I got another one of my 48hr Film Project “to do’s” off my list tonight. I had to strengthen the camera jib I built a while back. See this link.
When I first built this jib…
Okay, okay, I’ll tell you what a jib is!
It’s another camera tool I’ve built for use in movie making. It’s basically a see-saw for the camera. You mount a pole on a tripod, a camera on one end with counter weights on the other. You can then get some really interesting shots with this jib. Again – see this link for footage. But back to my explanation.
When I first built my jib I was using my little Panasonic camera which only weighed about 1 lb. I would use a 2.5 lb weight on the other end and it worked great.
Then I purchased my new camera which is a little heavier. It comes in around 3.5 lbs. So when I tested the jib this past Saturday night – the 8 ft square aluminum pole bowed a little under the stress of a 3.5 lbs camera on one end and 5 lbs of counter weight on the other. That got me nervous. I shudder to think if the pole failed under the stress, bent in half and my new prized camera comes crashing to the ground…you would see a grown man cry.
So I had to figure out a way to strengthen the pole. I visited Home Depot and found an 8 ft aluminum strip that ran the length of the tube. I laid that down on the square tube then anchored it with some bolt. Thanks FDB and David B. for the suggestion.
I then mounted it back on the tripod, put my camera on it and it looks like that did the trick. I posted another gallery below if you want to see the pictures.
Beto
