Recently I stumbled across a product by accident when I was actually attempting to purchase a Cinesaddle. The only reason I found this product is because I ordered a Cinesaddle from a company that sells them here in Japan only to find out that they hadn’t updated their webpage and they actually didn’t have any in stock. This led me to cancel that order and look to see what other solutions were available.
This led me to a new bespoke company in Japan called Mast Studio who not only makes unique custom dollies and rails but also a product called the Cine Makura. Makura in Japanese means pillow. The Cine Makura essentially does the same as a Cinesaddle. The whole reason that the Cine Makura came into existence is that the owner of Mast Studio wanted to see if he could create an alternative that didn’t cost as much money as a Cinesaddle.
Image credit: https://www.cinekinetic.com/
The Cinesaddle is an iconic product and it was invented by cameraman Mike Young many decades ago. At the time it was a revolutionary product, despite its simplicity. It was quickly adopted by the TV and Film industry and large-sized custom-made Cinesaddles were…