This is a thought project. I was watching a bunch of footage from some talented wedding shooters the other night and was struck by the fact that they never have time to set up a dolly and get nice camera moves to enhance the cinematic quality of their work. They keep the camera still on sticks or they handhold their moves but even with Glidecam-type weighted and balanced stabilizers (no one is using a full Steadicam rig) you can see that characteristic wriggle. So how about this?
Has anyone ever heard or thought about a trackless dolly that could be used on fairly smooth outdoor surfaces as well as indoors? What if you built a rig a lot like the three wheeled little skater dollies that folks have been making here but used bike wheels instead?
The reason for the big wheels is that they move smoothly across bumps because their large size bridges gaps and you can let enough air out so they don't have to ride up and over every piece of pea gravel, they can minimize its effect by letting it press into the tire.
I thought maybe having a low platform that could take a standard tripod might be nice, although mechanically challenging, and if you gave the wheels the ability to be set to angles like the skater, you could set up smooth curves for fancy tracking shots.
Obviously you couldn't level the thing like tracks sitting on top of wooden wedges nor would it be as smooth as a heavy dolly on sturdy track, but you might be able to ride it and I think it could be quite smooth. Didn't Robert Rodriguez sit in a wheelchair and get decent shots?
Thoughts?
Has anyone ever heard or thought about a trackless dolly that could be used on fairly smooth outdoor surfaces as well as indoors? What if you built a rig a lot like the three wheeled little skater dollies that folks have been making here but used bike wheels instead?
The reason for the big wheels is that they move smoothly across bumps because their large size bridges gaps and you can let enough air out so they don't have to ride up and over every piece of pea gravel, they can minimize its effect by letting it press into the tire.
I thought maybe having a low platform that could take a standard tripod might be nice, although mechanically challenging, and if you gave the wheels the ability to be set to angles like the skater, you could set up smooth curves for fancy tracking shots.
Obviously you couldn't level the thing like tracks sitting on top of wooden wedges nor would it be as smooth as a heavy dolly on sturdy track, but you might be able to ride it and I think it could be quite smooth. Didn't Robert Rodriguez sit in a wheelchair and get decent shots?
Thoughts?
