I use this so much.
I didn't think that I would but I do.
If you've got a really loud light
that's making a lot of noise on set, maybe it's humming,
you can throw this blanket over it,
and it's gonna dampen that sound immediately.
If you're shooting and there's an exit sign,
maybe there's some light pouring through a door somewhere,
you can clip this blanket up and block out
all of that light.
You can use the clamps to do that or you can tape down
the extra side so that no light bleeds through.
Now on top of that it's an acoustic blanket
so it's meant to dampen sound, so if you need to record
some audio using a recorder, you can literally throw this
over your head like you're dressing up for Halloween
like you're a ghost, and now that you're under the blanket,
you can start recording your audio and it's gonna sound
super super crisp.
Be forewarned that if someone finds you doing this,
and you're hiding under an acoustic blanket
recording audio by yourself in your bedroom,
it's a little weird but it does the trick so well.
Lastly I actually use these sometimes
to cover all of my equipment in the back of a truck,
in the back of a car, or in your trunk.
If you've got stuff that you don't want seen
through the back windows,
just throw the blanket over everything
and it's completely black, it keeps everything safe,
keeps the sun off of it.
So an acoustic blanket has so many uses
that I think you guys are gonna really love,
and find that well how did I live without that.
And the last thing, these things I love,
and I've talked about them before, are friction arms.
You can do so much with friction arms.
They have these adjustable clamps.
You clamp it on to pretty much anything
and it gives you a mounting options.
You can mount monitors, you can mount recorders,
you can mount cameras, you can mount GoPro.
You can literally mount anything with a friction arm
and pretty much clamp that friction arm anywhere.
So I have so many of these in a host of different sizes.
I've been saying that a lot today, a host.
I've got these in a mix of different sizes just because
different sizes hold different weight equipment.
So one will hold a camera, one might only hold a monitor.
It's great to have a whole bunch of these because
you can just configure them like Lego.
The more equipment, and the more grip equipment
you start acquiring, you start actually being able to
come up with these new MacGyver ways to jerry-rig stuff
onto different things and you just make things work for you.
When you have all of these tools that are stupid things
that you would typically overlook,
they end up helping up you and you end up loving them,
and then you end up being like, I can't live without them!
So those are my seven stupid things
that you can't live without that'll save your life
on a shoot.
I hope you guys enjoyed them.
Hit that like button if you liked this video,
subscribe if you aren't already,
and, and, I'll see you guys in the next video.
It's true, I'll be here.
I'll see you then.
(upbeat music)