hey everybody adam savage here in my cave with a tool tip um but this is a
whole bunch of tool tips so we're gonna have a sort of library of tool links
in the in the comments below but this one is specifically about
how we've been filming how i've been filming in my cave for the past seven or eight months uh
when the lockdown first started norm chan set up a camera for me with a microphone attached to it
on a tripod and put it over in the corner of the shop and i spent about half an hour
setting up a shot trying to talk to the camera and
i just didn't have it i didn't have the energy i know how to operate a video camera i do but
i needed lower friction to get to work to get to filming my work and so i started using
my phone uh i started using my iphone and turned out the footage was fine i mean the whole internet
had lowered its resolution for covid anyway uh and the apple front-facing camera is fantastic
and frankly it's only getting better i can't wait for the new 12 plus but
i started filming everything on my phone and i started sculpting my shooting rig
to be as fast and efficient for me as possible because i want to maintain a flow state
of building and at the same time i really want to tell a story about the building
and that is a that's a complicated thing and i think everybody who makes stuff on youtube has to
grapple with this uh for from my own experience on mythbusters you know jamie and i and carrie torre
and grant were all successful on that show because we were fast at doing what we did and we had to do
it even more fast than that because we had to stop and talk about it all the time on camera
and that that that back and forth between breaking your flow state and getting back into it is that
can be tough so over the past few months i have refined my tested shooting rig and i just actually
experimented with taking it all the way across country i shot a a diary of my trip across country
we're gonna cut it we're not sure what kind of video we're gonna get out of it we're gonna we're
gonna cut it into something uh and this rig was perfect for taking a cross-country this is this is
this is the sum total of my tested shooting rig and i'm gonna walk you through all of the contents
yes this is one of my bags this is a custom one uh made of dyneema i love this one uh you can get
these on adamsavage.com uh everything i need is in here i'm gonna lay it out and walk you through
all the parts and the pieces and i'm actually gonna have a little bit of trouble here because
my phone here the one i'm shooting on is mounted to one of the key pieces of equipment stop that um
so i'm gonna have to figure out how to hold my phone with something else
all right let's get started first and foremost is the slate this i made so that i could do some
information management on my phone but it's i love this thing i it actually helps me get my head in
the game um i use it for every shoot i don't use it for every shot but i use it at the beginning
for all my tops and my tails and uh yeah i've got uh tool tips one day builds show and tells i think
i need another one i can't remember what it is but we're toying around with a new category of video
and uh yeah i use the so alongside the slate which i did a one day build on
i also have uh black masking tape which i use for the labeling and by the way of all masking tapes
black masking tape is it is the king of masking tapes it's the the the matte finish is just
beautiful i love i love this tape i love the way it feels i love the way it peels off it is
my favorite it is expensive it tends to be more expensive than the green or the blue stuff but
this is great great product um to write on here i use my favorite paint marker
this is a uh kugel's correction pen this is a whiteout pen um yeah the quality of that writing
i just i really love it so that is how i that is how i delineate
each of the each of the pieces now i have some other and some other chunks here let's see
okay so this is one of the most key parts of this shooting setup this is a clamp with some lock line
attached to it that had a quarter 20 bolt out at the end it is not sold this long no so what i did
and i needed it to be this long so i can really maneuver uh and play around with this and i'll
show you how i do that but um i really like this this this spring clamp it's got a nice positive
grab it opens up quite wide it um it easily it easily grabs my big old bowling top table there
so what i did to extend it was i simply bought some more lengths of lock line and i
attached them together until i had it as long as i needed it
um how long is it it is 30 inches long and 30 inches turns out to be the ideal now
how do i hold okay hold on
oh am i rolling wow okay i'm rolling uh so here is the monopod with the foot attached and i rest it
on the ground then what i do is i attach the joby to the end of this and that's a nice positive grab
okay and then uh right the phone goes in here gets tightened down and then when i want to shoot
i just grab this and set it up so that it's roughly where i want and it takes a little
bit of positioning and it's certainly not like crazy stable but dude that is about the fastest
lightest rig i can conceive of that gives me a face height there we go like a face height
tripod without a tripod right this is uh this is really great the i will say this manfrotto has um
has undergone a huge amount of abuse and it has not shown any real wear and tear
um so i can set this up like this i can also set it up like that and look down
right yeah so i mean it takes some balancing to get it right and again it's not super stable but
for one person working alone this is fantastic and it all bolts down it all dismantles to fit
in this humble bag the last thing the last pair of things that i needed is a cable and a charger
because when i'm setting up like this i don't want to have to be three feet or even six feet
from a plug i need to be way farther and uh ryan kaiser on tested uh found me this incredible cable
this is like 22 feet long we're including a link below to one that i found i i think ryan will have
to give me the link to where he got this this is crazy long and it charges the phone it's beautiful
i can literally yeah it goes everywhere and i have a a a nice ihome uh four plug four plug
uh usb charger and that's great for charging both my phone and the and the uh the the tested phone
and uh that's it that is the sum total of our tested filming ah yeah it's again not not super
stable but super versatile and for me it provides the lowest possible friction to me working and
also filming and telling stories about me working um and that i get to enjoy both of those things
uh on the same plane so uh let's do one last recap shall we there you have it the my personal
savage tested shooting rig it all fits in the savage industry's bag made of dyneema totally
indestructible purchasable and adamsavage.com uh we've got our paint marker our slate and our black
masking tape for addressing the slate we've got our crazy super long usb cable that charges the
phone plus a usb charger that has more than one port so i can charge other things we've got the
joby phone clamp here nice and positive again i wish it was spring-loaded and sure i could
add a spring in there but right now i like how positive it is we've got my camera clamp with
the added pieces of lock line to turn it into a 30 inch extended arm on a clamp we've got the tripod
base for my monopod my carbon fiber monopod and there's my carbon fiber monopod okay now i want to
make it clear that it's not like i've gone through every possible version of each one of these things
and and i'm letting you know that these are all the best versions of each one of these
no no no no some of these i frankenstein together out of parts that i had from other projects um
this is sort of what i frankenstein together during lockdown to make myself a super versatile
easy to travel lightweight shooting rig but there are cheaper versions there are less expensive
versions of every single one of these parts and if you have ones that you love by all means i would
love to know about them improvement is an ongoing process not a not a an end in and of itself uh and
this rig has proven to be perfect for me i will tell you actually as i was driving
this clamp with the extended arm was so fabulous for uh time-lapse shots on the road shots of me
while driving and doing my pickups to camera while driving uh it's also stunning in here
uh and i know listen i'm aware that i could do better about making sure you can see my hands
and what i'm working on when i'm uh doing one day builds so um i i'm that's not a problem with
the equipment that's a problem with the operator and i'm working on it i i promise um if you have
other parts and pieces that are like that would complement this rig or stuff that you utilize
camera clamps that you have found are really robust i'd love to know about them in the comments
yeah it's a moving target i am very happy with this rig and i hope this information
is useful to you if you are looking to tell stories about the things that you
are doing thank you guys for joining me for this tool tip yeah i can't believe
what you can do now with technology it's it's pretty amazing i'll see you guys next time bye