Setting out on my point of view style series.  I knew I had to first find a way of attaching a camera to mine or my actor’s heads.

Before when shooting ‘LifeEye’ shorts, I used a GoPro 2, which is a great camera, but I wanted something with a bit more range and depth to the shot.  Which is why I wanted to mount a Canon 5D to my head.

Searching online I came across a few videos that showed me how others had mounted a DSLR to their head. This was by using a motorcycle helmet to mount the camera onto.

 

This to me was a perfect idea and one that would be easy to make and for very little money…. but of course I would need a helping hand from my dad!

Now setting out to make this helmet meant buying a few things first. Luckily we had an old bike helmet lying around that we could modify, which saved us a bit of money straight away.

The other item we needed was a tripod head to mount the camera onto the helmet. But not any tripod head would do. It had to be able to move up and down and fit to the helmet, like this image shows below.

The tripod used in this picture was a Manfrotto 494 Mini Ball Head and was one that most people recommended.  But costing around £50 I couldn’t afford to spend that kind of money on a tripod head. So it was back the drawing board and think of a cheaper way of doing it.

Scratching our heads together my dad and me came up with a different idea of mounting the camera to the helmet, which still gave the camera movement up and down and fitted nice and tightly to the helmet.

This camera mount was made from a bracket and a camera clamp we had lying around the house.

Although it may not look that good or looks a bit unstable, it holds great and was perfect to say it didn’t cost us a thing.

With this out the way all that was left to do was to weigh the rear of the helmet, to counter balance the weight of the camera at the front. We used dumbbell weights that only cost me £5 and a bolt that screwed into the helmet to keep them in place. 

This was a simple and cheap way of my testing out the Point Of View angle and it only cost me £5! It may need upgrading before shooting but it allowed me to test the shot and see what can be done with it.

 Below I have posted a short test of my using the helmet mount around the house. Enjoy.

Jack Tew