What a Witch was not able to afford a camera dolly but needed one in order to create smooth camera movements. A camera dolly allows for more complex and life-like camera movements which bring the shots to life in a way that tripod and hand-held shots cannot. When a dolly is used correctly, it really can mean the difference between the look of cinema, and the look of home video. What makes a dolly shot different than zooming is that the dolly shot’s perspective changes during the movement, while the zoom shot only enlarges an image. However, tracked dollies are extremely expensive and home-made dollies are difficult to acquire smooth shots.

Michael Franklin (DOP) made a tracked dolly on skateboard wheels to glide on PVC pipes. A track was built by sticking the pipes next to each other.

Using a wooden board as a platform with drilled holes, two angle irons were bolted in with four skateboard wheels at each corner. Why four wheels on every corner? To make it smooth. Especially when going over seams in the PVC track. The more wheels to spread the weight, the better. The wheels were also staggered, so two wheels could not go over a seam at the same time.

The self-made dolly worked pretty well. The total cost of the dolly with its tracks was about 80£. A useful investment.

The inspiration to make this dolly was taken from Rick Clarke (UK). For a detailed explanation and instructions check his video:

Tags: Track Dolly, What a Witch

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.