Robin Bäckman's Gonzo Pi Turns a Raspberry Pi Into a Powerhouse of In-Body Film and Audio Editing

Maker Robin Bäckman has released a software tool designed to turn a Raspberry Pi single-board computer (SBC) and camera module into a film-capturing powerhouse with in-body editing and audio dubbing: the Gonzo Pi.

"It's a video camera with tape and scissors," Bäckman writes of the project. "Press[ing the] 'view' button while a scene is selected will glue all [the] last takes of all shots in that scene together and play it. Press[ing] 'view' while a film is selected will glue all scenes in that film together. No need to build custom case, or buttons, this will work with a Raspberry Pi and any of its camera modules, USB keyboards, and USB audio cards, a regular HDMI display should also be fine."

The Gonzi Pi camera system is designed to deliver usable footage right out of the camera, putting quick editing functionality directly in-body. As Bäckman explains, a press of the "view" button allows all takes in a chosen seen to be connected together, while a "retake" function allows for any given take to be reshot. Once footage has been captured, the software also allows for multi-track audio dubbing — capturing new tracks on-demand and automatically mixing them into the shot, scene, or film with which they're associated.

Everything in Gonzo Pi is designed to be accessible from a standard keyboard, though network control is also available. Using keyboard shortcuts, it's possible to copy scenes or shots, move them, paste them, control shutter speed and exposure settings, control the red and blue color channels, brightness, contrast, and saturation, volume levels, engage an optional audio compressor, and even set an audible countdown timer going — or trigger a timelapse with custom intervals.

While it's possible to use Gonzo Pi with no additional hardware, Bäckman has also designed a custom housing for a display, the Raspberry Pi itself, and the camera module and lens, along with an optional battery to rid your recordings of trailing wires. A custom board to the top provides dedicated shortcut buttons for the software's various functions.

The software for Gonzo Pi is available on GitHub under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, while 3D print files for the case and an optional viewfinder are available in a separate repository. Bäckman has also announced plans to sell pre-built versions of the Gonzo Pi, though without confirming pricing.