When it comes to making a boom, rigidity is the key. Sure, other materials are lighter and easier to get to the location, but once the camera is mounted on the end, the play-back looks like a bad remake of Earthquake. The pole must be strong enough not to bend or "spring" when the boom movement is stopped. That is to say, when the operator stops the boom's movement, the other end doesn't flex back and forth like a pole-vaulter's pole.
You generally want the camera end to be three to four times longer than the weight end of the boom pole. That is, if you have a 10 foot boom, the fulcrum pivot point will be around 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 feet. The cradle which holds the boom at the fulcrum pivot point is one of the most important pieces. It is an area which takes on torque, and it can flex and "spring". I made my first one out of wood and brackets from a hardware store. Easy to make, but flexed badly and even broke. I've seen light weight booms using wood that worked very well. However, the sides of the pivot cradle were wood, but the bottom plate was metal and there was a top plate also of metal.
I cut a pipe in half so that I had two pieces, one for the camera end and one for the pivot cradle. Both were bent into a square "U" shape. The width of the cradle was the same size as the boom pole. The sides rose enough to have the boom pole high enough to allow adequate up and down movement and to have the control arm pivot six inches above it. Now, this aluminum was very difficult to bend with just the tools found in my garage--which is set up for repairing motorcycles and cars, not shaping sheet metal. Local metal fabricators or heating shops have the facilities to supply and/or bend metal to your needs.
The camera end of the boom was constructed the same as the cradle, just inverted it and cut-away some extra material. The upper control arm can be made of almost anything. I used one inch PVC pipe. Its job is to just keep everything level. It doesn't support any real weight. Now you need to decide how you are going to mount the whole thing to use it. If you are going to put the whole contraption atop a large, professional tripod, then you do not need to worry about how it will pan on the vertical axis. The head will provide the pivot. Make sure the head is LEVEL if you are going to mount your boom on top of a tripod. When you rotate your boom 90°, suddenly you have 100 pounds of metal, plastic and camera trying to slide off the head of the tripod. Highly uncool.
DO NOT use a video head, no matter how sure you are it is locked down and cannot move. These heads are designed to move and with a hundred pounds of weight on them, they will move. Monster ball heads work very well. If you are coming up with ideas that involve mounting your boom on something else, let me say "Wise choice." The bigger the boom, the farther you want to get from a tripod designed for camera support. This means you need a way for the boom to rotate on a vertical axis. I mounted a Lazy Susan to the bottom of the pivot point. Put a crowbar in your wallet and spring for the bigger one. The small ones are great for small units, but you want one that will support the weight and not ride up when twisted. What about those pivot points, you ask? 3/8 inch hardened bolts, I say. When you drill holes in you poles and pivot plates remember to measure twice and drill once. It is very important that your holes are all aligned with each other. If not, when the boom is raised, the camera end will tilt. Not much fun if you are rising up the side of a wall or have anything in your shot that is square. As the camera rises, or falls, the scene will twist. Great for a music video. Truly sucks for something the rest of the world will want to watch. Use Ny-Lock nuts, or nuts that have the plastic lock ring built into them. This avoids double nutting to keep everything in place. This keeps the project from looking like it came from the Michael Rodent School of Engineering. When you construct your fulcrum pivot, the cradle that holds all this together, make the opening fitted to the size of the boom pole, as mentioned earlier. For the control arm use spacers or springs to keep it to one side of the cradle and the camera end. You do not want that rattling around when you are doing a shot.
Now that you have the thing made, how do you mount it? I use a 1/4-20 T-fitting pressed into the bottom of the unit. Make sure it is centered under the Lazy Susan. Screw into the top of the T-Fitting with a bolt to keep it all very tight. Now this can be screwed to the top of a tripod or anything else that has a 1/4-20 protuberance. Obviously, if you have a 3/8 inch protuberance, you can use the appropriate T-Fitting.
If you make your own support, as I have for the back of a truck and on a cart, it may not need to be threaded down. In that case you can use anything to hold it in place. Just a hole so it will fit over a stud or dowel of some kind is all that is needed. You see, the weight of this thing is all straight down. Unless you suddenly remove your counter weights or take your camera off without engaging your brain and allowing for the unbalance, it never really needs to be tied down. Now, if it is bouncing around in the back of a pickup truck, do screw it to its mount.
The best system for mounting counter weights is to have a rod sticking up from the back and dropping weightlifting weights on it. A 3/8 inch bolt through the boom pole is great. But allow enough length to mount three weights on the end. Also, they can be locked down with a fender washer and a wing-nut. Weights are easily obtained from the local Goodwill for a couple bucks a piece. The plastic covered ones work fine and are quiet on the set, unlike the cast weights which can sound like the bells of Notre Dame. Since some people mount monitors and other devices to their booms, I can't even begin to guess how much weight you'll need. Mine usually starts at about 20 pounds for a nine foot boom. So get a variety. In a pinch you can hang anything off the end to make it work. We didn't bring extra weights to a remote shoot and changed cameras on the boom. We ended up using a canvas bag filled with rocks hung off the end of the boom. Worked great. Again, you might want to consider appearances, especially if you are trying to look like you know what you are doing. So don't think about using something like brake drums unless you don't mind looking like Rube Goldburg meets the Beverly Hillbillies.
How big you make the boom is defined by your needs. If you are shooting in a house or the like, you will not need something that will rise higher than eight feet. An eight foot boom pole would be about right for that. That would allow about three feet of weighted end and five feet of boom/camera end. If you are outside, then the materials and your ability to transport the boom will set your limits. Just remember, the higher the camera goes up, he farther it will fall if someone has a brain lapse and lets it go or removes a counter weight.
Something that will determine how high and how low the boom will go is the pivot cradle. Obviously, if it is too long, it will limit the range of movement. If it is too short, it looses stability. I found that the closer the boom pole pivot is to the bottom, the better the stability, but you gotta have it high enough to move around. I think it is a good idea to have the boom able to go low enough to rest on the ground. That way if you are removing counter weights, you don't have to worry about putting something under the camera end of the boom. This is a small detail that becomes a major inconvenience in the middle of a remote location.
When mounting the camera to the camera end of the boom, use a tripod head. I use a small Bogan video head on a ball mount. Make the hole in your boom camera plate 3/8 of and inch. Yes, I know most heads are 1/4. But if they are not, they will fit in a 3/8. A 3/8 will not fit in a 1/4 inch hole. Once you get the hang of the boom, you will be able to just grab the camera and use it like it is on a moveable tripod. This can look a lot like a steady cam shot in time.
STUPID STUFF ABOUT CAMERA BOOMS
The colour you want to paint this thing depends on how it will be used. Flat black is preferred for its non-reflectiveness and camouflage ability. Reflective surfaces are bad on a set, so painting it some flat colour might be a necessity. If it will be used around the public, paint the thing neon yellow with flashing lights. Booms are people magnets. At the first sign that someone is not paying attention, it will swoop down and knock them in the head. I'm over six feet tall and I attribute a portion of my hair loss to getting knocked in the head by many a boom. This may sound silly, but I have dangling pieces of fluorescent tape at both ends of my boom. It saves having to rewrite the script for the huge gash in the leading lady's head.
The counter weights on a boom are there to make everything move effortlessly. I prefer to have the camera a little heavy than weightless. Others disagree. Stopping them can get interesting. Make sure the other end of the boom has been accounted for before swinging it around. It will knock a hole in dry-wall. Removing counter weights means the camera end will be heading toward the ground. Make sure it is there before you start removing weights. Likewise, removing the camera will send the camera end of the boom to the ceiling. Do not forget that ceilings are dry-wall, too. They can have major damage done as well as to light fixtures.
You might notice that I have given no specific dimensions for a unit. That's because you need to figure out what you need. If a big one is what you want, there is enough information here to get you started on one. You can even glean a small one from these pages. You might find a better way of doing something than what I mentioned. If so, let me know! The object of this paper is to get you started. How you finish is up to you. If you are reading this, chances are you are a creative and resourceful person. I made my first boom in three hours in my garage and used it on a shoot the next day. This paper may not cut down your construction time from mine, but it should keep you from getting derailed by the little mistakes than can turn cameras into piles of plastic and tape.
This tutorial was written by Paul Turner
