Doggicam : Body Mount

Manu Anand · February 26, 2004

I'm shooting a project here in India and the director has a sequence in mind that requires us to shoot with the body mount.

the problem is that there are none available here in Delhi.

So ive been working on fabricating one. Here is the glitch.

I have searched and searched the net for pictures of DIY body mounts,etc but have found only one picture ,that of the doggicam body mount.

Hope im not infringing on any patent though

Anyone out there who could help..............

Manu

New Delhi

Leon Rodriguez · February 26, 2004

What's the camera you're using, Manu?

Luke Prendergast · February 26, 2004

If you can find some details on the production of Pi, written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, shot by Matthew Libatique, there could be some clues in there. From memory a couple of broomsticks formed the basis of their 'Doggicam'. They call it the 'Snoreycam' (spelling).

Requiem For a Dream, directed and DPed by the the same two, used a somewhat more professional version. The DVD has some good production footage and a little explanation of its use.

Manu Anand · March 10, 2004

Sorry folks i wasnt able to respond earlier as i was away on a shoot

The camera im trying to use this with is an Sr3

I did try looking up on for pi and requiem but there was nothing i could get on the net in terms of a bit more detail on the mount ...etc

Thanks John i'll get the Dvds and have a look at the production footage

Manu

New Delhi

Michael Nash · March 11, 2004

The camera im trying to use this with is an Sr3

That's a HEAVY camera to put on a body mount -- very uncomfortable for the actor. If I'm not mistaken, usually these types of shots are done with a much smaller camera like a Bolex or similar for 16mm, an Eyemo for 35mm. The idea is that the shot doesn't need to last very long and can be shot MOS, so small cameras with short loads are fine.

GeorgeSelinsky · March 11, 2004

That's a HEAVY camera to put on a body mount -- very uncomfortable for the actor.

Do you know if they make one for the Mitchell BNCR? :P

I liked the use of the body mount in Pi, but in Requiem it really didn't look good on Jennifer Connely, you can almost see where the mount was and she really seemed to struggle with it. The camera was on her for quite a while, it may have even been more than one minute.

- G.

Olivier Egli · March 11, 2004

I helped a friend on one of those selfmade bodymounts. And as the actress who was supposed to wear the mount was rather small and could not carry the weight for longer then 10 seconds (we used a bolex with close up diopters on the switar), I contructed a suspension from a fishing perch.

The assistant was running in front of the actress holding the perch on which a part of the weight of the mount was hanging. the whole thing not being that heavy it worked out fine. I had to re-enforce the perch though with some alloy pipes in the sides.

You just have to make sure that the mount fits well on the body in order to avoid moving to the side. that you cant avoid with the perch. also design the perch as short as possible to make sure not to hang on door frames etc.

I will look up if we still have the mount and send you some pics.

cheers

Olivier

Luke Prendergast · March 11, 2004

http://www.geocities.com/ferraflex/parrot.htm

Manu Anand · April 1, 2004

Thank you all so much

thanks for the link John

Please excuse the delay in replying and thanking you all.

As i am quite sporadic at checking mail especially if i get busy, please don't construe this as being ungracious on my part. i truelly appreciate all that people do here on this forum. Am going to make more time out to be able to reciprocate in the same vein(give people more of my time here) and start posting on the off topic forum :P maniacal laughter follows

Manu Anand

New Delhi