At the heart of making stunning natural history documentaries is GK Studios, a 16th century farmstead sitting high in the mountains on the west coast of Scotland. The logo for Ben Garrick Wild is based on the winding coffin trail on which the house is located.
Here I tinker around in my shed, building camera rigs to create unique and interesting shots for upcoming projects.
TRAIL CAMS
A common piece of kit on any wildlife set, I build my own trap cams to exactly fit any camera system and setup.
MOTION RIGS
Camera movement is one of the best ways to make shots stand out from the crowd. So for the Laowa probe lens, I built a rig to move the camera both forward and back as well as rotate around a given point. On the frame I made mounting points for a monitor as well as a small COB light with a homemade soft box. Everything is powered from a V-mount that also mounts to the framework.
TIMELAPSE CAMS
A recent project called for time-lapse cameras that could withstand coastal weather and power through a whole day. On a tight turnaround and budget I built waterproof containers out of Tupperware. Each fitted a GoPro & battery bank and allowed hot that would have usually cost much more to create.
HYPERLAPSE CAMS
Building on the success of the time-lapse cams, the next step was adding motion to the clips. Still working to a tight budget I bolted a GoPro to a bar clamp and incased the whole thing in a waterproof case. Then using a few 2x3's I created a rail with a level surface. By marking on the rail at 0.5cm intervals I could clamp the camera on each day and get a multi day hyper lapse that moved with the action in front of the lens.
BIRD BOXES
Whilst not strictly speaking camera kit, I make quite a few boxes in order to attract subjects to film. They are all placed around the studio and where space allows include hatches and hardware to fit cameras within.
