DIY C-stand plans..

[Phil Rhodes]

Oh dear, where to start with this.

did I ONCE bump into a DIY stand? NO. I DIDN't.

Does that imply they're unsafe, or just unfashionable? I've never been particularly interested in the fashion that says your sandbags have to say "Arri", leaving you paying $150 for a very small sack. I fully understand the politics of this sort of situation and the reasons why it's sometimes necessary to roll up with a truck full of gleaming gear, but that does not make the alternatives unsafe, and it does not make them inappropriate in other circumstances. I hope you'll forgive the two-bit psychoanalysis, but almost uniquely to the LA union production scene, there seems to be this feeling that the very act of doing filmmaking in any other way is somehow offensive and morally dubious. In fact, only a minority of filmmaking on this planet is well enough funded that the cost of C-stands is trivial. We outnumber you, and if you're reduced to using a Turtles movie in a resume dick-swinging contest, we're producing better material into the bargain.

 

Anyway, I'm not positing this as a particularly good idea. I wouldn't put anything particularly heavy on a contraption like this, and nor would I personally have any need to build one, but I don't believe that there is anything intrinsically unsafe about the design, built and used by someone with a degree of common sense. For what it's worth, I have seen very well paid, union grips, who also thought that they were very important, do catastrophically stupid things on very well funded shows, and if those are the sorts of people you're talking about, you may have a point.

 

I'd be more interested if you were to offer some sort of critique as to why you think it's so dangerous, which would actually be useful discourse, as opposed to hysterical shrieking that it's unsafe because it isn't expensive enough. Or whatever it is you're desperately trying to say.

 

P

[ian dart]

well my critique would be.

 

i am not going to put my expensive lights on a piece of gear knocked up in some cheap bastards back shed for $38.00.............................

 

cheers

[Rex Harris]

Well quite clearly this is getting rather heated so let me introduce a few notes from my own experience using DIY C-Stands and before anyone goes tearing into me for being irresponsible, I come from an engineering background, I know how to build these things safely (paperwork to prove it! ;)).

 

So clearly there is concern about the materials used to make DIY stands. I have to agree, I would be a little concerned if someone used aluminium piping with $3 threads to hold a 5K but I don't see why you couldn't use those cheap materials to support something light like a flag etc.

 

From a technical point of view, the joints are the weakest point, I prefer to get steel threads as opposed to the brass alloys that you commonly see in DIY stores, steel is stronger and less likely to snap.

 

Another thing I like to do is put a little weight at the bottom of the stand (I use a heavier center pole for the lower segment), really all this does is lower the center of gravity and make it unlikely that should some incompetent crew member set the thing up ready for a light, then run off to find a sandbag, leaving the stand alone and dangerously close to a man who has a passion for bumping into things, I can be confident that it would take one almighty shove to cause the thing to fall over and potentially injure someone. Although this risk is present with professionally made C-stands too.

 

In most cases, common sense prevails but I'm always paranoid about these things, it comes from seeing the damage badly made DIY rigs can do.

[ian dart]

no heat i was just stating a fact.

 

rex your concerns hit the nail on the head, i have no idea how the home made ones are made or of what material and build quality and am not

likely to find out until they fail, then its to late.

 

i cant see any sense in using a thousand dollar light and putting it on an unproven $38.00 stand.

 

cheers

[Phil Thompson]

Look I'm sorry for getting angry last night but Phil, sometimes you're just plain stupid. Let me give you a little story how a Dolly (created from some daft web tutorial) ended up breaking the back of an old friend. We were on set and the day was drawing to a close, the Dolly guy had gone AWOL, suffice to say a runner who happened to live literally minutes from the house tried to be a hero. "I've got a dolly" he said. The director wanted this shot, so he agreed that it would be worth a shot. Suffice to say, he returned with this bizarre Skateboard/silver dining plater configuration, the Camera man mounted up (Arri 416) and the thing just had a mind of it's own it, before anyone knew it the thing started rolling off down the hill, cameraman on board screaming blue murder and he ended up in a ditch, lens destroyed and the Arri a muddy mess. Cut a long story short, the insurance was invalidated and the guy ended up with a 40K bill.

 

But yeah, fuk it, build a stand from a BBQ and Mr T action figure. Hope it serves you well.

[Phil Rhodes]

i cant see any sense in using a thousand dollar light and putting it on an unproven $38.00 stand.

Well quite, I don't think anyone's suggesting that. What I might do is put a cheapo homebuilt light - a lightweight flo, or one of those cheap chinese LEDs - or a flag or something on it.

before anyone knew it the thing started rolling off down the hill

And this couldn't have happened on a Fisher 10 because?

 

As I've said a thousand times, it is possible to do unsafe things with almost any equipment, and I'm sure most of us have looked at rigs we've seen and winced. I certainly think that the standard of rigging in film and TV work is far less good than you see in theatrical and open-air concert sort of situations, where if they want something overhead they'll put up a ground support made of two foot square box truss, as opposed to hanging something on a clearly overloaded extension arm which creaks alarmingly and bounces around in the wind.

 

P

[Phil Thompson]

If I joined a production and the stands were the ones featured in the link. I'd wonder where else the budget was skimped. Chilling prospect really. Perhaps they'd use an arc welder as an eye light. Lol

[Phil Rhodes]

Don't worry, Phil, they couldn't afford you.

[Phil Thompson]

YOU"RE DAMM RIGHT THEY COULDN'T AFFORD ME. Im off to the Forrest now to film some bugs with a COOKE S4 130mmm lens. REAL MANS AFTERNOON. Ya heard!

[Guest Christopher Sheneman]

It's all a big joke to you. Let me tell you this Phil. I've been on some of the biggest shoots this decade. Dark Knight, Shawshank Redemption, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the movie, 1984 etc and did I ONCE bump into a DIY stand? NO. I DIDN't. And yoou know why? Because they had a Massive budget. This world of "DIY" Is so Freakin alien to me, so god dam student and hopeless, the very fact I'm talking about it is driving me to damm near Suicide. A FUKIN STAND. YOU CANT AFFORD A FUKIN STAND. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE?

I'm not suggesting any professionals lose their favorite factory-made grip equipment and instead head down to the hardware store and construct their own so they can mount expensive heavy studio lights on them.

 

I sure can afford a stand but- why? My budgets are tiny -why not make one and buy another roll of stock and processing with the money I save? Independents have always found ways of making it happen, many classic American films used homemade gear such as Tobe Hooper's wooden camera crane in Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). I guess it could've broke and killed someone- but it didn't.

 

Use common sense when constructing and using homemade equipment.

 

Below are some great invention by some crafty people!

[Guest Christopher Sheneman]

Beautiful, lite-weight. Everyone from my actors to the P.A.'s can use this. Just dig a pit and throw a refrigerator box over it- wala! Should go near craft services..

Edited August 13, 2012 by Christopher Sheneman

[Guest Christopher Sheneman]

Here's a bunch more,

[Phil Thompson]

lol

[Chris Keth]

How exactly are these "not worth" it? Let's say I'm on a set in New Orleans or Detroit and a car stunt goes terribly wrong smashing up my only supply of stands- the light is fading- I've gotta get this shot.

 

I could go into an abandoned building, unscrew some plumbing and come out with a C-stand!

 

Do you understand, Adrian? Knowledge is power.

 

 

 

The MacGuyver thing is cute and all but the equipment we use is the way it is for a reason. If I were on set and somebody wanted to put a lamp anywhere near over my head on a stand like that I would head on over for coffee until a proper stand was used safely and properly.

 

This kind of "screw safety, I want to save $5" crap is why I nearly had a brick dropped on my head from 3 stories up. It missed me by less than 4 feet. That sort of halfassed engineering is fine if you're alone but if you even have one crewmember whose safety depends on your grip equipment and rigging skills, just use the proper gear.

 

Just get some solid used c-stands. They will work better, be more solid, and won't have your grip crew snickering at you behind your back.

[Kyle S Daley]

If i ran into this on set I wouldn't use it and if it was all we had, I'd probably walk. It all depends on how serious you are about film. If you want to be a professional and demand professional rates, use real equipment. If you want to spend your career scraping the bottom of the barrel no-budget shoots, use janky homemade poop.

[Phil Rhodes]

Nobody wants to use this sort of gear, but some of us don't live in places where there's huge amounts of money flying around.

 

Again, I'm perfectly willing to believe that there may be something wrong with it, but I don't think anyone's actually criticised it on any basis other than that it isn't expensive enough.

 

P

[Karl Eklund]

It's all a big joke to you. Let me tell you this Phil. I've been on some of the biggest shoots this decade. Dark Knight, Shawshank Redemption, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the movie, 1984 etc and did I ONCE bump into a DIY stand? NO. I DIDN't. And yoou know why? Because they had a Massive budget. This world of "DIY" Is so Freakin alien to me, so god dam student and hopeless, the very fact I'm talking about it is driving me to damm near Suicide. A FUKIN STAND. YOU CANT AFFORD A FUKIN STAND. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE?

Ironic you mention The Dark Knight since a person died on that shoot while operating a camera.

 

I would think it is common sense for a person making a DIY-thing that it will probably not be as good as manufactured by a name brand, but there are so many things in this business and others as well where equipment are used for things they were not intended too.

 

Do we need to buy professional clothing pins now too, for cooler lights?

 

Or does things have to be an "apple-certified box" for you to dare stand on it?

 

You worked with or under Roger Deakins, since you been on Shawshank and 1984, if I remember correctly he has some "home made lights" (modified by his gripper), do you dare work with him? I mean, Jesus, the dude can't afford real lights?

 

I've seen plenty of shitty things done with professional gear, no sandbags on c-stands so they are leaning more than the Tower of Pisa.

 

But I rather work with crappy equipment and use it accordingly, than working with great gear and idiots.

 

I think it is very reasonable to be cautious of homemade stuff, but don't fool yourself or anyone else that DYI is guaranteed to be crap, and manufactured is guaranteed to be fail safe.

 

By the way, I have plenty of tools and machines to build all kinds of things, like c-stands, but if I need some, I will buy, even if it is expensive to me.