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Hot Cinematography How-Tos

iOS 17 Tips, Tricks, How-Tos, News

How To: Modify a Glidecam with a Steadicam arm and vest

The lady shows how to make the steadicam arm to work with glidecam stabilizer. The steadicam arm is made such as only a steadicam can be fitted on that. The video describes how to make the usable for glidecam with three simple tools ,a 10 ounce hammer ,a long nose player and a flathead screwdriver. First take out the circular clip with which the post is secured with the screwdriver unscrew and pull the post out .Using the hammer straighten the post .The post will have a scratch but the straig...

How To: Make a video camera stabilizer, or fig rig, from PVC

Ben from mechanical mashup shows you how to make a fig rig for a small video camera out of PVC pipe. It gives an ingredient list and tells you the measurements of each piece you must cut. He recommends dry fitting everything at least once, to be sure everything goes together as it should. He then shows how the camera mounts on the rig. In transition of how-to's is a short scene relating to tools, with a man and a boy arguing over ownership. Then Dave shows how to neatly engrave your tools. He...

How To: Rainproof your camcorder

To rainproof your camcorder start by purchasing a lens hood for it. This lens hood helps to rainproof the camera lens but it also prevents flaring from the sun. Take a zip lock bag and cut the corner off of the bottom so that it creates a hole that is big enough for the lens hood to fit through. Put the camera in the bag and push the lens hood through the hole in the bottom of the bag. Take a rubber band and wrap it around the outside of the plastic bag just behind the lens hood to keep water...

How To: Make your own camera dolly

If you’re into cinematography try creating your own dolly camera platform to get those seamless tracking shots. This is a fun project that will allow you to take your film to the next level, or at least get the shot you want.

How To: Understand basic video tricks

Understand basic video tricks. A great way to prop up your camcorder when you don't have a tripod and you want a low angle shot from the ground is to use a rubber doorstop. It stays put and you can move it up and back to set the shot higher or lower.

How To: Protect cameras & stay organized while shooting video

Kipkay's ingenuity is enough to amaze us all, especially all of you indie filmmakers. These five tips for aspiring filmmakers will help you keep your sanity and avoid frustrating times. Have you ever got stuck in the rain while shooting? Have your recorder tapes ever gotten disorganized? Is your camera's display getting scratched up more than you want? Kipkay answers all of these questions with his five ingenious video tips.

HowTo: Shoot Your Own 3D Movie for $250

Make your own 3D movie with this easy camera hack: record with two cameras simultaneously. Next, use video software to overlap the images, making it viewable through 3D glasses. Very clever (and cheap) concept by Ron and AmyJo Proctor. Check out their site for more details.

How To: Make a cheap Dutch Roll camera effect

Maybe you've never heard of the Dutch Roll camera effect, but you've seen it in movies whenever a character is delirious and the camera starts spinning crazily end over need. In this tutorial you'll learn how to set up a cheap version of the effect with a plain old hand drill. Now you can give your audiences vertigo just like the pros do!

How To: Use shims with your M2 adapter

A Redrock Microsystems tutorial where you'll learn what to do if your M2 adapter and your video camera don't quite align vertically. Using a process called shimming, you can correct the problem pretty easily. Not all cameras require shims, but this problem happens enough that this is useful info to know.

How To: Use a Steadicam Pilot

In this humorously presented video tutorial, you'll learn how to operate the Steadicam Pilot. When you know what you're doing, the Steadicam can give you incredible, pro-quality shots. The Pilot makes the rig even more flexible, and it's surprisingly simple to use.

How To: Set up the Merlin Steadicam

This video walks you through the set up of the Merlin Steadicam rig. For some reason a lot of the video is presented speeded up, but if you can keep up with it, this is useful info. It's not so fast that you can't follow it, but if you're trying to take notes, be prepared to hit "pause" a lot!

How To: Use Merlin positions for smooth steadicam shots

There are a lot of famous steadicam shots where the camera floats just ahead of the actors as they walk along having a conversation. (See just about any episode of "The West Wing" or "Battlestar Galactica.") Perhaps you imagined the cameraman walking backwards, carefully stepping over door frames or other obstacles in order to get this tricky shot. But as you'll see in this video, it's actually a much simpler matter of using a device called a Steadicam Merlin, so the operator can see where he...

How To: Turn a series of timelapse stills into video

Time lapse photography is a great tool for documentary filmmaking or just making a fun record of a construction project in your home. This video explains how to turn a series of still photos taken with your DSLR camera and turn them into an HD time lapse sequence. It's a bit technical for beginners, but the process isn't as complicated as it looks.

How To: Install the D Focus DSLR Mount on a Canon 5D

When you're first working with a digital single-lens reflex camera, there's a lot to learn. Setting up a D|Focus DSLR mount can look particularly complicated, but in this tutorial you'll learn all the steps. Now you're ready to start taking shots like a pro. (Note that this tutorial is not for absolute beginners. You'll need to have some familiarity with these camera before you begin.)

How To: Build a guerilla-style camera dolly

MatttChapman shows you how to build a guerilla-style camera dolly to add to your filmmaking bag of tricks. This guerilla dolly is so simple, made with a rain gutter and cover from a local hardware store. This is ingenuity at its best. Don't spend a ton of money for a dolly to simply pan, build this rain gutter dolly!

Use video camera lens basics: Angle, focal length, DOF

Mike from the SubStream's "Film Lab" has some tips regarding video camera lenses. In part one, Mike talks about the basics of lenses, starting with focal length and angle of view. It's a lesson on the analog collections of lenses cinematographers use with their cameras. For people who like to point lenses at things, here is the functional knowledge.