I'm trying hard to achieve not just the film-look, but a general degree of professionalism as well. Would anyone be so kind to post a link, or write a step-by-step guide to building a decent dolly. I've seen pictures of homemade ones before, especially on homebuiltstabilizers.com, but no guides (Including parts listing, estimated cost etc.)

Anything like this would help!

Thanks in advance, Corey

Willy's widgets offers the most important part of the dolly, the wheel and track system. You can start as low as $200, supplying the plywood yourself and running on PVC pipe.

www.willyswidgets.com/pr_wheels.html

You might also want to consider renting. I don't know about Durham, but here in Phoenix I can get a Matthews Doorway Dolly that will run on rubber wheels on smooth ground, a few sections of steel track, track wheels and all the accessories for about $180/weekend. That's a lot of real pro level equipment for the money!

See if you have any grip houses or video rental outfits near you. Many of them will cut you a deal if the equipment's not going out on your shoot dates. You could also build your own dolly that's compatible with steel track, and just rent the track.

I found 2 links in your area:
www.mandy.com/home.cfm?c=onl014

www.telefilm-south.com/NC/OLNC/6085ALL.shtml

Hey, thanks DUDE..I'm looking for something I can build with 150 dollars or less, and a track system would make things too complicated....This is something like I aspire to make:

http://www.homebuiltstabilizers.com/offdl.html

That's an awesome dolly! I wonder if the center column rotates? That would be the ultimate. Not much different in theory than these (but a lot cheaper):

www.matthewsgrip.com/asp/details.asp?item=395043
www.porta-jib.com/spider_dolly.htm

Why don't you ask the webmaster at homebuiltstabilizers to contact the builder on your behalf? Maybe he drew up a set of plans he would be willing to share.

As for under $150, I wonder if you could even buy the raw materials for that? Do you have access to a machine shop and welding equipment?

The only suggestions I might make are to use tires with less tread, so as to be able to get truly smooth movement, and to cover the entire top with inddor/outdoor carpeting, as this helps traction.

You could build something like that with a lot of already pre-fabricated parts. Check http://www.mcmaster.com and home depot for parts.

check out the garden truck at your local costco, its 90% there for $90

I'm building one with parts strictly from Home Depot. I'll hip you to the plans and step by step process soon.

Any progress?

OH hey, I also just started building my own dolly as well (using the shadowgirlproject.com specs) I figured out how to do the wheels (mostly guess work) and now it's all waiting for me to put it together. I plan to take lots of photos and document the process very soon (maybe even tonight)...if I get anything done on it, I will throw a web page up...to be continued.

Well I whipped up a quick page listing the parts for the dolly I'm making. Check it out if you want at:

http://www.pcenginefx.com/dolly

Corey,

Save yourself some time and check the Super Track Dolly from Doug Underdahl at Long Valley Equipment.
http://www.longvalleyequip.com/dolly.htm

Very nicely thought out design, one of the few in this very low price range that actually allows for the cameraman -and- a focus puller to actually live on top of the dolly.

Tell Doug that Don from noisybrain. sent you ;-) Doug is a very helpful filmmaker with a heck of a lot of experience. Doug is in Long Valley, NJ.

Let us know how you make out,

- don

That's a cool dolly setup...but making a dolly is really the way to go (it is SO easy.) Plus it will save yourself lots of $$$. In the end, my dolly will have cost less than $150...GRANTED, mine won't work on curved track and only has 4 sets of wheels but still...

Wow, that's surprisingly cheap, considering some of the other options I've checkes out, but I'd have to agree that building my own is the way to go.

Thanks.

....Anything new?

Not for me....I haven't had ANY time to even look at my dolly parts this past week. I should be finishing my dolly in the next two weeks however...

Anything new....yet?

A quick fix might be a wheelchair (ala R.Rod in El Mariachi). Seems you would need a solid surface though (hallways, wood floors?). Anyway, an alternative witha semi-hand-held approach.

I've finally had the time to work on my dolly....actually it took less than an hour to attach all of the wheels and sand the boards down all nice. I shot a few photos of it below.

http://www.pcenginefx.com/temp/DCP04234.JPG
http://www.pcenginefx.com/temp/DCP04233.JPG
http://www.pcenginefx.com/temp/DCP04232.JPG
http://www.pcenginefx.com/temp/DCP04235.JPG
http://www.pcenginefx.com/temp/DCP04236.JPG

I don't have any video footage yet to show off, but I can tell you that it is SILKY smooth rolling on the pipe...and the setup can easily hold a person up to 200lbs+camera & tripod (using pvc pipe that is non-reinforced.)

Nice effort on the home-made dolly.

Where are you going to get a wheelchair from? How much do you think it will cost you to buy one?

- don

<<<-- Where are you going to get a wheelchair from? How much do you think it will cost you to buy one?

- don -->>>


I'm sure with some dilligence one could find a boat load of deals. I'm talking an old-school manual style chair here.

--- Looked on e-bay (curious) and they go from $25.00 for an older basic manual chair. ---

I prefer a letig dolly, but having a wheelchair on hand seems like a good idea for that "guerilla indi style" and the more I think about it, I'll probally keep an eye out for a cheap one for future reference.

Nicely done Aaron

Well, I finally got to use my homemade dolly this weekend for our LadyX episode and I'm pretty damned impressed. We used it for two shots, one inside at a party scene and another outside next to a card. The outside one was in muddy ground but it still worked ok. I will need to examine the rushes a lot more carefully to make sure it's perfectly smooth but for look seems good.

I made my dolly from the shadowgirl design, the same as Aaron N did.

I can't post some footage of it's usage just yet as it will give away some of our episode but I'd recommend it or anyone who needs a cheap, workable dolly for a lowbudget production.

Aaron

I have a question on these home built dollies.

How do you fasten the tripod so that it doesn't move on top of the plywood?

Good question. I have seen and used a similar design in the past and there was nowhere to 'fasten' the sticks. It was just a flat surface.

I used a ground level spreader and just drilled holes through the bottom of the feet. I currently only use it as a traditional three wheeled dolly but it's very easily adaptable to a tracked dolly. I designed it so that one day I could change to the roller skate type of dual wheels everyone is using.

I made the whole base unit including wheels for about $50 in parts from Home Depot. I don't know where to post pictures here so I'll email them to you.

Keith. What I did with mine was to place a frame around the plywood base. It was about 2-3cm wide and about 4cm high. This does raise the issue of comfort, but you can then spread out your tripod till it hits the sides of the frame and it "locks" in place.

People were pretty impressed with how well it worked. Even guys who work in the industry. Sure it's nothing like a real one with all the bits, but it can't be beat on price/performance.

Cheers
Aaron

The tripod & camera have more than enough weight to remain steady on the dolly...if not, a few sandbags will do the trick.

You can also put a border of small wood strips around the top of the board along the outside to keep anything from slipping off if you don't want the extra weight of sandbags...just a few things to try.