Anybody familiar with this company/book?

http://www.dvcamerarigs.com/

They offer a book that claims to have very detailed and extensive drawings and illustrations on building all sorts of rigs that accomodate and smooth out camera movement.

I am handy with tools and have no fear of drilling into and maiming wood and metal. This book looks interesting, as it purports to have detailed plans on dolly's , booms, car rigs, etc...
The guy who runs the website is somewhat affiliated with USC, which I won't hold too much against him if his stuff is any good. For 40 bucks, it looks interesting...

Any comments?

If you do a search on his name, you'll pull up several threads about his projects and discussion from the author himself.

Thanks for not holding the USC seminars against me! I taught a camera composition and movement seminar at NAB, and one of the comments really stuck with me:

"I went to 4 years of film school and we didn't learn any of this."
Me: "Really, where did you go to film school"
"USC".

Yikes!

If it's of any help, within 2 hours of the NAB seminar on rig building ended, the NAB bookstore had sold out.

There are a few magazine reviews on the site:

http://dvcamerarigs.com/Reviews.html

And I don't edit the comments I get from builders. You can read them here:

http://dvcamerarigs.com/praise.html

You can also read what Per Holmes, the creator of the amazing "Hollywood CameraWork" series has to say:

http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/resources.html#reading

His series kicks butt! Check it out!

"Killer Camera Rigs That You Can Build" is in its 2nd edition. I'm currently working on Volume 2. So people must like it!

I'm always available to answer any questions!

Dan
www.dvcamerarigs.com

I bought it a while back and built a dolly from it. Worth every penny just for that.

Thanks for not holding the USC seminars against me! I taught a camera composition and movement seminar at NAB, and one of the comments really stuck with me:

"I went to 4 years of film school and we didn't learn any of this."
Me: "Really, where did you go to film school"
"USC".

Yikes!

If it's of any help, within 2 hours of the NAB seminar on rig building ended, the NAB bookstore had sold out.

There are a few magazine reviews on the site:

http://dvcamerarigs.com/Reviews.html

And I don't edit the comments I get from builders. You can read them here:

http://dvcamerarigs.com/praise.html

You can also read what Per Holmes, the creator of the amazing "Hollywood CameraWork" series has to say:

http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/resources.html#reading

His series kicks butt! Check it out!

"Killer Camera Rigs That You Can Build" is in its 2nd edition. I'm currently working on Volume 2. So people must like it!

I'm always available to answer any questions!

Dan
www.dvcamerarigs.com


I am one of those attendees at the NAB seminar and I bought the book as well. I can recommend it to anyone who is handy with tools, although Dan does a good job of bringing the skill requirements down to the not so handyman.

regards,

-GB-

p.s. Dan, it was good to meet you at NAB. I always appreciate those who have ingenuity and put it to good use.

Dan:

Tried your website a few times today; is it down?

I too recommend the book. I built the "crawl cam" project (Dan calls it something else) which gives you great ground level shots. I actually modified it a bit so I can either use my rig as a crawl cam, or an 11 foot monopod. I will definitely be building more of his rigs in the future.

Depending on where you live, some of the materials may be somewhat hard to find. That was the only frustrating thing I found. The book is well written, with lots of photographs, and good lists of materials and tools needed for the job. Another cool thing is that you can e-mail Dan with questions, and he is glad to help out.

Buy the book!

Jim

Thanks all for the input. Realistically, this sounds like it's just what I've needed.

At the end of the day, how much space does this equipment take up? Will my wife get too mad when I store it on her side of the garage? Or will it be able to be stored in a somewhat smaller more compact fashion?

I can recommend Dan's book. The most amazing thing about him is that after writing it, he has any exclamation points left.

Wow you guys. Thanks for all the kind words! The site seems to be working now. My host was updating the server yesterday for about an hour, so that was probably the problem.

Like Jim, many take the plans in the book and design them to fit their own needs. Eventually, I'll finish the part of the web site with all the photos of rigs people have sent me to hopefully inspire others that have bought the book, and remind people that they don't have to stick with the plans if they have a specific shot in mind. Around here, we do tons of stuff like that. My favorite is when we took the dolly, which has the ability to hang upside-down, and ran track between two buildings in downtown L.A.. The shot followed the character 5 stories below crossing an alley.

Another shot required a boom down from a photo on the wall down to ground level, then moving under a bed all the way to the opposite side of the bed. We did that one by screwing a 5' bit of plumbing pipe to the end of the "Killer's Kiss Crane", and attaching the camera to the end of the pipe. The Killer's Kiss was on the "Dark Passage dolly" and we simply boomed down from the photo and dollied the extention under the bed. It took a few tries, but worked out great.

Thanks again you guys!

Dan
www.dvcamerarigs.com

Oh, as for storage Bill: Hooks from the ceiling. I'd love a garage! Luxury! I hang litterally every rig from my ceiling. It's getting crowded up there.

Dan
www.dvcamerarigs.com

Just ordered! I've been wanting to for a while, finally had the cash to get around to it. Looking forward to building and using these rigs.. DIY!

I just ordered the book. Can't wait to start building.

Thanks you guys! As usual, I'm always around to help out if you hit any snags. (Someday I plan on taking a Vacation!)

Dan
www.DVcameraRigs.com