Alexa Mignon Harris

Hi! Im looking for a rental house or private owner in NYC who has the Elemack spider dolly. I need it for a very specific shot. Production is having trouble locating one. Does anyone know where I can find one? Thanks! Alexa Harris

Hi Tom, With small to medium sized autopoles or polecats I'm comfortable with anything up to about 15-20 pounds. With the larger sized ones I start to become a bit wary of anything above this. At that point I trust wall spreaders more. It's the bowing of the longer poles that makes me uncomfortable. What I do if I have two large ones is put them next to each other and rig from them both so there is less weight pulling on each individual one. I also think Uva's Grip Book is great. It's about $40 but well worth it. Happy Shooting! -Alexa Harris

Hi! I used to live and work in Miami. CSC and Bexel are fabulous camera rental houses. Also try Budget Video Rental. They are super cheap and also well stocked with camera equipment. For grip and lighting, Magic Hour and Unique are houses with fabulous equipment but they are a bit pricey. Cine Video Tech is cheaper and they are also usually well stocked. Cheers! Alexa Harris

Hi Rob, I know Abel Cine Tech has underwater housings for HD cameras. I don't know what you are shooting on but they can help. They are very customer friendly. Their number is: (212) 462-0100 Cheers! Alexa Harris

Hi Salil, Go to Filmtools.com. They have a great selection of belts and pouches for your tools. I also find fabulous supplies at army/navy stores and police supply stores. You don't want to put too much on your belt either because not only will it weigh you down and cause eventual back and hip pain. It also ups the chance of getting caught on equipment when you're walking by. Everyone has a preference with what they keep on or off them. When I work I always have my C-wrench, speed hex key, leatherman and flashlight. Than I'll add to that if necessary. I keep everything else in my tool bag and the onset crate. Some guys like to have a roll of tape on their belt, some a hammer, some a producer etc. To each his own. Belt and onset tools also vary when you're gripping, keying, besting, rigging, dollying.... Have a great shoot! =) Alexa M Harris

Hi Pete, The pneumatic wheels do work best on a perfectly smooth and flat surface; but you can also use them on a relatively flat street. What kind of shots were you trying to get? If you want something super smooth you should probably go onto track. If you're on a wider lens and the street is flat you can get some decent shots but there will be bumps. The bumps will definitely start becoming more obvious with lenses above 35mm. Ive never used the magic dolly but I checked the site out. It looks like a nice sturdy piece of work and I noticed it does come with the pop on skate wheels. If you need to be off track for flexibility within the move try to be on the most level ground or try to level the ground yourself if you have to. Scout the location first with your keys so you can see what your dealing with and prep for it. Happy shooting! =)

hmmmm... I was getting ready to go out and get some tacos when I realized I would actually want the high hat pigeon points on the outside of the rails. This would distribute the overall weight better. So then the grid clamp pins and the gobos would also be on the outside of the two parallel rails. =) -Alexa

Hi guys! Since the HVX is so small and light and the studio is small I agree with Sanjay's route. If I had that situation I would get my hands on a mitchell based high hat mounted on a 2x2 ft wooden pancake, a fisher 90 degree angle plate, a 100mm or 75mm ball tripod head, a 100mm or 75mm ball to mitchell adopter, two pieces of speedrail fitted to the room, four pigeon plates, four grid clamps with baby pins and four goboheads. I'd rig the wall speaders about a foot and a half apart (close enough so the high hat can rest on the rails, make sure the rails are level.) On the bottom of the high hat I screw in four pigeons so that the points would come down on the inside of the two pieces of rail. To the rails I'd attach the four pipe clamps, two across from each other with the pins pointing towards each other. To these I'd attach the gobo heads. Than Id slip the pigeons pins into the gobos. Just measure on the ground so everything lines up. It sounds complicated if you don't know the gear but this is very basic rigging. Once the high hat is in place I'd tie it down to the pipes for extra support. If the studio has a grid also safety your rig to that. Than I'd attach the 90 degree plate and strap that to the hat for extra support. Than attach the ball head (make sure you have the ball adoptor). Than attach your camera. Saftey everything. Now you have your angle and flexibility with the tripod head. I did something very similar to this rig last year over a bed and it worked beautifully. Have a wonderful shoot! =) Cheers! Alexa Harris

Hi guys, I apologize for not being clear. lol! I just had a really funny visual of what would happen if I was tracking full speed and than pulled the brake lever. Oh lordy! In all honesty though I haven't seen it done very much but I had a shoot where one side of one of my channel wheels got damaged so I went onto the straight precision track directly. Once I lubed up the track and wheels I didn't hear anything. I liked it because it felt very smooth and once I stopped my move I could brake and not worry about the AC and DP shifting too much...and believe me I know some heavy shifters! lol! Later I tested going onto the curved track directly but I def felt that the dolly gave resistance. I like the channel wheels but sometimes I have a lot of weight on the dolly and they start warping so I keep rolling them out. So going on or off them is a choice I make depending on my situation. By situations I mean type of dolly, type of track, terrain, height specs, lens, weight on the dolly, what equipment's available, blah blah blah. Anyway, have a happy shooting week! We are having a snow day in NYC today and I got the day off! Whoo Hoo! Cheers! Alexa

Awesome!!! Next set we're on you should wear one...or two! You know, layered. And I'll wear a mini prom dress, with shorts, for when I'm on ladders... =D

Hi Jake, I think either way is good depending on what your situation is and what dolly your working with. With Fishers I like to go directly onto the track when Im doing a straight move or if I have a jib on the dolly (if I have a jib on I use the Fisher track wheels). It makes my moves smoother and I can use the breaks. When I'm dealing with curved track I prefer the skateboards because they give less resistance on the turns. What I'm not crazy about is that they do warp when there is a lot of weight on them. So you constantly have to roll them out the softer they are. If I need to give the DP as much height as possible though the channel wheels give me at least 5 inches of extra height to play with. If Im dealing with low mode of course I really try to avoid them. In a nutshell I guess it really depends on the dolly grips preference. Cheers! -Alexa Harris

Hi Onno! Thank you very much for this link. Its also had great advice about what shoes to wear. Next week I have the tech scout so I will have more information about what Im dealing with size and level wise. You also posted it on dollygrippery and I really appreciate it. Bedankt! Ja, ik kan een klien beitje Nederlands spreken. Ik woonde 6 jaar op Curacao en mijn broer, vershillende neefjes en familie woonden en Nederland. Maar nooit ging ik daar. Well, not yet. Thank you very much again! Doei!

The skating dolly grip! Awesome! Thank you for your input Michael. Being from Alaska Im sure your troubleshooting for the cold a lot. A friend also told me to nail the track down. This will work well if the ice is flat and minimal leveling is needed. If its not than I was also given the advice of plywood with the rubber matting underneath. Thats also great but would take a lot of wood. Ill see what happens when I go on the location scout next week. Thanks!

Hi David. Thank you for your advice. I am already getting the Fisher ice skates. My problem is that there is this tracking shot and I need to keep the track and myself from slip sliding around. I understand that I can just mark the circle a use the dolly with skates directly on the ice but this can become inaccurate depending on how fast I have to go and I have a greater chance of falling myself. A friend just suggested that I investigate spiked rubber matting. Have you worked with that before?

Hi guys. I have to set up track for a 360 degree shot on an ice skating rink. Im thinking about putting furnipads, rubber matting or both under the tack so it doesn't slip. Is this a good idea? If you've done this before I would really love your input. I'm using 8 pieces of 45 to create the circle. Im thinking that the heavier I am the better? So I was going to order steel track and the fisher 10. Is that a good idea? Thanks! -Alexa M Harris =)