Digital Video - December 2008 - (Page 21)

THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF BUILDING MY OWN POLE(ANSKI) CRANE. THE MAKING OF ROMAN IS THAT A CAMERA ON YOUR POLE? (OR ARE YOU JUST PLEASED TO SEE ME?) I’m surfing the Web and I see the amazing walrus video at www.polecam.com/walrus/index.html. That settles it. I want a Polecam. They’re made in the U.K. Price, £15,000. I’d buy one if I had $30,000 spare, I really would. What to do? Looks simple enough to build something similar. Back to Google — type in “carbon fiber tubing.” I e-mail a supplier: “Hi. I want to buy 20' of tubing.” “Sure, we can fabricate that for you.” “You mean you’ve got make it up specially?” “Tell me the outer dimension, the inner dimension and how you will connect them together.” Finally we settle on eight 30" tubes with a 2.120" outer diameter and a 2" inner diameter. Plus a length of 1.995" OD tubing to chop up into 7" pieces and use as an inner ferrule connector. Three weeks later, UPS delivers. I lift out eight 33.5" lengths of CF tubing. Get out the Alveston kitchen scales: 20' weighs just 4 lb.! E-mail to supplier: “Any suggestions for connecting the tubes?” “Drill holes for pins and a run a cable down the center of the assembly fixed at both ends with a tensioning device.” Huh? He wants me to drill holes through his beautiful tubes? There must be a better way. I wake up at 3 a.m. Velcro! I’ll use Velcro strips. Next day, we order 1" and 2" rolls from www.joann.com, a simple and elegant solution. TEST SHOOT The Velcro joint is perfect. Now to try it out. We drive to a vineyard in Petaluma. I’ve no way to fix the pole to the tripod. Gaffer’s tape to the rescue. I screw my camera to a short rod. Push the rod down the tube and jam it with a kitchen paper towel. The camera is upside down. Easy to correct in post. I try to do what the Polecam people do. They have the monitor and the joystick mounted on the tube. But here in sunny California it’s almost impossible to see the monitor. Not only that, when I swing the pole, I can’t help moving the joysticks. A better solution seems to be for one person to be boom swinger, while the other controls the camera’s pan and tilt. I take the joysticks into the shade of the Ford’s cabin. We take turns. Tricia’s pole dances are better than mine. I stay inside with the joysticks and monitor, directing, “Go high, drop it down, slowly, stop, keep it steady.” She puts up with a lot. The test video looks terrific. More than a test, it’s useable. Now to stage two: adding a servo-controlled pan-and-tilt head. Ready when you are iva-Lites come ready for work with Hi-lumen lamps, switching, dimming, barndoors, gel frame, louver, reﬂector and center mount. Diva-Lites display both daylight and tungsten cool light as bright as a traditional 1,000 Watt hot light — using only 2 Amps of power! Its quick set up time saves production dollars while the small energy footprint helps save the planet. D Please Light Responsibly. w w w. k i n o f l o . c o m 2 8 4 0 N o r t h H o l l y w o o d Wa y, B u r b a n k , C A U S A v o i c e + 1 8 1 8 7 6 7 6 5 2 8 http://www.joann.com http://www.polecam.com/walrus/index.html http://www.polecam.com/walrus/index.html http://www.kinoflo.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - December 2008

Digital Video - December 2008 Contents DV Expo Gallery First Look: Ultimate 35MM Lens Adapter Vidock GFX Pro Videostudio Pro X2 Instant Expert The Making of Roman Close-up: Dave Ruddick Crypto Camerawork Click To Play DV101 Production Diary

Digital Video - December 2008

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