Toronto Photographer | Building a Video Rig
A few months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, my plans were to push more into video and so I decided to build a rig. What an adventure that (which happens to still be continuing)! Why build a rig, and not just buy a full kit from the get go… to learn what I needed and how to efficiently set up my kit myself. Knowledge is usually more beneficial than material items.
What did I learn?
Budget - Building usually means buying a lot of things that don’t work as expected, but are great for spare parts or various other kit builds in the future - having that library of gear is handy (albeit expensive). Set a budget around what you’re trying to build and stick to it, think through solutions with what you may already have on hand prior to clicking checkout. I rushed my build and ended up with a lot of pieces I didn’t need.
YouTube - Doesn’t always translate to what you are doing or how you work. It is great starting point for research, but dig into the details of the suggested items before clicking checkout.
Have an end goal - Whether it is size, weight, record time, convenience, etc… know the end goals and work towards them. Be patient with what you have, and don’t rush the build. My goal was a small compact rig great for on-the-go as well as setting up for corporate talking head videos. I had to rebuild it to allow for easy separation in order for it to fit into the bag I bought for it… again, something I rushed.
I’m still building out my rig and it will likely go throughout changes and evolve more as I use it more, but my foundation is now strong, and my library is solid of things to adjust or change.
Video rig shown separated into the two main blocks.
“Final build” modified - simplified revisions continue
