DIY Follow- and Rack Focus "SCOCUS" RING

I am not an experienced cinematographer. But I want to use the Canon 5D Mark II to shoot decent quality video—without expensive rails, follow-focus rigs, matte-boxes, etc.

The solution, for me, needed to be portable, SIMPLE, and as cheap as possible. Most often, I rack-focusing between preset points. The sample movie shows the rig in action. Remember, I am new at this, so you can probably rack more smoothly and might use a better tripod. The rig itself is very smooth and does not create much vibration. With two people, it should be okay for follow-focus.

Just for fun, Im calling this The Scocus Ring-- for Scott focus ring--but call it what you want! It is essentially an off-the-shelf Megaclamp with foam buffers to protect the lens, a simple picture hook needle indicator, and a bag of rubber bands.

Use the menu on top to see photos of the rig and a materials list. This is less than $20 to make if you need to buy everything, likely closer to $12 if you already have the tape, glue, and rubber bands.

FOR MORE DETAILS GO TO:
http://web.me.com/slerman/SCOCUS/INTRO_+_Movie.html

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• DIY Follow Focus
• DIY Rack Focus

[NelsonStJames]

Off hand I can't think of any examples in film or television where someone actually did a rack focus on three objects, but the idea is cool enough to plan a scene where you could logically do it. Good work, I've just purchased a Sony HDV Z5U so I'm working on all this stuff too.

One thing though even though I know this is just a test. The rack focus IMHO works best if it starts with a subject in focus rather than everything completely out of focus.

Keep it up.