I just received a bunch of issues of Starlog’s Cinemagic magazines from the late-'70s/early-'80s.
Included in this lot is Issue #16. ‘So what?’ you say? Well, this is one of the issues I had back in 1982. And it contains the article Smoothing Out the Action, which describes how to build your own camera crane. Nowadays we’d call it a ‘jib arm’, but whatever…
I actually built one of these contraptions using the plans in the 'zine. We used it on one film. My best fiend built one too, over a decade later, for a film we shot in New Orleans. Our only complaint, other than the cameras we used were not remote-controllable, was that the lazy susans we were able to get were not big enough and the corners of the rotating base tended to drag. But they worked great! Got lots of good shots with them. I took care to build mine with precision, and wanted it to look good. I didn’t paint it, as the guy did as shown on the last page, but it still looked like a real piece of equipment.
Today I’d just buy a professionally-made jib arm with a 100 mm bowl to fit on my tripod. It would be less cumbersome. I might get one that allows the camera to be panned and tilted from the counterweight end. And I’d use a 16 mm/super 16 camera or HD video camera. But then, I’m not a teenager/early-20-something now. Back then, I really felt I’d accomplished something. And it really worked.
I miss those days, when there were few responsibilities. I could devote time to fun things like filmmaking. And building things for filmmaking. (Incidentally, I built a skateboard dolly after I moved up here that I would match against any professional one!)
Chatting with my friend this morning, he reminded me that one of our super-8 films has a paragraph in one of the issues of Cinemagic. I won’t say which issue or the name of the film (I have to have some illusion of privacy!), but it was cool seeing the writeup, my name in print, and the creature he created.
You’re fortunate to have a fiend; most folks don’t have one of those, much less one who shares their hobbies. Did you do any other fiendish stuff on that trip to NOLA?
I have to say, it’s interesting reading these 30-year-old filmmaking 'zines. They’re full of tips and tricks – many of which are rather outdated. ‘Build Your Own Optical Printer!’ With today’s editing software, there’s no reason to. Or: How to make your own LED lighting effects. Sure, I can see model makers wanting that information. But a lot of the advice says to get the components from Radio Shack.
One hilarious article shows how to make a ‘fog machine’. I’d link the article, but I can’t seem to on my office PC. Here are the parts: A blower (fwd/reverse), flexible hose (like a dryer vent hose, only smaller), two tennis ball cans, tape. Put the flexible hose onto the blower and secure with tape. Both tennis ball cans have the tops off. Cut the bottom off of one of them. In the intact bottom, drill five 1/4" holes in a pattern like the 5 on a dice. Fasten the hose to the other end and secure with tape. Now here’s where the smoke comes in: In each of the five holes you drilled, insert a cigarette! :eek: Light them, put the tennis ball tube (both ends cut off) over the cigarettes, and secure with masking tape. Turn on the blower, and there’s your fog! OK… It’s detrimental to health, it’s messy (though the tennis ball tube contains the ashes if you don’t tip them), it’s smelly, and there’s the potential for burns or fires. With actual fog machines being so cheap today, this low-budget hack is no longer needed.
Of course. I remember that back then fog machines cost like $1,500. Completely out of the question when you’re making $3.15 an hour. And we did use cigarette smoke on at least one film. The point is that today the DIY ‘fog machine’ in the magazine from 1982 is pretty hilarious when you can by a much better, actual, fog machine for under forty bucks.
decades ago you might have spent $20 for discrete parts and some circuit board area to make a sub-circuit, like a timer. today you buy an integrated circuit for $0.25.
lots of premade small devices now that were huge and expensive then to make.
I’ve watched YouTube videos on building your own jib. Nowadays you can put the thing on top of an existing tripod pretty easily, and make the thing out of aluminum tubed, PVC pipe and other lightweight stuff. Now that I’m back doing video work I’m tempted to try it out.
Things have come a long way even in the 15 years since I was in school. No more capturing from tape, massive amounts of storage, even on tiny SD cards. DSLR video making depth of field an actual achievable thing. I’m just happy to be working on it, even if my pay could use improvement.
I haven’t seen any DIY jib videos. Never even thought to look! You can certainly build a jib for less than buying one. The only special piece you’d need is a 100 mm ball for mounting it on a tripod.
I don’t remember jib arms in the early-'80s. Heck I thought I was becoming ‘professional’ when I replaced my Slick tripod (or whatever brand it was I bought at Kmart) with Bogen 3021 legs and a 3063 head! Back then, the pros used ‘cranes’. Like massive things, often that you could ride on. I guess that’s why the article is on how to build a ‘crane’ instead of how to build a ‘jib’. If I were 18 or 20 years old and getting into filmmaking today, I’d be shooting on video. Looking on eBay, I see 8-foot jibs for $130, and smaller ones for under $90. That’s cheaper than what I could build one for nowadays, and I wouldn’t have to spend time building it.
Speaking of video, cameras have come way down. My first camera, which I still have, was an Elmo 1000S. This was one of the best super-8 cameras on the market at the time (Outstanding lens!) and cost $760. Seven hundred and sixty 1980 dollars! There are a lot of HD-DSLRs for the equivalent or less that are far more practical for what we had been doing on super-8.
Still, there are things that need to be done that haven’t changed. I’m sure I’ll find more when I go back and read the rest of the magazines. (I’m reading them in sequence.) And while a store-bought jib is not very expensive, and a lot less cumbersome, the ‘Walkerflex’ crane is still a practical solution for smooth camera movements.
Some Bolex H16 cameras use a gelatine filter that is held in a holder and slid behind the lens through a slot. Rather than paying actual, you know, money to buy gels, you can get a free booklet of samples and cut out what you need.
