Shared Creation Projects

At long last we finally get to the action. How to make the Shared Creation as used on the Consumed project low tech but effective steadicam. A design drawing is attached at the end of this article as a PDF file. It’s hand drawn as befits a wooden steadicam.First though - this is how it comes together.The steadicam is basically three main components.

A Box. This holds the counterbalance. In our case we use a 2 litre plastic bottle full of water as our counterbalance. The beauty of using a water bottle is that it is very easy to adjust the steadicam weight for different operators and cameras.

A Long Handle. The long handle connects the counterbalance box to the camera mount. This is the operators handle. We’ve also attached a horizontal handle, something I’d would highly recommend doing so. It makes operation, especially when running, much easier and even more importantly generates extra stability for the camera.

The Camera Mount. This is the hardest part of the build. First you need to buy a quick release plate. These can be easily bought from places such as Jessops. Then you need to craft a mount to hold the plate. The mount is permantally attached to the top of the Steadicam. We’ve now made two of these mounts. The first used a quick release with a roughly trapezoidal cross section. This meant cutting a trapezoid cross section out through the centre of our mount that matched exactly the section of the plate. The other quick release had a inset slot into which a restraint had to be locked. We used a wooden slider secured by a screw to achieve this. It works very well but required a bit of thought to put together, but for many people will actually be easier to make than cutting an exact geometric form out of wood. The general rule is buy a quick release you like and then slowly and carefully work out how to attach this to the mount.

We’ve built in wood. Primarily because this is what we had available and we had the tools for the job. I see no reason why other materials couldn’t be used. The design is fairly straightforward to make just remember that its nothing more than a box, a bottle of water, a pole and something solid to attach a camera too

Here is the Steadicam Design Drawing

I hope you have a good time making and using yours.

Finally a tip - Steadicams are all about balance. As you build yours check the balance laden and unladen. It’ll help you get it right first time.

If you need to test out the steadicam we can provide some great video cameras for you.