Super slow dolly push-ins

Eric Coughlin

Eric Coughlin

Veteran
What equipment are big productions typically using for very slow dolly push-ins? I'm talking slower than what you can smoothly achieve on say a Dana Dolly. Are they motion controlled? Telescoping jib? Is a Fisher dolly able to achieve slower push-ins?
 
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A Fischer or Chapman, preferably on track. Super slow push-ins are best achieved with a lot of mass at play, like an operator and an AC with 50 pounds of camera gear sitting on a 400 pound dolly that’s rolling on track. To maintain focus on a tight lens at wide aperture, sometimes a 2nd AC will stand off to the side to indicate to the 1st AC if the subject has shifted forward or back in his seat.

Doing a super slow dolly move in is often referred to as a Mickey Rooney, aka “a little creep.”
 
Mitch Gross said:
A Fischer or Chapman, preferably on track. Super slow push-ins are best achieved with a lot of mass at play, like an operator and an AC with 50 pounds of camera gear sitting on a 400 pound dolly that’s rolling on track. To maintain focus on a tight lens at wide aperture, sometimes a 2nd AC will stand off to the side to indicate to the 1st AC if the subject has shifted forward or back in his seat.

Doing a super slow dolly move in is often referred to as a Mickey Rooney, aka “a little creep.”
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One of the things that can negate the effect of a super slow dolly move is extraneous movement, such as jitter or float in the frame caused by operator influence, mechanical play or irregularity in the tracking surface (floor or rail). If such movement exceeds a certain threshold, the eye is distracted to the point where the dolly move itself is hard to sense. Thus it becomes very critical that the track is expertly laid, wedged and leveled; the operator is making all frame adjustments as smooth and minimal as possible (a geared head is a great tool for this) and all tiedowns from camera to head to dolly are secured firmly. Finally, it's on the dolly grip to be able to maintain an even and continous pace to the move, which can be very tricky at slow speeds--coming to a stop in the move will give a "hitching" appearance (anyone who has used a slider has probably experienced this).
 
I only looked in here to see if someone said “you can do it in post”.
 
Just rent a Technocrane, so much easier.

I was just on a national commercial shoot, they used the Dana Dolly, no Fisher on set, which was unusual. But they didn't do the move you were describing even once in four shooting days.
 
puredrifting said:
Just rent a Technocrane, so much easier.

I was just on a national commercial shoot, they used the Dana Dolly, no Fisher on set, which was unusual. But they didn't do the move you were describing even once in four shooting days.
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What's the slowest a technocrane can move? I've pushed a dolly on track and experienced what Charles mentioned - stopping and starting. It was so hard to maintain that speed just faster than "off" and sometimes I had no idea if the dolly was moving at all! I'm sure dolly grips would handle this move with ease, though I was surprised some type of telescoping jib wasn't the first answer.
 
It’s not a dolly shot, but I’ve used sliders for DSLRs that have hand cranks where you can spin it and move the rubber track really slowly. The longer the handle of the gear, the slower you could go.

This is the only way I can think to do it on a tiny budget.

Edit: sorry, you’re asking specifically what big productions use. Ignore me and listen to Charles.
 
rob norton said:
What's the slowest a technocrane can move? I've pushed a dolly on track and experienced what Charles mentioned - stopping and starting. It was so hard to maintain that speed just faster than "off" and sometimes I had no idea if the dolly was moving at all! I'm sure dolly grips would handle this move with ease, though I was surprised some type of telescoping jib wasn't the first answer.
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The SuperTechno 30 can move 0-6.0' per second is what the specs say so pretty damn slow and smooth. Too bad they are really only applicable to big budget shoots with a big crew.
It'd be cool if someone came out with a much smaller motorized, telescoping jib arm. I know there is that telescoping camera boompole that was shown at NAB and CineGear but I
can't recall who makes it or if it's shipping, or how it performs? Anyone remember who makes that?
 
What do you think would be an optimal boom size and wheelbase? Is this a doorway crane? I might find it fun to build one.
 
Paul F said:
What do you think would be an optimal boom size and wheelbase? Is this a doorway crane? I might find it fun to build one.
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What does your fully rigged camera package weigh? Huge difference in weight and construction to support heavier cameras (say an FX-9, Alexa Mini LF, C500 MKII or RED) and lenses at extended length versus a mirrorless or BMD PCC6K.
I have a PortaJib Traveler sitting in a closet, unused, last time I shot with it was probably five years ago, but it's a beefy little jib designed for shooting in houses with 8' ceilings. I've had a Varicam with heavy lenses on it and it was strained to
it's limit and the arm is pretty short, 3-4'. Putting a heavy camera on a longer arm requiers a lot of weight, counterweight and mass to make it workable. Hence renting a Technocrane is the best way to do it.
 
puredrifting said:
It'd be cool if someone came out with a much smaller motorized, telescoping jib arm.
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I was addressing this comment. I was wondering what you thought the market is missing. I like fabricating and have spare time. I suppose there is no market for it or someone would have already built it.
 
Very hard to beat a good dolly grip and mass! Possibly a motorized motion controlled slider with a light enough set up may get you the results you want...
 
I once did a Mickey Rooney where the Director told the actor to feel free to improv out the speech, to just go with his gut. It was the character’s big emotional confession and the very talented actor (David Selby, great character actor) was like, “Okay - you really want me to go there I will. Just give me a minute,” and he stepped into the next room to prep. I asked the AC to put up a fresh mag and told the dolly grip to go as slow as humanly possible. The scripted scene was maybe half a page of monologue but David poured his soul out for over seven minutes. Our slow push in took about five, but I asked the dolly grip to wait until he saw me wiggle my thumb to begin as we had no idea what might happen. Charles is absolutely right about needing perfect track and that this is best on a geared head. I was on a large fluid head and even though I was on the highest possible resistance I was so terrified of shaking and ruining David’s moment that I was breathing shallow and near the end my back muscles started clenching up. When the take was done we were rather moved but it was also clear that there was no way they could use this epic speech, so the director and actor went off in a corner to discuss what they could use and I went outside where a kindly PA worked my back a bit.

A shot like this is also referred to as The Godfather shot, in honor of this scene where Pacino first says that he could shoot Sallozzo, which is the moment where he transforms as a character and begins his ascendency to become Godfather (or decendency depending on your point of view). Fun fact: the old floors at Astoria studios creaked as the dolly moved no matter how much they tried to shim them, so rather than re-record the audio the sound editor decided to add in a bunch of other creaks so that when the creak hit in the middle of Pacino’s speech you just assume someone shifted in his seat. You can hear a bit of the added wooden noises at the start of the clip. The dolly creak is at 53 seconds in on this clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qvpcfYFHcw&feature=share
 
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