Boyd Hobbs is the founder and owner of NODO Film Systems, a film equipment company he started in 2018 to reimagine what on-set tools could be. As the engineer behind the widely-used Alpha Wheels and co-founder of 1A Tools, he brings a builder’s instinct to an industry that has long relied on legacy hardware.

An award-winning Director of Photography based between Los Angeles and Atlanta, Boyd earned his MFA in Cinematography from the American Film Institute and a BS in Film from Full Sail University, where his 35mm thesis film *Loves Me Not* won the 2011 ASC Student Heritage Award for outstanding cinematography. His work spans narrative, documentary, commercial, and music video — with credits including the HBO feature documentary *Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis*, commercials for Subaru, Everlane, Intuit, and Segway, and music videos for Jai Wolf, Frenship, Jack Garratt, and Hundred Waters. He works nationally and internationally as a 1st and 2nd unit cinematographer, Steadicam operator, and certified underwater operator, across both film and digital.

At NODO, that builder’s instinct translates directly into product. The company’s Inertia Wheels MAX cinema controller — built around patented motorized Mass and Drag technology and PCB Stator motors — earned the Society of Camera Operators Technical Achievement Award in 2025, and has been used on productions including *Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi* and *Reminiscence*.

Boyd’s current work sits at an unusual intersection: exploring how physical control systems and camera control, both in physical and virtual production, can inform and enhance each other. He’s equally drawn to questions of process — how designers design, how creatives create, and what the act of making looks like from the inside.