Alex Mercer Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 Where can I find a place to learn how to build car mounts? Does anyone know is there are any books? Thanks, Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cineshooter Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 why don't you just buy one? is there a special need you have or would you just like to build the rig? jd www.cineshooter.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Mercer Posted January 19, 2005 Author Share Posted January 19, 2005 I think it would be cheaper to build one. Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris Carrillo Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 Do you mean build one from scratch or build it from pieces that you can buy separately? I took the latter route and built the car mount below piecemeal. It cost me about $400. What kind of camera are you going to be mounting? My mount is designed primarily for video cameras, but if I needed to rig a 16mm camera I would probably buy a couple more suction cups to make it a little more secure. I got the components from Filmtools and B&H, and the ratchet straps I got from Home Depot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Mercer Posted January 20, 2005 Author Share Posted January 20, 2005 Thats what Im looking for. And yeah Im looking to go buy the materials. Can you send me the plans for that? And what do you do about sound when you do that? Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hayes Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 Mike Uva has several great books on rigging. Although these home made rigs may work great it would be worth your time to see how the big boys do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris Carrillo Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 Mike Uva has several great books on rigging. Although these home made rigs may work great it would be worth your time to see how the big boys do it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> For the record, this isn't a home made rig. It's a modular medium weight car mount that I assembled specifically for lighter weight video cameras. It uses 6" suction cups with 1/4-20 threads and 5/8"spuds. I used three of the cups in conjunction with 6 standard grip heads and various lengths of 5/8" rods and 40" C-stand arms. The camera mounts to a 4x5 cheeseplate with both 1/4" holes and 3/8" holes. It won't support an ARRI III, but I completely trust it and my own rigging skills with my DVX100A. I took a rigging class with Mike Uva last year and specifically talked to him about the idea I had for this mount. He advised that I used at least three anchor points and to safety the whole thing with ratchet straps. He's a great guy with an incredible list of credits and he's very inspiring to listen too. I learned a lot about rigging and safety from him. As for sound, we used two lavs inside the car on the sun visors and ran the cables to the camera. I cut squares of cardboard and poked holes in the center for the mic capsule so they would act more like PZM's. I got this idea from another director who shot a film that takes place mostly in taxis. If you like, I can e-mail you a parts list. But there's really no "plans." The mount breaks down into tons of separate pieces and can be configured many different ways. Even if you buy all the parts, I would recommend finding an experienced grip to help you actually rig it to the car. Or if you're in the LA area, I'd be happy to demo my rig for you. Best of luck, Kris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Mercer Posted January 20, 2005 Author Share Posted January 20, 2005 That would be awesome if you could email the parts list to me. Superfight34@hotmail.com. How do you deal with the noise from the wind when the mics are in the car? Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aartaxx Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 There's always the poor man's process route. Just did it this weekend. Was shooting in Boston and it was too cold to actually shoot with the car mount so instead we parked in a garage. Frosted the windows and passed a billion lights all over the car while someone shaked it. Funny but it actually worked. This is easier if it's a night scene. Day is a tougher sell. Check out the night car scenes in Waking the Dead. It's a good example and I used it as a source reference. Tom Richmond did a great job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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