Dolly?

WhiteOpus

WhiteOpus

Howdy. Looking for a dolly, willing to spend $400-600 on a dolly and track system, preferably with track about 12 feet long. Really tired of DIY margin of error so I want to upgrade to something more professional. Also a trackless dolly is an option, but I see the drawback of having to use it on a relatively flat surface. Any suggestions help :)
 
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Unfortunately, $400-$600 is pretty much DIY territory!

Even the lower-end super average 'cheap' dollies that give barely acceptable movement cost upwards of $2000.

My suggestion would be a better DIY solution ;) What's your current solution? I've found good results in the past with PVC pipe and a custom platform using skateboard wheels.
You'll just need some shot bags to secure the pipes so they don't move around while you're on them.
 
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jax_rox said:
What's your current solution?
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Previously I've built two dollies: One used angled steel with 8 skateboard wheels on a plywood platform, pvc pipe with sandbags for track (that one consistently fell off the track because I just couldn't get the wheels/angled steel pieces perfectly parallel to each other).
The next one I made was using these dolly wheels with four casters purchased from home depot (I bought both rigid casters and free-spinning casters). This one failed because again, the wheels just wouldn't stay on the track; neither the rigid or free-spinning casters worked, even though they were equipped with specially-made dolly wheels.
I am guessing that I am just not very precise at building things, or rather I don't have the proper tools to build things precisely. Both of the dollies I've built literally fall off the pvc tube after one or two feet of travel...that, or the movement is completely unacceptable, almost better to just ride a skateboard and film it handheld (okay, maybe not THAT bad, but you get my point).

The most recent solution I found (examples of which you can see in this video) was to use a friend's platform dolly made for moving large speaker cases. This was actually rather smooth even though it wasn't on a track. For the video linked above, I just set the shutter speed to 1/60 instead of 1/50 to compensate for any unintentional motion blur caused by small imperfections in the wheels/rolling surface. After this, I was able to run it through the warp stabilizer in Premiere with little to no unintentional shakiness. This method did work, but simply because it was on a hardwood floor and the subjects weren't moving.

Perhaps you can link me to a more reliable/easy to build successfully DIY dolly?
 
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When the dolly 'rolled off the track,' did you make sure the track was straight? Usually when that happens, it means the track itself isn't straight, though it is also possible that it was due to your DIY abilities ;)

When I was at film school, we had Wally Dolly and Digi Dolly dollies. The tracks for which aren't really great, especially where the joins are. The benefit of PVC pipe is you can get the length you need without having to join track on a low budget. Expensive track (I'm talking thousands per foot) joins together beautifully, but one foot of that sort of track is way out of your budget range.

I might look into something like this (or machining something similar):
http://wallydolly.com/store#!/Wally-Dolly-T-Section-Only/p/10027269/category=2334126
And using PVC pipe as a track. If you needed a platform you could slap one on top.

Also keep in mind that the quality of movement is only as good as the person pushing the dolly. The better (more expensive) the dolly is, the easier it is to get nice movements. The dollies I generally use have the camera attach to the dolly itself, and you ride on it and can operate the camera whilst the dolly grip pushes the dolly and operates the boom.

With a cheap dolly, it's often very difficult to ride on, and especially very difficult to operate whilst moving. If you're the only one there, you'll need to push the dolly. If you have someone else to do it for you, you can attempt to operate. It takes a lot of practice to get smooth and consistent speeds. That's why dolly grips exist and get paid what they do.

That's not to say you can't get usable/acceptable shots out of cheaper systems, just that I wouldn't expect high quality dollying out of a $600 dolly system, DIY or otherwise. Used Panther dolly kits, for example, can go for $50,000, and that's without any track!
 
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Will Vincent said:
a good DIY dolly isn't difficult to build, unless you are completely inept mechanically :)

Here's the set of plans/how to that I've used and recommend to people: http://www.digitaljuice.com/djtv/detail.aspx?sid=144

Otherwise, if you don't want to DIY something, for the price-range you listed, you should probably just think about renting.
Click to expand...

I'll have to buy a couple tools but I think this one can be pulled off. This is the same design as I used before but I neglected to punch the spots where I wanted to drill, causing the drill bit to slide all over the place and the holes to be uneven. I'll also have to buy a file so I can file down the angled part to be flat...another reason why my holes were uneven. Additionally, I need to use inline skate wheels instead of skateboard wheels which are wider, flat and tend to be harder. Thanks for the responses people, gonna suck it up and try again, it can't be THAT hard.
 
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Iv only used my DIY dolly a couple of time, so in the end it wasn't really really worth it.
Doing it over I would invest the time and money in a longish slider (could still be diy) and good c stands and grip equipment to hold it up securely.
 
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