Advice on buying a portable dolly

[freefalk]

Hey there,

I am doing lots of documentary films in africa…..

I’m looking for a dolly solution that must be portable, and durable. I have seen a thing called a wally dolly, a digidolly and a fly-dolly. Any coments on what works would be appreciated.

thanks

Falk

[midsouthvisual]

I assume everything will be shot on rough fields, gravel, grass, etc? I think you’d have to go with a track based solution instead of tire based, or a glider style tripod mounted dolly (glidecam, indieslider, etc.) The gliders only let you do a few feet of motion and no curved radial shots though, but fast setup and convenience.

________________

Paul Lyke
dollytrax.com

[EarlC]

You actually, for most work anyway, rarely need more than several feet of dolly track. Dolly moves, like most every other approach to videotaping should be of the “less is more” variety, and short dolly shots of momentary occurence are more effective as a rule than long, continuous, involved dolly shots – of course some entertainment folks might disagree.

With that thought, a relatively compact and portable dolly rig that with fast and easy setup/breakdown could fit the bill for adding a bit of something special to your shoots and resulting content. But then, like Billy Idol once said: “…too much is not enough…”

[Author]

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