Let’s talk about video.

If there’s one request I get more than any other, it’s for more video content. And I always dodge, because, well, video is pretty work-intensive.

Photos by comparison are easy. Stupid easy if I’m just shooting bench progress shots with the phone. Still pretty easy if I’m doing photo table shots with the Nikon. Just fire up the lights, turn on the camera and go. Ingesting, editing and publishing is a breeze thanks to Adobe Lightroom and Smugmug.

Video, though. Man. There’s formats to deal with. There’s the huge file sizes. There’s editing. Uploading takes forever and a day. A while back I was working on a title animation, but I’m not entirely happy with it and finding the time to slog around in After Effects makes me tired just thinking about it.

I mean…needs new/more diverse images. Needs the music levels tweaked badly. Ugh.

But on top of that…there’s the issue of capturing video. To date, I’ve been stuck with a really janky snake-arm type thing for my phone, and two things about that. First, it’s janky and a nightmare to position. Second, until very recently I haven’t had a phone that could really do video very well (the second gen Moto X was not particularly strong in the image sensor department).

I mean…

Now that I’m rocking a Nexus 6P, video quality is better, but I’m lacking a good mount of the kind I’d like to do proper bench video. So I’m stuck to a kind of “here’s what I did” format. And that sucks.

So my mission for the next month or so – to install a workable video rig. One that can work with a variety of cameras, to boot. I mean…I’ve got the Nexus, but I’ve also got my Canon S120 that can do pretty good video, AND I’ve got a GoPro that’s been, honestly, just gathering dust for some time.

Plans for a Rig

So here’s the plan. I’ve ordered an articulating microphone boom arm…kinda looks like a desk lamp arm, and it more or less is.

So the plan is to mount this bad boy up, pair it with a 1/4″ adapter (since it has the standard 5/8″ microphone mount sizing), then install a tripod ball mount. The ball mount can then hold, well, whatever it needs to. And it’s ready to go – seen here with the GoPro mounted to it.

When that’s all said and done, I’ll be able to at least record proper overhead, bench progress videos, and even timelapses for shits and giggles. Stuff like this video, but without the janky snake arm and the fear of the phone just falling out of it.

Then I’ll just have to overcome the time suck of editing (and my tendency to sound like a total goober on camera). So…stay tuned…kinda.