More on the teleprompters.

Since I'm getting quite a few hits to the teleprompter post, here's a few more pics. It was made from things I had on hand mostly. The exception being the 1/16" aluminum angle for the monitor frame.



Showing the mounting system for the shoulder rig. Carriage bolts, washers, and wing nuts. Nothing fancy or expensive.


The mount is 3" wide, 1" leg AL channel. A slot was milled into that to mount to the shoulder rig. The monitor and glass framework is all 1/16" thick 1" AL angle. It simply bolts together. The cutouts for monitor cables and controls were milled.




The bottom showing the way in mounts as well as the hole to secure the monitor via a 1/4-20 thumbscrew.


Front view

Adhesive backed Velcro was used to hold the sides in place as well as the "glass" that was some Lexan sheet I got for $1/ pound as scrap. I never measured it, but I think it's in the 1/8" ballpark.


In terms of construction it was straightforward. Measure monitor, determine cutouts for cables and controls as well as mounting position, cut and mill to size/shape. Drill holes and bolt everything together. Adjust position of glass and make the brackets. Maybe a day or two of fussing with it. I would have liked to bead blast and anodize it black personally.



The "presidential" style prompter was even easier. It involved adapting a microphone holder and was all scrap AL angle, 1/8" thick and bolts.

Torture props

I get all kinds of weird requests. This is a torture device for an independent film from 4th Floor Pictures. Another quick job. The shaft is a dowel rod. Apoxie sculpt was used for the handle, which on further review I should have painted to look like ivory or bone as I could have done some great blood stain paint job on it. The head is a piece of cast resin I turned on the lathe and milled slots for the bass wood fins which were finished with a diamond wheel in the drill press to accept the real (ground flat) razor blades. A wooden honey thingy, a cast resin copy of an air freshener cap, and a piece of leather cord complete this brutal piece.

Just add blood and screams.

Monitors and rigs and teleprompters OH MY

ZOMG!

Teleprompters? Yep, those nifty little devices for feeding the talent their lines. I just built two of them. One that uses a small 7" DVD player/monitor that mounts to a shoulder rig. A couple pics of it below as it sat on my very cluttered workbench. The heaviest part is the monitor. I would have liked to make this one a bit more adjustable, but it works so why worry too much. The first pic is essentially done, but lacking the fabric covering and sides to seal light out (and make it easier to read.) The second pic is it mounted on the shoulder rig with the sides (black foam core) in place. Fabric was added once the camera was on it.




The other is a "presidential" type that will sit on a microphone stand with a monitor on the ground. In this pic you can see the rear of the mount I whipped up out of some scrap aluminum angle I had sitting around. This one measures about 17 inches square. The protective film is still on the plastic, some scrap Lexan I had.


They're both pretty rough by my standards, but for a couple days and being made mainly out of junk I had sitting around they turned out OK in my book.

These are NOT for Jean Claude as someone asked me earlier, this is for an industrial video.

Jean Claude continues shortly

So a bit of a break here due to scheduling. Bummer, I know.

We shot some really cool stuff and Kirsten and Kris got to have all the fun.