My first cody cam rig - type I

[Michael Starks]

Alright everyone, I've been around these parts (the HBS site) for quite some time and have finally gotten into a practical position to build a rig.

Here is my situation: I'm going to be videoing/editing/pretty much everything a documentary of my old high school band. I did a similar documentary my senior year with a few of my friends and we are now revisiting it. This time around we've had some real training and we also have real experience in the media field so we'll be able to produce a much better product this time. Since that first attempt, I've wanted to use a steadicam of some sort and now I've got the money (and hopefully time) to complete Cody's rig.

Here is the delimma that I'd like a little help with if possible - does my situation warrant me to build the rig now, or do I put the steadicam idea on hold for awhile? Right now I've got between $300 and $500 to spend on building my rig. I have about a month (probably closer to 3 1/2 weeks) until it would HAVE to be done in order to use it for any filming in the documentary. Do I put all I've got (spare time, money, blood, etc.) into building the rig now and trying to use it, or would that just be stupid trying to rush something that fast and the rig being an item that needs to be made very well.

I'd like to be able to build it in two weeks so I could have some time to learn how to use it, but I'm not sure if that's even possible. So, now that I've explained the situation I'll give you a list of tools that I've got (the bigger things anyway) and what I've completed so far.

Tools:
Drill press
Chop saw (no band saw...I MIGHT be able to get ahold of a bandsaw)
pretty much everything else Cody calls for in his plans

What I have completed:
I have the sled partially completed. I started it about a year ago and had some of the parts cut out on a waterjet at college.
I don't have the gimbal completed (though I have the bearing and post, I don't have the outer collar or any of the rest of the gimbal).
I have all bearings that would be needed for the entire rig.
I have most of the bolts, etc. for the sled.
I have the base plate, x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis plates cut.
I have the manfrotto monopod cut and welded (another hookup at school) where required (to the base plate and....the other plate up top, forgot which one it is off the top of my head).

I think that's everything that I have done so far. Any suggestions or tips or anything else anyone would like to give me I'd be more than happy to recieve.

Last of all, I would like to thank all of you who regularly post on here, you've truly inspired me. Right now, the CodyCam is basically a quick fix until I can really design and build my own rig (that probably won't happen for a few years though...I'd like to at least build one and learn the basics of using one soon though).

Anyway, thanks for being such a friendly community! I look forward to interacting with everyone a bit more frequently. Thanks!

[Michael Starks]

Okay, one more thing. Would Cody's "Medium Budget" vest work with the "low budget" sled and arm? I'm thinking of going with the medium budget vest just because of it's design. I was thinking that it looks a little more comfortable to wear for long periods as well as easier to operate with the vest to arm connection being closer to the front of the body. Any thoughts?

Oh, in talking about the "low budget" vest, I meant the back-mount version. I don't think that the front-mount is for me.

Thanks!