archived-videos Dolly Test Shots

Dreadylocks

Dreadylocks

Guess who's got a sweet dolly? That's right folks. Just a few days ago yours truly got herself a nice new toy :)

I've done a few test shots, just with the dolly directly on my hardwood floors (need to get some pvc). When the dolly was moving with the grain of the 'planks,' it was smoothest. There is some bumpyness when the dolly moves across them perpendicularly, though, but I imagine it will be smooth as silk on some rails.

Now I've just got to practice my tai chi camera work skills to move it smooth and even.

Here's the test shot montage. I have to warn you, I got carried away a bit in the editing. I downloaded a free trial of this software called MixCraft which was so user friendly that I actually mixed a song. Seriously guys, I have no rhythm at all, this program is great.

Ode to Spot - REMIX 1 min long :)

Thanks for checking it out. Discussion welcome :cool:
 
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Awesome. It looks great. I'm not necessarily refering to the dolly aspect of it, but your shot-selection, in general. Nice footage.

As far as the dolly action is concerned, I only noticed a couple of really small bumps, and those can actually be smoothed out, quite easily in post. Congrats on the acquisition.

I laughed my ass off when I saw Data!
 
Looking good, now you'll have to start worrying more about the world in 3d ;) Parallax is your friend!

That shot under the piano was really cool.
 
Knightly,
No doubt about parallax.. I just started playing with 3d tracking, the tools are amazing.

Dreddy,
Any pics of the dolly itself?

Thanks
 
That is a dolly I made for her Wheat. There are pics of it in the other section, Newest Doorway Dolly (maybe) I’m not too happy with the tests, but maybe some tracks will be better, we’ll see.
(I have a number of options to try for improvments when I get a chance.)

-Thanks-
 
Thanks for checking it out guys!

I didn't want to name names, but now I get to publicly thank Buddy for the sweet dolly. Btw, I meant to ask, what size pvc would be best suited for the track? Does it matter?

I had some smoother shots, but I was rushing and accidentally copied over them with other files. I feel dumb, but at least it wasn't anything important :P
 
I guess 1" or 2". I use 1 inch with my table dolly and it has the same trucks and 53mm wheels, but I use 20 ft fence rail for regular dolly, looks like 1 inch too (maybe 1 and a half.)

10 ft lenghts of PVC on sale are like 3 or 4 bucks. I want to get a few myself to do the table dolly between saw horses.

-Thanks-
 
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I've gotten smoother results using larger PVC... I started with 1-1/4 and got some larger for a different purpose, in a pinch, I used the thicker and it bent less.
 
We started with two, now we have 7 cats living in my backyard, you want some? 4 are kittens. There were 5, but the runt is gone.

Nice shots. Just the clumsy ones you can do without. But, I imagine once you start work for real it won't be a problem.
 
Dreadylocks said:
Guess who's got a sweet dolly? That's right folks. Just a few days ago yours truly got herself a nice new toy :)

I've done a few test shots, just with the dolly directly on my hardwood floors (need to get some pvc). When the dolly was moving with the grain of the 'planks,' it was smoothest. There is some bumpyness when the dolly moves across them perpendicularly, though, but I imagine it will be smooth as silk on some rails.

Now I've just got to practice my tai chi camera work skills to move it smooth and even.

Here's the test shot montage. I have to warn you, I got carried away a bit in the editing. I downloaded a free trial of this software called MixCraft which was so user friendly that I actually mixed a song. Seriously guys, I have no rhythm at all, this program is great.

Ode to Spot - REMIX 1 min long :)

Thanks for checking it out. Discussion welcome :cool:
Click to expand...

Perhaps you can lay down some Smooth linolieum remnants when you go against the grain of those floors...Ive found that the best dolly is a wheelchair...I was dependant on one for a while...you can mount a gorilla pod on the arm...with a little practice it can work really well.
 
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