I gave the indie dollie a test run last friday

J P said:
Not sure why this thread is in the HVX section, but...

I've used the indie dolly twice now, so I can assure you it is a piece of crap.

*It is the most confusing thing to build. Without a manual, it will take two intelligent people no less than 45 minutes to assemble.

*The track sections come apart. Unless I am missing something, there really is next to nothing to prevent the tracks from separating.

*Forget about riding it. It is not built to withstand a human operator. The only stable way I have found to operate it is by having the camera operator walk along side of the dolly and push the dolly with the tripod head.

To be fair, I am used to using real dollies. I understand that the Indie Dolly inexpensive, and meant for low-budget productions, but that in itself doesn't make it any good.
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The Indie Dolly is excellent, maybe your definition of two intelligent people is different from mine. I don't consider people who watch NASCAR and drink Milwaukee's Best to be intelligent ;)

I kid, I kid. But all joking aside, the Indie Dolly is excellent. I've used "real" dollies, I think they are pretty crappy to be honest, hulky, don't do anything more than the Indie Dolly does, basically inconvenient from every perspective. I can setup the Indie Dolly myself in ten minutes, no problem. And the price is a great bonus, too.

The Fisher dolly is supposed to be so great, but these idiots act like their dolly is worth more than my car. It's a joke. A Chapman dolly is supposed to be like $60,000 or something? Are you kidding me? I could have that same POS built in China for $800 tops. It's not that impressive. I prefer easier to setup, easier to transport dollies.

Also as a sidenote every time I've seen someone use one of the big, pro dollies they haven't been able to get a stable enough shot and ended up basically using the dolly as a glorified tripod. We were on a Cybill Shepherd shoot and they were all worried about the dolly not being stable enough -- inside of a studio. It was a piece of crap, to be honest. My Indie Dolly could have gotten that shot in five minutes. There's also the fact the DP was so old he didn't understand the basics of post-production -- who cares if your image isn't perfectly steady, it's called MOTION, you can stabilize that shot and maintain 95% of the image in like 2 minutes, and they were shooting on the F900 for TV, nobody is going to notice that 5%. Sheesh, n00bs I swear.
 
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*********NEWS FLASH*********

I called indiedolly today cause I had some questions about using the dolly in it's narrow configuration (that's anotehr thing I like, the fact that you don't have to use the track at their full width, you cna make the tracks narrower, to fit a narrower doorway for exemple).

Anywhoo I was told that they are working on an additional accessory that will be an expension of the platform so the operator can sit more centered within the rails (Geese, I was just talking about that in my last post)... I was told it may not take too long to be released (2 months?) but not sure what price will be yet.

I am definitely going to check it out when they have it ready.
 
Deuceofspades said:
*********NEWS FLASH*********

I called indiedolly today cause I had some questions about using the dolly in it's narrow configuration (that's anotehr thing I like, the fact that you don't have to use the track at their full width, you cna make the tracks narrower, to fit a narrower doorway for exemple).

Anywhoo I was told that they are working on an additional accessory that will be an expension of the platform so the operator can sit more centered within the rails (Geese, I was just talking about that in my last post)... I was told it may not take too long to be released (2 months?) but not sure what price will be yet.

I am definitely going to check it out when they have it ready.
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Thanks for the update. I'll definitely be looking at adding that to my dolly once it's available.

Todd
 
INDIE DOLLY TEST FOOTAGE IS UPLOADED !!

Got my PC back and last night I was able to view and quickly edit my Indie Dolly test footage (at long last).

Basically this footage was done in the warehouse of Indie Dolly headquarter's in Burbank, I rolled camera as I tried different things, like pushing and pulling and reframing, crabbing slow and fast, left to rigth and right to left, also tried crabbing and stopping into a tight shot on girl's face. I then tried more ambitious moves such as rotating while crabbing... I had never used or been on a dolly before.

You will notice most of the shots are tentative since neither me nor my friend who pushed the dolly knew what we were doing. But you will also notice that despite all, the footage looks gracious, artistic and has a certain beauty to it.

I also added at the end some footage done after I bought the dolly when I took it to the DVXuser meet in LA, a day later. Those shots (with French/American actor Daniel Lafitte in them) were done with just me pushing or pulling dolly and the last shots (reflection of Daniel in glass door) were also done alone by pushing or pulling the dolly and reframing at the same time, with no help from anyone. You will notice those shots are not perfect, but considering how I did them, it is a wonder they came out as good as they did.

MODELS: Lisa of Indie Dolly and Daniel Lafitte (Daniel is available for music videos, commercials, shorts and films if any of the local filmmakers are interested in using him PM me. He is very reliable, dedicated and currently looking for exposure so he will probably donate his time for the right film or short project).

MUSIC: Jai Uttal (www.jaiuttal.com)

SEE THE FOOTAGE HERE:

1. best version: http://www.bettatalk.com/dvxuser.htm

2. faster but crappy res version (in case above will not play for you ) http://www.dailymotion.com/FaithGranger/video/6534679
 
weixiang623 said:
was it just me? or was the footage really shaky?
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No, it's you, you probably just drank another double espresso :thumbup:. Just messing with you!

Footage far from perfect but not 'real shaky', maybe the streaming video is hanging? the crabbing shots should be smooth, while some other were not. remember we only did I try at each movement so we were not going for perfection. We got on teh dolly rolled it in every which directions and rolled tape. This is raw footage, unedited except for the transitions between each pass. The crabbing shots are smooth, anytime I reframed, it was all over the place LOL. especially trying to rotate while sitting on the dolly... that's real hard to do and would take a lot of practice. :) But hey, we tried!
 
Very good footage! I'M SOLD! However, how long is the setup time, deuce? What I liked about the microdolly was the speed of setup. 5 minutes and done.
 
SPZ said:
Very good footage! I'M SOLD! However, how long is the setup time, deuce? What I liked about the microdolly was the speed of setup. 5 minutes and done.
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Take a look at the setup video clip on their site. It's edited a bit, but you'll get a pretty good idea of what it involves, including leveling it with wood blocks for an outdoor setup.

I'll be ordering mine soon.
 
SPZ said:
Very good footage! I'M SOLD! However, how long is the setup time, deuce? What I liked about the microdolly was the speed of setup. 5 minutes and done.
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So far I have put it together and broken it down 3 times, I got faster each time. It will be more than 5 minutes for sure, but probably no more than 20 min max. With teh help of an assistant at a recent shoot that rented my dolly, we put it together probably in 15 min. But the guy had never done it before so I had to teach him how. I suspect 15 min or a little under with 2 people doing it would be what it would probably take. Really not bad.

HOWEVER this does not include levelling the tracks. I worked on fairly even surfaces so I did not botehr levelling. (lumpy, thick carpet was one, and it did OK). I am sure that if you shoot outdoors say on grass etc it might take a hilw to dial it in.

I have not yet worked ion that. and need to buy the wood and start going to the park and set-it up as a test/practice see how it works out.
 
QUESTION:


Would you guys who have used this system or any small dolly systems share your tips/ tricks/ methods to levlling the tracks when outdoors?

It is said you need many pieces of wood and also shims, but I was wondering whether also have 4 long pieces, that would support the tracks, would not help.

So you would put the tracks on 2 or 4 big pieces of flat, strong wood and then level the wood using the shim under those large steady pieces...

thats' my idea,. who is doing that or has tried it? Feedback please?
 
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