Wheelchair Tips...now with pics!

John C Lyons

John C Lyons

Veteran
Hello again DVXers

Well as some of you may already know from my posts I am out of budget for hardware and accessories.  I am a week into filming my new project and I came into a free wheelchair to use whenever I want.

Has anyone used the "poor man's dolly" before?  Any tips and tricks for mounting the camera or camera and a tripod?  I can't really alter the chair at all since it's not mine (and no, before someone says it, its a spare one!  I won't do THAT for art!  he he).

I was trying to think of how to use it and get some height on the shots.  It's just a regular chair that folds up in the middle.  It doesn't have a joystick or anything.

If you don't have $1000 to spend on track and a rideable dolly, I would think a wheelchair is your best bet if you can find a working one...
 
Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Re: Wheelchair Tips...

...the easy way is to just ride in the wheelchair holding the camera still when someone pushes you. as long as your not jerking aruond, it will be glassy smooth. and you can be about whatever height you want then.
 
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Re: Wheelchair Tips...

true ial. i just wondered if anyone had figured out how to mount a camera at some height to a wheelchair...

to get eye level shots for example without me having to have both hands extended above my head and then if the chair tips back the camera and i are screwed. plus it takes another guy away from my already tiny crew just to push me around.

i think it would be cool to have me be totally hands-free of the camera, and to ride around (or push) the wheelchair myself.

i may be asking too much, but i am sure someone has tried this before.
 
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Re: Wheelchair Tips...

:)..well, you can just duck tape your tripod to the thing(use paper or rubber matte on the inside of the tape so you dont get the tripod sticky with tape residue). it would look stupid, but it would worke just fine. and you could have any height you wanted, and be free to push it.
 
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Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Place a 1x6 or 1x12 board accross the armrests...it will get you up to a decent "walk & talk" CU or 2 shot height. You can bungee it in place so it won't slide around.
Hope this helps.
Ken
 
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Re: Wheelchair Tips...

But it won't likely be smooth. You need to be holding the camera to get the "shock-absorber" qualities your arms provide.
 
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All great ideas. Consider getting a HUGE Bean Bag Chair and placing it on the seat or on BOARDS layed across armrests. Kind of CINESADDLE style.
 
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Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Do not underestimate the wonders of the bean bag.

I have a CineSaddle, and while I think it's the most overpriced bean bag I've ever bought, I will say that the thing DELIVERS. It delivers absolutely glass-smooth car footage. It would probably work perfectly well as a wheelchair stabilizer, as John suggests: strap it down to a board (you have to strap it down firmly) and let the magical styrofoam beans inside do their work.

Great suggestion, JH!
 
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Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Go to www.cinkinetic.com and you can see the CineSaddle in action.

The CineSaddle is a glorified bean bag with attachment hooks and straps for rigging it to a car (or airplane, or motorcycle, or bicycle, or whatever). You can rig it to the hood, pointing in through a window, to the trunk, a pickup's tailgate, basically anywhere. You rigidly strap the bag on, and you strap the camera in the bag, and the beans take care of muting any vibration. You end up getting rock-solid footage, so yes, if you wanted to shoot a conversation in the car, going in through the windshield, this would be a great way to do it. Or shoot sideways through the window, etc.
 
Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Addendum to my above post:
You will be sitting on the board handholding the camera...not lashing it to the platform by itself. Sorry for any confusion.
Ken
 
Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Bogen makes a clamp called the Super Clamp I believe. The top of it has a place to screw into the bottom of the camera then you just find a location on the wheelchair or whatever and it will lock the camera in place. I think it goes for about $40. They have 2 sizes a regular clamp and a super clamp. I have seen people clamp and mount cameras in positions and on things youd think wasn't possible!
 
Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Hi
I've done many shots with the "Wheelchair Dolly" (having the huge budget I have) and one thing I can say with certainty is, don't mount the camera to the chair! You won't be happy with the results. I found that shooting inside on a smooth tile or carpeted floor with someone in the chair handling the camera with a wide angle adapter is the smoothest. Wheelchairs have no suspension, they respond to every bump. I did a shot on a cement city sidewalk, wide and with a camera person in the chair and it was a mess. So if you are shooting on anything but a smooth floor I would go with one of those "cheep" (or homemade) steadycams instead. Or maybe a combination of both.
 
Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Re: Wheelchair Tips...

You can always lay sheets of plywood on the floor/ground to give you a smooth rolling surface. Before your next shoot, you might want to take a look at my book "Killer Camera Rigs That you Can Build". For under $100 I can show you how to build a dolly WITH a small jib arm.

Dan
www.DVcameraRigs.com
 
Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Re: Wheelchair Tips...

I've got the Killer Camera Rigs book; best movie money I ever spent
 
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Re: Wheelchair Tips...

some good ideas here.  

fortunately, two places i want to having smooth mobile shots (with the wheelchair) are in a parking ramp, and at a club that has perfectly smooth, seamless tiles on the floor.  so mounting the cam to it i may actually be able to pull off.  

thats why i was asking about mounting it to the wheelchair.  this tuesday i am filming the parking ramp scene, and i wont need it mounted high, so i will find an extra body to push me around and test it out that way.

thanks for all the posts!  i knew there were other "wheelers" out there!  i will check the ideas/links posted here for the super clamp and book.

i know you guys that own the glorified bean bags love them to death, its your favorite $300 bean bag EVER.  but for a guy who is posting about using a FREE wheelchair, that is defintely not even close to an option.  he he.
 
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Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Forget the Cinesaddle for now and just get a bag from the store! Can you do 20 bucks?
 
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Re: Wheelchair Tips...

LOL  $20 - no problem!  I will let you guys know how it goes...I am going to try a few of the ideas people listed on here.
 
Re: Wheelchair Tips...

Re: Wheelchair Tips...

I would be very surprised if hard-mounting the camera directly to the wheelchair produces smooth results. (unless the wheelchair is some super-fancy version with a suspension and soft tires).

I think your best results are going to come from handholding the camera while riding in the chair. Maybe not the "most stable" results (meaning there'll be some "float") but should be the smoothest results. Less convenient but probably better results would be from strapping the camera to a bean bag strapped to plywood/particle board strapped to the chair.
 
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