Camera Crane (Jib)

It's important to me that the shots I use in the Music Video are as well created and professional as possible, so not only do I have to plan them meticulously, I have begun searching for the best equipment to attain these shots. Due to this, I recently began work building a Camera Crane to film smooth, swooping shots that are conventional to the Music Video text and also the acoustic performance genre.

Many of the parts were sourced from spares around mine and my Uncle's house, so we were able to create a high quality piece of filming apparatus for very little cost. The build consists of:

• Old, sturdy tripod
• 4m Aluminium Square Tubing of varying widths
• 2 Aluminium L brackets
• 2 Bearings
• Meccano Pulleys
• Insulated Cabling
• Dumbbell weights (Varies according to Camera weight)
• Miscellaneous Bolts

Some parts were actually machined especially to specifications for parts to fit, such as washers and separators for the pivot and unfixed pulley (at the camera end.)

We quickly realised that to control the movement of the Camera platform, we would need to connect the tripod to the end of the arm in some way - a pulley system where one pulley was fixed and one moved proved the best method so that is how it was designed. Due to the parts being quite small, we decided to use bearings for maximum smooth movement and ease of use; this was the most difficult aspect as pieces needed to be machined to accommodate. 

After the design and creation of the bearing pieces, however, the assembly was fairly straight forward and it didn't take too long.

Below is a video of the crane working, complete with footage filmed on it. The camera shakes on occasion as it is moving very quickly. This would not be an issue if I had planned the shot and was actually moving it to achieve this.