The Shop - Kid Tested, Adam Approved

This is the NYU Film & TV Repair Shop and it's probably been my biggest project ever.   It's a never ending task to keep it efficient, organized and stocked and I love it. I'm lucky to have access to a great shop in the middle of NYC and would be a sad, sad man if I didn't.  As the one and only Repair Tech at NYU Film & TV I am responsible for keeping over 50 film cameras, 300 digital cameras, audio gear and a ton of light and grip equipment up and running.

A Red Letter Day - Adam Savage visits the shop.

 And yes, Adam Savage stopped by.  I won his Inventern competition and helped to finish his Hellboy Mecha-Hand.

Camera Repair - ARRI S

I was the Head Repair Tech for NYU Film & TV for almost 12 years and during that time, one of my biggest jobs was keeping over 90 ARRI S 16mm cameras running.  Up until Summer 2012 the ARRI S was the workhorse of the introductory film class but NYU finally made the transition to digital and while they still shoot a lot of film, the amount of digital projects continues to grow and the ARRI S has been retired.

I may have moved on from NYU but I inherited a massive amount of new and used ARRI S parts and still do camera repair when I have time. Contact me if you are looking for any parts or need some work done.

Analog Projects

The Charlesworth Dynamics site was originally setup to cover the Octopod but has since grown to cover a lot of my other projects as well.  Before I delved into the digital realm, I had a long history of building and fixing things in the real world and I wanted to showcase some of my hands-on 'analog' projects. I felt that this was especially important since I want to continue combining 3D modeling and printing with real-world hardware and hands-on.

Camera Jewelry

During my time as a camera repair technician I saved a lot of broken parts because they looked cool.  After almost 10 years I had a big box of them with no particular use.  I decided to clean up the parts and make some jewelry.  Sold about 40 items and have never had the time to do more.

Camera & Production Accessories

Here are a few camera accessories which I have designed or modified for NYU using our simple milling machine.

RONFORD HEAD EXTENSION

The camera class needed an extension added to the Ronford head to accommodate cameras with a larger magazine.  I used aluminum which is easy to mill, the hard part was the precision needed to get all the screws to line up.

Kate's Engagement Ring

I wasn't really prepared when I proposed to my wife Kate so until I could get a real ring I made her one at work.  Since I repair film & TV equipment, the band is part of an aluminum light stand and the 'jewel' is a camera bearing which spins, making it a great fidget ring.  It remains one of Kate's favorite pieces of jewelry.

Stormtrooper Blaster

My biggest nerd project to date has been my scratch-built Star Wars Stormtrooper Blaster.  It's not 100% accurate or 100% done but I'm pretty proud of it.  The original blaster was made from a modified Sterling machine gun but I built mine completely from scratch, using mostly junk film equipment. The only 3D printed item on this is the rear portion of the scope, everything else is metal.  It's more or less finished except for some good weathering.

My blaster with 3D printed scope.