Atelier3 makes films about snow sports, where camera gear has to be light, reliable, and quick to switch between setups. After years of 3D printing custom parts, the team began machining them in aluminum with a Carvera Air. A cage designed to make a vintage 16mm camera work on a gimbal became one of its first products.
“I really wasn’t intending to make the money back on the machine. But I for sure have now made the money back on the machine.”
— Will Derrick from Atelier3
Atelier3 is a film and TV production company focused on outdoor sports. Its crew shoots documentaries and branded films in conditions where there’s little time to reset equipment—and where every camera, lens, battery, and accessory has to be carried up and down the mountain.
For Will, making camera accessories began as a practical response to those demands. Over time, a workshop routine that started with 3D-printed prototypes grew into CNC-machined metal parts—and products other filmmakers began asking to buy.
Following Athletes Means Working Fast
A follow-cam shot can mean skiing alongside an athlete, camera rig in hand, while keeping an eye on the monitor and the terrain ahead. The filmmaker says follow-cam footage makes up about half of the team’s work.
“It’s really fun,” Will says. “You have to ski alongside an athlete—next to a jump, or sometimes over the jumps—holding a camera rig.”
The fun comes with plenty to manage. The camera operator has to track the athlete, watch for hard snow and jumps, and check the monitor. As he puts it, he relies partly on muscle memory and partly on the gimbal screen—while also thinking, “wow, my arms hurt.”
One memorable shoot involved a collision with Olympic gold medalist Mathilde Gremaud. She stopped after skiing through a series of rails; the camera operator didn’t realize she was stopping and slid straight into her. Both were fine. He kept the camera raised and caught her with his body as they slid.
The story is a reminder of how quickly things can change on a mountain. It also helps explain why Atelier3 builds gear around the realities of filming there.
A Fast Setup Can Mean More Footage
Changing a camera from a tripod setup to a gimbal can take five minutes or more if it means removing cables and swapping plates. On a training day with only a handful of runs, those minutes matter.
“Being able to change from a tripod to a stabilizer to a handheld rig in thirty seconds” is the goal, he says. A custom plate lets the same camera move from tripod to gimbal without changing the plate underneath. Once the camera is balanced, the operator can make the switch with a quick release and a couple of adjustments.
That speed can help the crew be ready when an athlete is ready, without taking time away from a limited training session.
Weight matters just as much. The team may carry two cameras, lenses, batteries, rigging, and a tripod—a load that can reach 30 kilograms. Atelier3 looks for ways to combine functions or remove even small amounts of weight from a pack or camera rig.
Making a Vintage 16mm Camera Work on a Gimbal
Atelier3’s projects follow two related goals: make digital camera work more efficient, and bring older film cameras into modern production setups.
The K-3, a compact 16mm film camera, was a good candidate. In its original form, it had few mounting points, a single tripod hole, and a shutter button that was difficult to reach when the camera was on a gimbal. The operator also couldn’t easily monitor the image through the viewfinder in that configuration.
Will designed a cage to give the camera more attachment points and room for a handle and monitor. A remote shutter release helps the operator trigger the camera from the gimbal, while a video tap sends an image to a monitor.
The goal was to keep the compact film camera practical to use on the mountain.
“All the little optimizations have taken it from being a camera that's a bit of a pain to film with, to a camera that's actually really fun to film with — and that lets us get what we want out of it.”
The cage took shape over a series of prototypes. Will first used a 3D printer to check the fit and placement of parts, then began machining them in aluminum with the Carvera Air. The design evolved through multiple versions as the team tested it on shoots and added features such as the remote shutter and monitor connection.
For the filmmaker, those changes weren’t just about adding hardware. Each update aimed to solve a problem that could otherwise make a shot harder to get—or impossible to capture with that camera.
From 3D-Printed Prototypes to Aluminum Parts
Before buying the Carvera Air, the filmmaker had spent years making camera parts with 3D printers. Plastic prototypes were quick and useful for checking dimensions, but he wanted to make durable metal accessories that could support expensive camera equipment.
He first saw the Carvera Air on Kickstarter and decided to buy one near the end of the campaign. He had never machined parts before, so moving from 3D printing to CNC machining meant learning a new workflow.
“I’d never machined anything,” he says. “I’m impatient—I want to see it one hour later.” Being able to prototype a part and then machine it in-house gave him a quicker way to move from an idea toward a finished component.
“The learning curve going from 3D printing to subtractive manufacturing was steep, but it's a really fun process to learn, and a new skill set. That was fun.”
His process still begins with a fast prototype when needed. Once a design fits, he can move on to machining aluminum. He says testing a part in plastic first saves time and avoids machining an aluminum component only to discover that it doesn’t fit.
The K-3 cage uses 7075 aluminum, which he favors for its strength-to-weight ratio and machining qualities. Keeping parts strong without adding unnecessary weight fits the demands of a camera rig that has to travel up the mountain.
The machine itself quickly became part of the workshop routine.
“I can't tell you how many hours I've wasted running batches of these cages and just staring into the machine going "cool."
A Reddit Post Turns a One-Off into a Product
The K-3 cage began as a solution for Will’s own work. The filmmaker posted photos on the K-3 subreddit, and other users started messaging to ask whether they could order one.
“We made it for us — I wasn't trying to make a product.”
The requests gave him a reason to move from making one-off parts to producing small batches. Atelier3 had made around 20 cages, according to the interview, and was preparing an online shop at the time. The filmmaker says a batch of ten can take about two days to run, with roughly three hours of his own hands-on time; finishing and custom engraving can be handled once an order comes in.
The transition also brought a new kind of challenge: adapting the process for repeat production. For example, a change to the direction of holes in one plate meant he could avoid extra manual drilling and tapping. Some iterations became less about redesigning the part and more about making it easier to manufacture.
He bought Carvera Air for personal projects, with no expectation that it would pay for itself.
”I really wasn't intending to make the money back on the machine. But I for sure have now made the money back on the machine.“
More Camera Projects on the Workbench
Atelier3’s camera accessories extend beyond the K-3 cage. For the RED V-RAPTOR, the team made a compact rear NATO rail from 7075-T6 aluminum, adding a mounting point for NATO-compatible accessories such as a monitor or EVF without adding unnecessary bulk.
For the Beaulieu 4008, Will designed a handle extension that combines a CNC-machined aluminum base with a handcrafted wooden grip. It replaces the original grip, improves the camera’s hold, and retains the original trigger and mounting interface.
Across them, the underlying question is the same: where does the standard setup get in the way, and what part could make the camera easier to use?
“The more you work in one space, the more ways you can see to optimize how you work.”
For Atelier3, that problem-solving happens both on the mountain and at the CNC machine. The Carvera Air gave the team a way to turn working prototypes into metal parts, test small production runs, and share some of its custom camera solutions with other filmmakers.
“When you’re up there, I’m constantly thinking: how can I make this better, how can I make this faster, how can I get this shot that I couldn’t otherwise get?”
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