I was asked to film some book launches by Lisa (my partner) for an author (Robyn Caughlan) who has asked Lisa to adapt her book into a film. The book is called 'Waiting at the Gate'. It’s billed as ‘one woman’s journey out of hell’ and it’s a pretty apt description of the tumultuous life and times of incredible Aboriginal artist and fashion designer Robyn Caughlan. Lisa’s doing a few book launch events for Robyn to get a feel for the possibilities, though work on her mainstage musical which is cracking on may make work on Robyn's film impossible.
Anyway I wanted to use an iPhone to film the launches but wanted to find a way to stabilise the phone and this is one solution I came up with. It is gyroscopic in nature similar to what they use on ships. The pendulum keeps the camera upright and the 'disks' keep it level no matter how you angle the handle attached to the outer disk. It is very easy to make and can easily be worked out from the photographs - enjoy!
The iPhone slides into the cradle quite snuggly.
