Dress her for the show for under $50!!!

[VictorOlam]

Hey Group,

Hope everyone is well... If you're tired (like most of us) of the horrid discrimination we must endure when bringing the HV20/HV30 on "for hire" shoots... check this out if you can't afford a sexy 35mm adapter, but still want to have her look good and improve her performance.

I got hired for a "no-budget" feature film shoot, a paid gig but not much $$$... and endless demands and battles with a director that had no clue what they wanted. Except that the footage had to be "24P HD" and editable on their home computer.

Well, break out some elbow grease tactics, throw a dress on your HV30, some black lipstick, and bring her to that damn show!

What follows will take your mild mannered HV20/HV30, and for under $50, make her look like the little beast she is... Allow the sexy librarian to let her hair down!

Here is what she will look like afterward:



ATR55 shotgun mic optional, I kept it on camera, set to wide, used it to pick up ambient sound in an effort to save the director some foley hassles. They did have a sound guy.

Okay, lets get started...

These items can be found easily with a bit of looking...

(1) SAILWIND Pro Bellows - This is a still camera matte box/bellows unit but is ideal for the HV20 and HV30. It has two stages for using pro filters. And the bellows adjusts with a knob forward and back so whatever zoom setting you are on, you will be able to get max shade. Cost varies but I see them go for about 25-30 bucks on eBay. I snagged this one for only $19.75

(1) Olympus flash bracket - Again, eBay is the best spot but you can get these new on amazon.com but they are a bit pricey. I spent more than I would have liked on this one at $25 on eBay. But it is a great bracket.

(4) Standard wooden paint stirrers from your local hardware store - cost FREE!

(1) 1/4-20 bolt 1 inch bolt - 15 cents

(1) 1/4-20 bolt 1 1/2" bolt - 15 cents

(1) 1/4-20 nut - 9 cents

(1) 43-52mm filter Step-up ring - $3.50

(2) 1/4 lock washers - 18 cents

And add some glue you have laying around the house, and a bit of black gaffers tape or black paint to make it look pretty!

UNDER $50!

So here are the components before assembly.



1. Chop/saw the heads off the paint stirrers and glue four of them together. This creates a perfect spacer for this setup. Next drill a 1/4" hole exactly in the center, and one inch down.



2. If you flip over your Sailwind bellows you will find a small casting divet on the other side of the lower mounting rail, perfect to guide you drilling another 1/4" hole through this soft aluminum.



3. Next look at your flashbracket... you will see a long mounting groove. At both ends, widen it out with a 1/4" drill bit.



4. Next get your high dollar mounting hardware ready!



5. Your Sailwind matte box has a tiny set screw that is perfect to guide/stabilize its mounting to your flash bracket. Slide the Sailwind rail under your flash bracket and pull it all the way to the end of your mounting slot. Secure with the 1/4-20 1 inch bolt lock washer and nut.



6. Put the black lipstick on! I used gaffers tape on the wood spacer because it gave a bit of extra grip but this is optional.



7. Put the spacer on the flash bracket with the 1/4-20 1 1/2" bolt with a lock washer on the bottom. It should hold itself in by pure friction until you mount the camera.



8. Mount the 43-52mm filter step up ring onto your HV20/HV30. This will let you use easy to find 52mm filters when not using square filters in the matte box or when you must take the HV20/HV30 off and go naked...



9. NEXT MOUNT THE CAMERA! It takes a bit of a balancing act, but if you have the matte box screw adjustment into the widest position the cam will slide in even with the largest available battery on back.



10. The flash bracket has a mounting hole for all but the biggest tripod mounting brackets. My DV7000 Velbon quick release fits fine under there...

HERE YA' GO!



As to the feature film shoot in question... it did not go well at all. The director didn't know what to do to create any sort of coherent visual language, and when I made polite shot and angle suggestions (off set, out of crew earshot) it became very ugly.

At the end of the SECOND day... After being asked to walk through knee deep snow, handholding the camera, following speaking talent, after we initially agreed the shot should be a locked off pan on a tripod, and then being endlessly berated in front of the whole crew when I couldn't keep the camera steady.... well, I then told the director what they could do with it... and walked off myself.

But the director had the gaul to ask... "Vic, can you rent us the Sailwind?"

LOL...

At least they thought the camera was cool!

Later,

Vic

[VictorOlam]

Hope this thread encourages people to get out there and use their cameras more... to make their own films!

For me, I'm going to start writing screenplays I can shoot myself (less big budget stuff that's tough to sell)... and I'm going to forget DPing for psycho filmmakers.

The biggest lesson I learned on this ridiculous shoot was if this clueless "director" can waste their money and shoot a feature... we ALL can do it better and possibly even get our films picked up for distribution?

Most everybody here on hv20.com (in my opinion) has a FAR firmer grasp on filmmaking than this director did.

Let's support each other and get out there and do it!

Peace,

Vic

[ocfilms]

That is one sweet set up Vic! I like the small rigs I've seen out here. More handy. Good job!

[VictorOlam]

That is one sweet set up Vic! I like the small rigs I've seen out here. More handy. Good job!

Thank you... Sir!

Vic

[EssentialParadox]

That's incredibly impressive for $50.

[VictorOlam]

That's incredibly impressive for $50.

Thanks! The most significant aspect of the set-up was the ability to borrow some nice ND Grad filters from a friend and put them to use.

I can't begin to state how BIG a difference a nice ND Grad makes when shooting outside with the HV20/HV30.

You can hold the sky!

Peace,

Vic Olam

[CWildenradt]

Any idea if there is a matte box or bellows available like this that is mountable on rails for that price??

[VictorOlam]

Any idea if there is a matte box or bellows available like this that is mountable on rails for that price??

Hey C!

I bet you can rig it to rails for sure... I remember seeing some bellows for older Bolex 16mm cameras when I snagged this one and they had rail mounts... but I don't know the spacing.

Go the still camera/old cine route for bellows and matte boxes. You can find some deals, even if you have to spend a weekend worth of work into brainstorming a way to mount it.

Rock on!

Vic

[CWildenradt]

Thanks, I'll check it out.....

[wesgoodlife]

Been lookin[I]g all morning for a SAILWIND Pro Bellows, and I'm not finding any thing... Would any Matte box/bellows work you think???

[VictorOlam]

Thanks, I'll check it out.....

Item number: 300291649288
on eBay has dual rails.
price is too high already at 39.95

Item number: 270340606730
price is too high at 35.00 but in nice shape.

Might try finding a Mamiya... seems they are set-up for rails already!

Within a week I bet you can score one for under $30!

Peace,

Vic

[VictorOlam]

Been lookin[I]g all morning for a SAILWIND Pro Bellows, and I'm not finding any thing... Would any Matte box/bellows work you think???

They pop up on eBay quite a lot.

Try also searching "Mamiya" "Compendium" "Bellows" "Lens Shade" "Matte Box" "Sailwind" "Medium Format Bellows".

I am sure you can adapt almost any matte box bellows to a flash bracket and have it work with some tinkering. Remember, it is not how you look getting the shot... but how the shot looks that matters.

For me, this was a way to get some high quality filters in front of the HV30. But you don't need to make a rig to make a great film.

I've shot some really sweet footage outside with a naked HV30 and just a polarizer filter.

Vic

[CWildenradt]

Item number: 300291649288
on eBay has dual rails.
price is too high already at 39.95

Item number: 270340606730
price is too high at 35.00 but in nice shape.

Might try finding a Mamiya... seems they are set-up for rails already!

Within a week I bet you can score one for under $30!

Peace,

Vic

Awesome, thanks for those leads.

[cornreaper]

Pretty cool! I'm curious about the gaffer tape all over your camera though.....just covering up all the cheese that Canon has slapped on?

[David]

Item number: 300291649288
on eBay has dual rails.
price is too high already at 39.95

Might try finding a Mamiya... seems they are set-up for rails already!

Awesome, thanks for those leads.

Just a heads up. If you're looking for 15mm rails, what you see on those bellows are not the 15mm rails you are looking for. Those are rails to support the bellows themselves and to set the 'expansion distance' based on what lens you're using.

Those rails will frequently have markings on them so if you know the focal length of the lens you can quickly set the distance to the front of the bellows at a point where the lens doesn't 'see' the edges.

[benkrebs]

i used a mamiya shade back in june in my quick and dirty rig for summer camp shooting... put that thing through the ringer.

i eventually found people didnt care what the rig looked like, all the useless bells and whistles in the world didnt mean a thing if it wasnt a ex1... But when my footage was screened and i had better shots that those around me using said EX1's...

*shrug*

[newtothegame]

why the tape on the camera?? Damn benkrebs!! Thats an impressive rig!! Instructions please!

[Dr. Benway]

my quick and dirty rig...

Quick n' dirty and already looking beaten-up and 'vintage'. Nice.

[VictorOlam]

why the tape on the camera??

Well that covers up the surgery I did on this beast.

Removed the stock CMOS and dropped in a 10 megapixel chip.

Sped up the tape drive to handle a DVCPRO HD bitrate too!

And other top secret mods under the hood

Peace,
Vic

[benkrebs]

Well that covers up the surgery I did on this beast.

Removed the stock CMOS and dropped in a 10 megapixel chip.

Sped up the tape drive to handle a DVCPRO HD bitrate too!

And other top secret mods under the hood

Peace,
Vic

don't you ever get bored with this?

[VictorOlam]

don't you ever get bored with this?

Doubt anybody will believe that last post... tongue in cheek all the way.

Even if it is true

Peace,
Vic

[BWC]

Is that bellows big enough to shade a Raynox 6600?

[VictorOlam]

Is that bellows big enough to shade a Raynox 6600?

It might... it covers a Digital Concepts .45X very nicely.

[wesgoodlife]

how do you get it to mount on to a tri-pod?

[pro-hobbyist]

That. Is. Beautiful.

I do similar no-budget filmmaking which I co-direct/produce/edit/star in, and we try to dress up cameras with a nice wide-angle, giant microphone, etc. But that thing has a cool retro look to it, like it's running actual film or something. Which is an HV30 mod for another day