Hi this is Jay P. Morgan. Today on The Slanted Lens we’re going to talk about clamps. The
basic clamps and the ones that I love. So let’s get started see what we can do.
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Now this is not super glamorous stuff to talk about. But it’s the basics that we use every
single day that we’re on set. One of my listeners wrote in and said, “Tell me about
clamps.” Well here you go. We’re gonna talk about clamps. The clamps that every body
uses and a couple you might not have heard of before.
The first clamp ever body knows this clamp. This is an A-clamp. There’s a lot of different
names for this clamp but A-clamp. It just clamps everything together. You buy them at
the hardware store for like, three dollars, maybe four dollars at the most. That’s the
first clamp every body should always buy. They come in this kind of medium size, a large
one and a smaller one and some teeny ones. I use the tiny ones to clip, uh, gels on the
front of lights. Uh, just like, a, a clothespin but it won’t -- they’re a little stronger
than a close pin. Use the smaller ones for pulling clothes behind someone’s back. You
know to tighten up their shirt. Make them look a little bit more slim. This is the most
all purpose clamp that you’ll ever see on set. Every body has a whole rope with a whole
string of these things. So, the A-clamp.
Now we’re gonna step up into a clamp that’s gonna cost us a little more money. It’s
called a Super Clamp. These are made by Matthews, by Avenger, by Kupo. I mean all kinds of companies
make these. So there’s different versions on a super clamp. It’s basically a jaw that
clamps. Clamps in an offset fashion. So they’ll clamp around a pipe very nicely. You tighten
it up and it’s got a 5/8-inch spud on the top. And on this one you can change this out.
You have a 3/8 inch, uh, thread. So these are fabulous for --. You can put your camera
on this. Climb up to the ceiling. Put a GoPro on these things with a little mount. You can
pull this out and put this on a c-stand or a regular stand. It’ll go right on a regular
stand and you just tighten this down. And now you’ve got a grip there to hold, uh,
a backdrop pole or something else you can use it. This is the version on the super-clamp.
But it’s basically kind of the super-clamp with the receiver to put on to a stand. Now
you have a stand automatically. You’ve got a way to clamp a pole in here and you’ve
also got yourself a 5/8-inch post in order to put light and different things on the top
of it. The advantage of this is that you can do two things with this at one time. You can
run this on your c-stand or regular stand. You can have a background pole here and you
can put your background light right there. That’s just one of a thousand different
things you can use with this configuration.
Next clamp is a Cardellini. A Cardellini is simply a post with a 5/8-inch receiver on
it. And jaws that clamp towards that post. Twist goes in the back, twists up. And you
tighten yourself on your -- on your pole. Wherever you’re going to put this thing.
Advantage of a Cardellini is that you have a single post and you’re tightening that
right into place. You can kind of get this into tighter places than some of these other
clamps that have this big gripping thing that you have to get a hold of the handle in the
back. This you can slide it up in there, get it over the pole, tighten it up from the bottom
and it’s very tight. So it’s very easy to use in tight spaces but it’s a they’re
a great clamp to look at and understand.
The next one is a platypus. Platypuses are just great because they go like this:
[Clamp] [Clamp] [Clamp] [Clamp]
How could you not love a clamp that did that? But it’s just fabulous for grabbing bead
board. Reflectors. You set this on to your c-stand just like that. It hooks on to your
bead board. It just -- it gives you a longer, a wider area that clamps onto things. And
the ability to tighten it and to loosen it. Uh, which is really a nice thing too. The
downside of a platypus is you have to have a c-stand to use it. It’s pretty hard to
use otherwise. Because it doesn’t have any way to attach it to a regular stand. You’ve
got your 5/8-inch post. But you got to have a c-stand to make it very effective.
Now this is made by Kupo. It’s basically gonna be the same concept as an a-clamp. But
with the ability, an adjustment here, that allows you to change the grip. You can either
make the grip smaller or larger. You can get this large enough to clamp onto a 2x4 in some
larger bites. So that’s what it’s made for. To get this to bite it on something larger
that you want to put it on around. A -- a larger pole, a 2x4. Some big area you want
to clamp onto but gives you two 5/8-inch area that you can clamp a light to. Either down
below it if you’re going to clamp, or out the back which gives you two different places
to attach. So this is an interesting clamp. More of a specialty clamp. But definitely
a useful one.
This is an old grip clamp forever. This is actually a newer version, a new one. But this
is just a c-clamp. A c-clamp that goes onto whatever surface you try to clamp that onto.
But it’s got two different spots you 'cause it’s got two 5/8 inch, uh, posts on it.
The biggest downside of these things is that I find them hard ‘cause they’re big. It’s
hard to get your hand in there to tighten these things in tight areas. And they also,
they s-- they slip. They roll like this if you kinda pull n it it starts to roll around
unless you really clamp this thing hard. Whereas some of these other have rubber and things
on that kind of hold it on tight. This is more muscle. This is like muscle grip equipment,
this guy here. And this is small. They get them bigger. I mean there are huge ones. Put
big lights on them. And but they’re really an effective tool but just a tough one to
use. So that’s the C-clamp light hanger.
This is a chain vice grip. It’s just a vice grip. And the vice grip has a chain that goes
around it. That chain now you can wrap around big stuff. You can wrap this around a couple
of poles. You can wrap it around bigger areas. I use chain vice grips to stabilize things
all the time. If you’ve got a post or slider that’s a long run you can take a c-stand,
lean it against the slider or against the stand that’s holding the slider. And it’s
on a 45 degree angle. Level with the chain vice grip, lock it down. And then you put
a sandbag on it and you stabilize your stuff. So these are great to tie things together
that aren’t exactly parallel but they’re big and they’re heavy. They’re -- they’re
just a big piece of equipment to haul around. So not an easy thing to use a lot times.
So if I was going to put together my beginning kit of all these kinds of clamps this is what
I’d do. I would put ten a-clamps, three of the super clamps, and one platypus.
And the reason being is this: ten a-clamps just to clamp everything. You can do anything
you need to with them. Then you have three of your super clamps. Two to hold up a backdrop,
one to use for a light. Two to use together. Use just some combination of those three,
put a light up at the ceiling. Hang a drop- just gives you a nice combination. You need
at least three of them. Then one platypus. That platypus is gonna hold your bead board,
it’s gonna hold your foam core, it’s gonna hold some kind of reflector for you. So you
got ten a-clamps. Three of your super clamps, and one platypus is a great kit to start out.
Now if I were to sneak one other clamp in there it’d be a coupe of the Cardellinis.
Those are pretty amazing.
So there you have it. A good look at clamps. The ones that I would use. And kind of the
basic clamps. I learned this also. Do not do this on your nose because, Ah! That hurts
like crazy when you do that. So don’t do that! So there’s a look at clamps.
Keep those cameras rollin’, keep on clickin’.
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