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Guides

How the gear works, and why the advice is what it is

Twenty one guides covering how a rig goes together, what all the threads are called, how to judge exposure on a log image, what a codec actually costs you, how to pull focus, and the two workflows this whole site is organised around.

21 pages in this section

Building the rig

What to buy, in what order, and what all the threads are called.

  • How to Build a Camera Rig

    A step by step order for building a camera rig, from the first accessory to a complete build, based on which failure each purchase prevents rather than on what looks like a rig..

  • Camera Rig Mounting Standards

    Every mounting standard on a camera rig explained: 1/4-20, 3/8-16, ARRI locating pins, NATO rails, ARRI rosettes, cold shoes, rods and Arca plates..

  • Rig Balance and Centre of Gravity

    How mass distribution affects a camera rig, why a lighter rig can feel heavier, and how to position accessories so the build is comfortable, stable and gimbal-friendly..

  • Camera Rig Power Guide

    How to build a single power system for a camera rig using V-mount, D-Tap and dummy batteries, with the runtime maths and the airline rules that shape the purchase..

Operating it

Holding, moving and supporting a camera once the rig exists.

  • Handheld Shooting Guide

    How to shoot steady handheld footage without a gimbal, covering stance, breathing, focal length, shutter speed and the rig changes that help most..

  • How to Balance a Gimbal

    A step by step gimbal balancing procedure covering all three axes in the correct order, plus what to do when a rig will not balance at all..

  • Tripod and Fluid Head Guide

    How to set up a video tripod and fluid head properly, covering levelling, plate balance, counterbalance, drag settings and the pan bar position most people get wrong..

The image

Exposure, motion, codecs, filtration and glass: the decisions that determine what the file actually contains.

  • Monitoring and Exposure Tools

    How to use false colour, waveform, histogram and zebras to expose video correctly, and which tool to trust when they disagree..

  • Shutter Angle and Frame Rate

    What shutter angle means, why 180 degrees became the standard, how it maps to shutter speed at every frame rate, and when to deliberately break the rule..

  • Video Codecs Explained

    What long-GOP, all-intra, RAW, 10-bit and 4:2:2 actually mean, how they affect editing and grading, and which choices are worth the storage they cost..

  • Matte Box and Filtration Guide

    How a matte box works, what a French flag actually does, the correct order to stack filters, and when a screw-in filter is genuinely the better choice..

  • Lens Mounts and Adapters

    How lens mounts work, why flange distance determines what can be adapted to what, and what you actually give up when you use an adapter..

Focus

The craft, and the rigging that makes it repeatable.

  • Focus Pulling Guide

    How to pull focus reliably on a narrative set, covering marking, rehearsal, depth of field maths, eye lines and the habits that make a pull repeatable..

  • Rigging a Follow Focus

    How to physically set up a follow focus, covering rod height, gear ring fitting, backlash, end stops and motor calibration on wireless systems..

Sound, light and signal

The three systems that are invisible when they work and end a day when they do not.

  • Audio for Video Guide

    Practical location sound for video shooters, covering microphone placement, levels, 32-bit float, room tone, wind protection and why you always record two sources..

  • Three Point Lighting Guide, and Why Negative Fill Comes First

    Key, fill and back light explained practically, with the argument that a black flag shapes a face better than a second light and a workable order for building a lit scene..

  • Wireless Video Monitoring Guide

    How to set up a wireless video link that survives a real location, covering mounting, antennas, power, latency requirements and what to do when the band is congested..

  • Timecode and Sync Guide

    How timecode works, what jam syncing means, why cameras drift, and when free waveform sync is genuinely good enough instead..

  • Media Workflow and Backup

    A practical offload and backup routine for video production, covering card handling, verification, naming, archive strategy and the one rule that prevents most footage loss..

The two workflows

The whole site is organised around these two, because the advice genuinely inverts between them.

  • Run and Gun Workflow

    The working routine behind a one-person documentary rig: pre-shoot setup, what stays configured, how to move between setups fast, and what to check when the subject decides what happens next..

  • Narrative Set Workflow

    The working routine on a scripted set: blocking, marks, repeatable focus, filtration changes between setups, and why the narrative rig is built for control rather than speed..

What a guide is for here

A roundup answers which one to buy. A guide answers how the thing works and why the advice is what it is, which is the part that transfers when your gear changes. Learning why a NATO rail cannot rotate under load is more durable than learning which handle was best in a given year.

Every guide on this site still carries a real buy path, because somebody who has just understood what a locating pin does is exactly the person about to buy a mount that has them. Putting the gear at the bottom of the page would be tidier and less useful.

The guides are also where the two workflows diverge most sharply. Focus pulling, filtration and lighting are narrative concerns; autofocus configuration, radio microphones and speed of deployment are documentary ones. Both are covered on their own terms rather than averaged.

The principle behind almost all of it

Buy failures out, not capability in. Only a handful of things actually destroy footage: exposure two stops under, dialogue you cannot hear, a battery that died, a card that filled or corrupted. Everything else produces material that is worse than you wanted and still cuts together.

That distinction sets the order of every build guide here. Exposure judgement, then sound, then power, then media, then movement or manual control. The visible purchases, a gimbal and a matte box and a shoulder rig, all come last on both ladders because none of them prevents a failure.

It also explains why several guides spend as much time on what to skip as on what to buy. Telling somebody not to spend $469 is worth more than telling them which $469 item to choose.

How these pages are researched

From published manufacturer documentation, mounting and interface standards, stated load, power and speed ratings, and verified owner reviews describing long-term use. We do not claim to have had every product in our hands and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

Where a figure is a rule of thumb rather than a specification, it is labelled as one. The 70 to 80 percent gimbal working load, the 5 lb shoulder rig threshold and the 0.85 power conversion factor are all practical approximations that hold up in use rather than published values.

Everything here is researched guidance and not professional advice. Check load ratings, airline rules and electrical specifications against current documentation for the exact equipment you own.

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