A couple of film shoot-related time wasting websites

Facebook is the cause of a lot of time wasting, but it occasionally turns up some film shoot gems, so thanks to director Mark Jenkinson for bringing http://shittyrigs.com to my attention. A brilliant selection of jerry-rigged, occasionally amateurish and sometimes downright dangerous rigs, or perhaps more accurately ‘rigs’.

BlackMagic Cinema Camera

I appreciate that the BlackMagic Cinema Camera is often used on low-budget film shoots, but the rig above has to be the lamest bit of grippage I’ve ever seen.  Thankfully, should the camera crash to the ground it’s looks like it’s only going to trash a cheap Nikon lens. It would hurt if you were standing underneath it when gravity prevailed, though.

You’d be a brave person, and in possession of watertight insurance, if you agree to try and ride a bike with this unwieldy contraption rigged to the handlebars.

Director of Photography

In the same vein, here’s a magnificent Tumblr of gifs about DOPs imaginatively titled http://dopgifs.tumblr.com I suppose we’ve got to thank the freelance lifestyle that allows contributors to find the time to track down so many inspired clips portraying such on-set moments as:

“When I’m listening to the director talk through the shots he wants for the scene and he offhandedly mentions “top shot from the scissor lift up by the film studio roof”

Or:

“When everyone’s making jokes about how many bits of lighting kit I needed for a shot.”

(I can think of a couple of DOPs that could refer to…).

If anyone knows any Tumblrs or blogs in a similar vein, please let us know.