Wesley's Weekly HOW TO: Mini-Dolly
You've been asking for it and I finally decided to try this, how to get tracking shots with your very own Mini-Dolly.
Tracking shots are great, and adding just a little big of movement to your scene can really make things look much more alive, and make your film look far more professional.
I know you're saying, "But Dolly's are super-expensive", and while that is true, you can sometimes spend hundreds of dollers for a pro rig, if you want to build your own, its not nearly as heart breakingly expensive, infact, it's rather cheap..
How cheap you ask? Well, I built mine for under 11 dollars. How's that for cheapness? Using some ingenuity you could probably find a way to make it even cheaper than I did.
For this build, you'll need..
-2 pieces of PVC tubing, whatever length you need, I used 10ft. = About $6 dollars for both of them.
-2 90 degree PVC couplings the same gauge as the tubing. = $1.10 for both.
-A connecting piece (I used a piece of balsa wood that fit into the couplings) = 3 dollars.
-A thin strip of wood, I have some 2 inch wide about a quarter inch thick strips that I cut up. = Scrap wood, FREE!
-3 PVC couplings about the same size as the legs of your tripod. = About $0.75 cents.
-A Tripod. = Already mine!
Start out with your PVC tubing.
Measure the width of your tripod legs fully extended, and move your PVC tubing to that length.
Get your material that is going to be used to connect the tubing at the couplings, (I used wood because it's easier to cut than PVC for me), and marked the distance between the PVC tubing onto the wood. Then...
I cut the piece and put it into the tubes, and...
Screwed it into the coupling with a screw. The great thing about using a screw is that it can be unscrewed if you want to pack up the Dolly and move it. The next thing I did was..
I drew a few guide lines for cuts out on my other wood piece, each section is approximately the width of the tubing, and I need three of them for each leg, so other than these six, I cut nine in all out. And formed them into...
These guide pieces. Remember when working with wood this thin, use tiny nails (I used these wire nails), they won't split the wood like bigger screws will. I then...
I nailed the PVC couplings (the ones that I measured out to be the same size as the tripod legs), onto the wood pieces, and sealed them to the wood with hot glue and epoxy. Before I nailed them, I drilled guide holes for the nails with my drill, because i'd imagine nailing into PVC would be highly annoying.
I then fit the Tripod legs into the couplings, and then...
I bound the legs to each coupling with electrical tape to mitigate any bouncing, and to firmly keep the tripod bound to the dolly slides.
And there you go, you're very own Mini-Dolly. It might not be as useful for a lot of outdoors tracking shots, since you're dealing with larger distances, but for indoor tracking shots, I think this could be rather useful. Also, if you wanted to go the extra mile, you could definitely add some tiny wheels onto the wooden pieces, making the slide just a wee-bit smoother, but really, the wood and PVC is rather slippery against one another, and it slides pretty well, but really it's a matter of how far you want to go.
Hope this was useful! And if you have any questions or comments leave them below!
dolly, PVC, weekly tutorial, mini-dolly, 10 dollars.
Hey wes, Great tutorial, I was wodnering if there's any way to do this without the PVC, Because I want to build this but I don't have any PVC pipe, Could I use peices of long hollow plastic?
Wheelchairs also work nicely. I would have liked to see some curves on this build, though. That's the tough part about dolly shots. Tackling those turns!
yeah looks great...would like to see some test footage..but great job
I use a different design, i use my dads car maintenance dolly with a peice of pvc attached to the bottom and i use a cable for my guide.
Depending on the length of the movement, you save money using my version because u dont need a lot of pvc.
I use a different design, i use my dads car maintenance dolly with a peice of pvc attached to the bottom and i use a cable for my guide.
Depending on the length of the movement, you save money using my version because u dont need a lot of pvc.
Using wheels would probably be a bit smoother, but I was trying to keep it as inexpensive and simple as possible, to give more people the ability to make their own tracking shots. Stay tuned for Steve's Dolly EXTRAVAGANZA sometime next month, he's going to cover several dolly designs meant for different uses.
Oh nevermind. I'm not awake yet, ok. Great tutorial Wes. Seems very easy to make.
Would using wheels be better, even if they are more expensive?
I think you can find PVC gauged in MM or Inches over here, most of the parts seem to be labeled in both. I am pretty sure the sizes of PVC tubing are standard.
i used 11 mm. pvc piping for the rails and little pieces 12 mm. lubricated with vegetable oil as guidepieces to mount the dolly on the rails. i'm pretty sure that in america, due to the non-metricsystemness, they do'nt sell pvc pipes by mm. but they should have different sisez that allow for a pretty snug fit. i also used a (home-made) quadropod, instead of a tripod, as i found it slid more gently because it's easier to equally divide the pressure on the legs.. but it's always nice to see someone came up with almost exactly the same idea, on the other side of the world. must mean it kinda works
The Vasiglide system is a rail system similar to this dolly, but it uses wooden boards covered in plastic with Vaseline spread on them. The reason I didn't do that is because it increases cost, and it can get messy if you don't do it properly, even though you can get very fluid shots with it.
Great One :) I can't wait for the video that will be an education. My youngest is in theater arts at (public school, which never has any $$$) so, they are going to use many of them WesScog :)
What is a Vasiglide YOUNG&BALD? Seems that might get nasty collecting debris from the areas it was used in? Just wondering? Thanks WesScog for your dedication and talent :)
Why not build a Vasiglide system? Long 2x4 plank suspended, wrapped in duct tape and smeared with vaseline, then make a 2x4 bracket to mount the camera on it and it slides back and forth. Pull the rig with a rubber band to smooth the motion (the elastic nature of the rubber band absorbs most of the shock of starts and stops)
Its was Raimi used when he got started.
Not to detract from Wesscog's ingenuity, as it is always appreciated, but here is a site I came across sometime ago, that incorporates a slightly different approach, and perhaps better suited for outdoor/uneven terrain. I can definately see the two coming together with the best features of each, and still being able maintain a tight budget. BTW, I am not affiliated with this site, just passing on:
http://www.jorenclark.com/whitepapers/dolly.html
With indy mogul slacking, even more with this sundance thing, I can always count on you wescog to tell us some sweet/helpful things.
Great idea. I think attaching some felt to the bottom of the wood pieces would make it slide ever better along the dolly.
That looks useful. I'll have to try to make one, but I might add t connections to the pvc ends so it will be adjustable at any height I want my tripod. Great tutorial.
All I need is a job and car so I can get this stuff. I can't wait to do it.
I too made a helmet cam. With the help of my good friend Mr. Duct Tape.
Sorry if it's hard to follow, I only got like 4 hours of sleep last night, I was woken up way earlier than I normally get up, and i'm zonked out tired, i've been working all day, and I couldn't get the tools I needed for most of the day, and when I was typing it I kept on going, "That sentence is confusing", but I was having trouble expressing the steps coherantly.
Is there a specific step that you're having trouble understanding, because I can try to explain it better. I'll probably do some editting on it tomorrow when i'm less zonked.
I'm also going to try to get footage for this, and my helmet cam THIS WEEKEND. So stay tuned.
looks good. if we could see some test footage, that would be great too.
Pretty damn creative. A little hard to follow, but at least you have pictures. Thanks Wes!