Dolly, Glide Cam, Slider and Shoulder Rig Induction!

To help us prepare further for our studio shoot we spent Friday being inducted into all the equipment that can be used while filming like the Dolly etc. This was all very important to know not only for the studio shoot but also for future projects. I also felt that again as Assistant Director in this project I needed as wider range of knowledge on everything that would be used on set so I took lots of notes on each piece of equipment to gain as much understanding on using it as possible:

Moviola Crab Dolly

- Its is called a CRAB dolly because you can turn the wheels to a complete 90 degree angle so that it is actually able to crab sideways as well as forwards.

- The Grip drives/steers the dolly by pushing or pulling from the handle at the back of the device. This handle also turned which in turn is what moves the wheels and they can adjust this during or before a manoeuvre to get the right kind of effect.

- There is also a gear stick attached to this handle that can change the Dolly from using all four wheels to locking two in place so that only the back two move. This is very useful for movements such as sharp spins etc.

- Then another use of the dolly is that you can move the main arm where the camera and the operators sit up and down using the hydraulic values at the back of the device near the handle. One says up and this will push the whole arm up and one says down and this will move the whole arm down. However because it works using hydraulics you use only have one tap on at a time and then shut it off before turning the other on otherwise it will break the system.

- When the hydraulic pump is running low on air you must re-pump it back up using the charging device provided with it. This device plugs into he whole under the values at the back of the Dolly. It slots in and then must be plugged into the mains on the other end. Then when everyone is off and you are ready to start pumping the ai in you hold the button that is directly above where this charger plugs in and it will charge. You must hold this button down while charging otherwise it doesn't work. There is a air gauge by the valves which indicates how much air is in the system but usually it will only take a few minuets to pump up.

- When operating this hydraulic arm you must must always make sure that the camera operator who are sat on the arm haven't got their feet anywhere under the arm as it will cause serious injury if it comes down on their feet!

- You need to het yourself a Romford head as well for using with the Dolly which allows you to attach the camera to the dolly properly and control it easily with an arm which can be adjusted to any angle you would want. When attaching the camera you put it on a plate then screw it on to the Dolly similar to how you would with a tripod. There is also a switch which locks the plate on again in the same way as a lot of tripods. Also there are screws by the camera which will adjust the tension on the camera movement which mean you can adjust it to work for yourself and your shot.

- You can only have two people on this dolly at once, one on either side of the arm which is useful as it means you can have the camera operator and the camera assistant up there together working the camera together.

- Another useful to know is that the seats attached to the arm do actually come unattached if required which means your camera operator can stay if they would prefer it which can sometimes be easier for them. Also the height of the seat does adjust as well which means you can set this to your preference.

Learning to use the Dolly has been very fun and having time to experiment with it has allowed our group to already try out some camera shots that we wanted to use in our piece.


Camera Slider

- This equipment has a very common use of sliding for a reveal which is a very useful way to use it. It is also a good piece of equipment to use because it can get into smaller spaces than a dolly can. It can be very effective at panning from foreground to background shots to revel something. They take a long time to set up though so make sure if you are using it the purpose is worth it.

- This slider we can use is double plated which means that it is more robust and stronger.

- To begin with you must always make sure you use slider is attached to the tripod or tripods properly. If you are using a very light or small camera such as a DSLR you can get away with only attaching it onto one tripod however if its heavier or larger in size you must attach it to two tripods like we have in the picture above.

- Firstly you take the heads of the top of your tripods and mount them on to the bottom of the slider both facing the same way though. When doing this you must make sure the carriage (where the camera will attach to) is locked into place still so that it doesn't slide about making it more difficult. Next you need to line the slider up and the heads of the tripods with the tripods so that you can lock both in at once. This will usually be a two person job. Make sure the tripods are unlocked when trying to do this. If you line it up with the tripods it should be fairly simply to slide onto both. Once you have done this make sure the lock the tripods as you usually would when attaching a camera.

- You can then make sure the whole slider is level by fist adjusting the tripods using the level (bubble) device to get them levelled with one another. Then you will find this same levelling device on the carriage on the slider. You need to make this level too. This will then mean you whole slider is sat level and so will your camera if you attach that too and lock it on to the carriage as if it was a tripod.

- There are two wheels you will find on the carriage. One is black and one is red. The black wheel is what you use to adjust the tension of the carriage along the slider which is useful if you are moving the camera by hand across the slider. Then the red dial is the brake which as soon as turned will stop the carriage from moving at all which again is useful when moving the camera by hand.

- A good tip when you are moving the camera along the slider by hand is to do it by holding the actual camera with both hands firmly instead of using the arm on the carriage. If you use the arm you risk twisting the camera and the speed won't be as consistent.

- Another way you can move the camera/carriage along the slider is to use a motor device which you have to programme and it will then do the movement for you.

- There are two motors that come with this set of equipment. One is a slow moving motor which is useful for things like time lapses and the other is fast and is more useful for smooth panning camera movements. As well as the motors you also get the drive belt in the set which is very important for setting the motor up.

- For safety reasons you should always take the camera off the carriage while you are trying to attach the motor. You begin by sliding the drive belt in the gap under the carriage and then attaching it loosely at each end of the slider. Make sure when doing this that the toothed edge of the belt is facing towards the operator the whole way along. You then attach the actual motor device in the relevant place on the carriage over the top of the drive belt but only hand tight. Then the wire that is coming out of the motor slots into a socket on the side of the carriage. Once this is done you can then get rid of any looseness you have left in the drive belt by tightening it up more at each end of the slider.

- Before you actually use the motor you must make sure that you use the black and red dials on the carriage to remove all the tension and take the brake off. If you leave this on you make the motor work too hard and it will burn out. These dials are just for hand held movements.

- There is a controller which comes with the motor and this is how you programme the speed and what kind of movement you want. You plug this into the motor using the network wire provided. On the controller there is a left and right dial/button. The lot control is used for setting up slow movements like time-lapse and the right hand side dial is used for the faster sliding modes. The speed is set in units ranging from 1 to 99. You can also go into minus numbers which means it will move left where as positive numbers will move it right. This means you can choose direction and speed and mode. Once you have chosen you click the button again and the controller will go green to show that it is starting.

- The motor uses sensors on each end of the carriage to know when it has reached the end so that it stops with out burning the motor out.

- When setting up a time-lapse you can also plug the controller for the motor into your camera itself so that it can make your camera capture the images at the right time depending on the slider/motor movements.

This Slider induction has really helped me understand the best ways of using this kind of equipment and has again opened up opportunities for our film.


Shoulder Rig

- You can adjust all the elements of the shoulder rig forward and backwards so that you can make it fit your body as well as possible.

- You should always hold both handles of this rig and never do it one handed as you won't have a very god control over it otherwise. This means you should be setting your camera up for the shot before hand as you won't be able to do it during without loosing control of the camera.

- This is not a steady cam and simply is just a shoulder rig so a good way to try and keep the camera movements smooth when using it is to loosen up your knees and keep a ride stance for balance.

- Another good tip when using this to film someone walking is to try and walk in step with them to keep it timed and controlled as much as possible.

This piece of equipment was fairly self explanatory once we knew the basics. We think that it will be really useful for our studio shoot piece as it will help during the fight scenes when we want hand held camera.


Glide Cam

- Firstly to begin to set this up you will need a lighting stand to help you do this.

- In this kit you have a vest, a plate, 2 bars, umbilical arm, weights, the sled.

- The first thing you do is to balance the weight of the camera steadily on the sled using the weights provided. A useful thing to use if you have larger camera or large sense on your camera is a rising plate as well as attaching it to the sleds actual plate. This will help you balance it.

- Before you even attach your camera to the plate you need to find it centre balancing point. You can do this usually by placing it on a pen or circular object on the floor and trying to make it balance. This will help you figure out the centre balancing point. You then need to attach the camera using screw provided (and washers if screws are too long) to the plate but you want it lined up so the centre balancing point of the camera is as cantered on the middle of the plate as possible. Then to test if its entered enough you can perform another weight test on the floor again same as before. If its not right you should re-do it as this will help further down the line.

- Next you need to get the sled ready for mounting the camera on. You do this by hanging it up with the tools provided onto the light stand which allows you to weight it more easily. You should however make sure you light stand is security weighted down to avoid any damages to the equipment.

- You then start by attaching the camera and plate on to the top of the Sled. Make sure the plate and camera are pointing in the same direction. The pole at the bottom of the sled which holds the weights can be adjusted to make it longer but to begin with you just want it on the standard shortest setting. Before you begin actually adding weights or anything to the sled you should use the adjuster screws around the plate to shuffle it left or right or front or back till the whole sled sits as centrally as possible while hanging on the light stand. Sometimes pushing the weight holders out at the bottom of the sled will help to balance it too.

- Next you need to perform a test where by you pick the sled up by its handle and push the pole/camera up so its at a 180 degree angle across then let it drop and see how long it takes to reach the bottom back to normal again. It should roughly be about two seconds so if it moves too slow or fast this means you needs to adjust the weights by adding or taking them away. You must keep performing this test after changing the weights till you get it right. You can also add weights to the plate where your camera sits too which is helpful if your camera is too light for the device. When you feel like it is waited properly pick it back up and move around with it to check that there isn't too much song in it. If there is again you need to adjust the weights. This part os very tedious but worth it.

- Next now your sled is weighted properly you need to set up your arm which essentially looks like a bionic arm in two parts. There is a scale on each part of the arm which ranges from 1 to 6. This is a tension scale which needs to be adjusted depending on the weight of the camera/sled that you are attaching. 1 is the least tension and 6 is the most and you adjust it with a allan key provided in the set.  For the camera we used which was the Sony EX3 we put it on 5 as it was quite heavy. You should always make sure that both tension scales on each part of the arm are set to the same.

- Once your arm is adjusted you can attach it to the vest and camera by putting the bars provided into each end of the bar. Before you attach it to the vest though give the vest a check over to make sure all the mechanisms on it our tight enough. If they aren't then use a screwdriver or allan key to adjust these to make them as tight as possible. You can also move this mechanism to the left hand side or right hand side of the vest depending own which arm to wish to operate it with.

- Now you need to put the vest on with the mechanism and metal bar at the front. You must use all the straps provided on the vest to make it sit on you as tight as possible. Then you can pick up the arm and attach the bottom of it into the mechanism on the vest by sliding it into the holes provided. Then when you are ready you go over to your sled and camera which will still be hung on the light stand. You need the bar at the top of your arm to slide into the bottom of the handle on the sled. You will have to bow down to take this possible. Once it is slid in and attach you can stand back up and now its all ready to go. The vest will mean that your body takes the weight or the camera and the sled making it easier to manoeuvre around. You must remember to stand up right thought however tempting it is to lean forward.

- If your camera is sat too high up on the arm it means there is too much tension in the arm so take it down a notch or two by removing the sled and the arm again and going back to this step.

- The arm will take all the shake away and the vest balances the weight so really you should only need to use one arm just under the camera on the pole to slightly grip it to direct the angle of the camera slightly as the rest of this device will do it for you.

- A good thing to remember is that because of how strenuous using this device can be its wise to take a break after about 20 minutes of operating otherwise it can cause injury. It also isn't advised to use it at all if you have any kind of back problems already.

- This device is also more intended for long shots and wide angle lenses as it works much better for these rather than close ups.

Using this device was very difficult but a lot of fun. Smaller people such as myself struggled with it thought because of the weight and size of it. However Ethan who is DOP in our film group was quite good at it so if we do decide to use this we will probably have him operating it.


These inductions today have given me a lot to think about in terms of which ones of these will work with in our studio shoot and how. I need to talk to the camera team to see how they feel about them as well though. I feel like I have learnt  a lot myself though which will be good for future projects.