Van Neistat Breaks Down His Favorite Builds
Published June 24, 2024 · 8:35 · 129,082 views
About This Video
A catalog of builds, each one a small argument. A homemade Steadicam from 2009 for a Canon SD870 that never worked right, now a sculpture. A ticket-dispenser made for an art show, with a cutter bar from a jigsaw blade and a reel originally for typewriter ribbon. A GoPro rig for shooting out the car window that Van kept improving because he could not help himself: smelted lead from fishing weights, inlaid base, magnets, cable clamps, wireless mic storage, a grip carved from firewood.
The tool wall, built for a mobile repair station, took so much brainpower to construct that Van had no leftover capacity for shooting the build. The Destroyer lamps, made since 2012, with 8-pound sledge bases and 60-watt bulbs diffused with white garbage bags. A Fisher-Price movie viewer (not a View-Master) painted black with a hand-drawn label and a wooden handle replacing the plastic original. Eight minutes, and each object carries the same principle: the things you make for yourself are the things that last.
Transcript
undefined undefined I want to show you how my new steady cam works [Music] this is a camera stabilizer I made in 2009 for my Canon
sd870 but I never really got it to work right so now it's just a
sculpture today's GoPros have an electric or electronic steady cam uh
built in that work miraculously but in the olden days you had to spend big bucks to get yourself a rig that would
smooth out handheld shots this was before they started making the affordable gimbals that they sell now so
I'm riding my skateboard down Broadway these nuts are to counterbalance the weight of the camera to fine-tune the rig's
angle same with this smoed Penny thing and these [Music] washers it's got a level on it the gimbal is from drivetrain linkage
off of a radio controlled car totally impractical but I like the way
it turned out and I guess it's a beautiful failure this steady
cam I was in a group art show in 2019 and I carried this dispenser around in undefined undefined
my pocket so I could tear off invitations and hand them to people the cutter bar is made out of a
jigsaw blade little reel was originally for typewriter ribbon and I made the window
out of uh to go packaging from a deli and I ended up selling the piece
that was in the art show on the invitation I made this rig so I could shoot out the window while driving and and I just got carried away undefined undefined
building it I bought a custombuilt GoPro that fits seamount lenses got this lens to shoot closer shots than the stock
GoPro lens got this lens to shoot from even further away and this macro lens to shoot really tight
closeups inlaid base so the camera doesn't fall over smelted the lead myself out of fishing weights I keep
improving this thing I can't really help myself added these magnets and cable clamps so I can keep the Allen wrench mounted
underneath without it falling off wireless mic storage carve the grip out of firewood adjustable height screw feet to
keep the base level I use this rig to shoot the road on my last trip to Austin
I love it I love this rig undefined undefined I built this tool wall so I could have a mobile repair station which I've done twice I foolishly did not shoot the
construction of the tool wall because building it took so much brain power that I didn't have any leftover for
shooting I use this thing every day but it stays in the workshop for most of its
life I got the idea from a book I saw in Tom Sax's Studio about a famous tool rack thing that some master Craftsman
had built for himself mine is rudimentary but I love it and I think I built it just right
albeit not perfectly undefined undefined [Music] I use this Destroyer lamp on every shoot because it's how I light the opening
[Music] title they wobble but they don't fall down 8 lb sledge base for any kind of fathers step easy to drag around from Shoot To Shoot even the church kind
[Music] a 60 W bulb and a diffuser made out of white garbage bag added switches to the lamps heat lamps $14 at Home Depot the Destroyer lamp is my invention but you can make
one if you like I believe I began making these undefined undefined
things in 2012 and I quit making them in in 2022 2023 but I probably haven't actually quit making them I'm on Hiatus maybe there's no computer involved in the
process of making them and I foolishly hoped I could escape the digital matrix by being some kind of oneoff filmmaker
for Rich art collectors but what the hell did I know I was only 37 I gave some away as wedding gifts Etc
and I believe they'll age well but this one is mine it's a toy from the 70s and 80s called a Fisher Price movie viewer a lot of people think it's called a view
Master but a few Master is a different Fisher Price Gadget I painted mine black handrew a
new label glued in this eye cup and replaced the plastic handle with a wooden
one magnets on the bottom so it will stand up in the heavy 3/4 in steel
base it took me months to figure out how to properly make the film Loop inside the cartridge so that it don't jam
up and it still takes me about 4 hours to get everything just right so the thing plays properly a lot of restarting
and failures even though I've made made dozens of these things well okay why did I make it well
the original problem I was trying to solve was how do I display Super Eight
films without having to fuss with a projector and somebody on the internet had figured out this
solution so I just copied what they did [Music] undefined undefined on this week's patreon only video in 2003 I lived in Berlin as part of Tom Sax's nsis installation at the Deutsche
Guggenheim and through friends I met a bunch of Americans who were living in Berlin at the time and I began filming these interviews on September 11th 2003 [Music]
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Canon SD870 uses
- GoPro uses
- C-mount lenses essential
- Destroyer lamp uses
People Referenced
Tom Sachs