The ULTIMATE Video Battle Station

[Music] this is a i really don't know what to call it but it was a desk and now is a glorified tripod slash jib slash desk slash dolly cart slash slider slash video village slash gear shelf thing i guess for now we will call this the camera station and in this video i'll show you how to build one of these for yourself and why this diy project changed my life forever this camera station is my attempt at trying to speed up the b-roll filming process when it comes to getting product shots for any given video that i publish here on youtube there are between 20 and 200 individual b-roll shots that i need to capture and record for each of those shots i need to compose the shot light the shot add camera movement and make changes to the focus and other camera settings i hated how long it took to change the height of my camera tripod as well as having to balance that dang tripod head every single time and i also hated how my slider wouldn't stay level due to its own weight and would sag on either end and finally filming b-roll shots really well takes a ton of lights cameras gear and all of that needs to be on a stand somewhere which means every time you want to change up your shot you have to move all of that stuff this might all seem a bit nitpicky but changing the height of your tripod and balancing it more than 100 times a week you'd get pretty sick of it too so about eight months ago i started designing and building the camera station and after using it i don't think i'll ever be able to go back to just a tripod and this thing did so much more than just replace my tripod you can see i have a ton of gear mounted here including a monitor a completely wireless system so i don't have to deal with cables we've got storage down below this thing has a huge range i can throw a jib on it my slider firmly mounts without any sag to the top i can roll the entire thing around because it's on casters and at the end of the day this is still a desk so i can still put things like my shot list on here i can throw a laptop on it and i have plenty of room to work with hold other cameras and things that i'm filming which i just love so let's dive in and talk about the gear i use to build this and how to use it all links to everything will be in the description and as we move along i'll share budget options for everything i'm using because this thing wasn't cheap to make but it has paid for itself many many times already due to how much time i save while filming at the heart of this system we have a motorized desk i went with an uplift desk configured with a 48 by 30 inch top their commercial grade c frame base the upgraded keypad which allows you to program in different heights and heavy duty casters when it comes to weight capacity this beast can hold up to 355 pounds and it has a minimum and maximum height of 29 inches to 55 inches respectively with the casters installed in total the desk alone set me back 847 dollars if you don't want to spend that kind of money you can definitely go with a cheaper desk maybe put less weight on it one that would work well is a desk that i used in my 2 000 video desk setup video which i'll link down to in the description that thing has a lower weight capacity of around 150 pounds but would totally work if you're not going to be putting a ton of crap on it if you want a smaller desk uplift also sells a 42 inch version and if you need something really small there are a ton of compact kind of laptop adjustable height desk things online that maybe find something that would work well for you i programmed the keypad to the minimum height maximum height and my most used camera heights for filming b-roll now i can easily change the height of my camera with one click no more fiddling around with tripod legs and no more balancing the darn tripod head to mount my tripod to the desk i needed some kind of quick release system so that i could remove it easily if i just needed more of a flat surface i was going to be using camera dovetails for this but they are wildly expensive and fortunately i found something way more affordable these telescope for astronomy dovetails do pretty much the same thing but at a fraction of the price so i bought a clamp with two knobs as you can see here bolted it onto the desk and i had to drill holes through the dust but that's fine with me and then i also got one of these quick release plates that work with the actual clamp as you can see here these things are super strong they're designed to mount telescopes to other telescopes so these things are no joke so as you can see here i can very easily go ahead and remove the entire tripod setup like here set it off to one side put something else here or quickly add it back to the desk if i want to mount a camera or a jib which we'll talk about a little bit later when i'm not using this tripod head i wanted a place to set it securely so i can go ahead and remove it here and i added another one of those clamps this time a smaller one with a single knob and now i can take the entire tripod head throw it over here in a corner secure it and now it's out of my way i've got all this space for something like my slider and these things are so strong i could easily use this as a handle to move the cart as for the tripod head itself you can go with anything but i really love my e-image gh06 tripod heads which have a 75 millimeter bowl and you can adjust them and level them but i needed a way to mount that to the desk with that quick release plate so i went out and bought this which is a high hat and it essentially adapts at 75 millimeters down to something i can bolt down it has a couple threads at the bottom and this allows me to a put this whole thing on the desk like this i'll go ahead and lock this bad boy down so now we're nice and mega secure which i love but now i can reach in and loosen up the bowl and now i can level the tripod which i should only need to do once because we're on this giant flat level surface which is a desk 75 of my b-roll shots are done with the rhino r2 if you haven't already check out my review because that thing is incredible so to get that set up we need to get rid of the tripod head here which i can easily do like we already talked about i'll set it over here in the corner and i keep the arc 2 as well as the jib and other gear down below the desk on that low platform let me grab it real quick and i can go ahead and position it right up at the front of the desk here turn it on unlock it which i often forget to do and then i can program in a quick shot i'll go ahead and start it right now and it's hands-free so while it's doing its thing recording and making the move i can go ahead and start preparing for my next shot have a sip of coffee and since it's automated i get the shot done in one take instead of sitting here repeatedly trying to manually get the perfect shot and of course at any moment in filming i can go ahead and change the entire height of the desk to adjust things and add even more complexity to the shot and you could even use this desk as an actual boom shot since it's super duper smooth which is really really nice in my videos i often include several top down shots to achieve this i simply remove the r2 slider attach the tripod head to the desk and add my jib now i can stand next to the table and quickly record shots from above i really like being able to raise this desk all the way up and get the camera and jib out of my way while still being able to reach it and change camera angles i also use the camera station for thumbnails as i can mount my thumbnail rig to the tripod head and perfectly dial in the camera height easily i'll save this thumbnail rig for another video so make sure you're subscribed if that interests you to store all the rigs in the jib and other gear i built a simple platform that sits on the legs of the desk the uplift commercial frame has heavy duty flat steel legs so this was super easy to build and install now all of the gear i need to film b-roll can roll around with a desk allowing me to quickly charge and switch between rigs now we can talk about my monitoring setup i installed a visa mount arm to the desk and mounted a 19 inch atoma sumo production monitor this thing is a bit spendy at 2 000 but i really wanted a fully featured battery-powered production monitor you can use a more affordable monitor and i'll include some links in the description or just use a camera monitor which is what i've done for years on top of the sumo and my camera i've added a wireless hdmi transmitter and receiver this allows me to freely move the camera or monitor without messing with cables the arc ii has a power output so i use that to power the hdmi transmitter for the monitor and hdmi receiver i added a dual battery mount as i wanted to be able to move the monitor around the studio one part i'm still waiting on for this setup in particular the monitor is a quick release visa mount that i found online yes it is very expensive but i can't wait to be able to just grab that monitor throw it on a rolling stand and use it elsewhere in the studio and finally to power everything but the monitor i installed a giant power strip under the desk now i can power and charge everything including the desk from a single extension cord this thing was not cheap i actually don't know offhand how much it cost me i'll put it down on the screen somewhere but here's the deal i can now in my head come up with a shot idea and within seconds or minutes i can get it done and move on with my life which has been such an amazing thing with this setup another huge feature is that this thing has made me more creative and what i mean by that is if you have a job like this over time you're just not going to do things that are difficult after your 500th video you're not going to change the camera angle eight times in five minutes to get the right shots because it's difficult and it takes time with something like this all of the fuss gets out of your way and you can just focus on getting the shot that you have in your head so there you have it this is the camera station i know it's not for everybody but you could totally take this idea shrink it down take the concept and run with it make something for yourself and ironically now i have to go film b-roll for this entire video so subscribe if you want to watch more videos about making videos thank you so much for watching i hope you have a wonderful rest your day and we will see you in the next video

Channel: DSLR Video Shooter

Views: 37,714

Rating: 4.9242764 out of 5

Keywords: camera rig, video cart, tripod, jib, dolly, desk, slider, rhino arc II, rolling desk, video station, caleb pike, dslr video shooter, dslrvideoshooter, video production, review, tutorial, diy, video desk setup, setup

Id: MQmDwrteX_A

Length: 10min 22sec (622 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 06 2021