It’s a tough economy out there right now so it seemed like time to bring out the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) links for building your own filmmaking gear. For filmmakers on a budget.
JIB Arms/Cranes
- Nice jib arm, well designed, and it allows tilting of the camera.
- Heavy Duty with lots of instructions and pictures.
- Nice looking Jib Arm rig
- Cool but simple Speed-Rail jib arm.
- Bob Vento’s jib arm, simply and very professional.
- Another crane with very detailed instructions and images. Heavy duty.
- Cody Deegan’s Jib Plans with VERY VERY DETAILED .pdf files! Exact instructions with photos and drawings.
- Dave’s Crane. It’s .zip file with a lot of BMP images inside with detailed drawings.
- A great .doc file instructional tutorial, with very detailed diagrams and instructions.
Dollies
- Very simple but easy to build dolly with skateboard wheels.
- Nice dolly with simple diagrams and easy instructions!
- The original $14 skate wheel dolly tutorial
- Very, VERY simply PVC dolly with good instructions and photos.
- A great .doc file instructional tutorial, with very detailed diagrams and instructions.
Stabilzers/Steadicams
- $14 Steadicam for the poor man in us all. GREAT article with even some useful addons. Very detailed step by step instructions with photos.
- Detailed Stabilizer with photos. Nice design.
- Probably the simplest stabilizer explanation/tutorial.
- Simple stabilizer with instructions and a few photos. Simple design.
- Building a steadycam with anything heavy, save yourself money!
- A great .doc file instructional tutorial, with very detailed diagrams and instructions.
Bluescreen/Greenscreen
This is one of my favorite summaries of what a producer does … written by film producer JD Disalvatore. It’s bawdy, funny, acerbic and accurate.
