Sanjay Sami

Ahh I should of specified, My goal is to become just a straight up grip. Maybe a dolly grip later on down the line, I love doing manual labour which is why the change of heart from IT.

Eddie,

I am very seriously looking for committed trainees for the movies I work on. The downside is you will have to find a way to base yourself in Bombay for a year.

I do some interesting work, and if you have the ability to support yourself financially in Bombay as a trainee, you might find it interesting.

Regards

Sanjay Sami

Some more pictures here

http://thegripworks.com/rigging.html

This is a system I built a long time ago, but have since motorised it with a Preston DM1 motor and a micro force zoom controller.

It is the middle picture on the second row.

http://thegripworks.com/projects/project-darjeeling2.html

Use a long slider, and mount the bungi on the carriage.

Shot guns ?

I use the centre punched bits that are sold as scrap from metal washer manufacturers. Works, amd it's not lead.

Trent - it would help if we knew which country you work in.

GF-Jib or equivalent ... its the right tool for the job and as Gregg MacPherson says - you can very quickly adjust position and height. As you say you have several shots to get through, this would certainly be my choice.

use an apple box with a hi-hat screwed to it, and strap it down to the bed of the truck with ratchet straps. Remember that if you have the camera mounted on a fluid head, its likely the frame will change while you drive, so you will need to lock the camera off in some way. A variety of methods out there.

A better way would be to use a rigging 4 way leveller, but that would involve additional gear.

Similar in principle to a Prussic hitch, the rolling hitch will not work with certain ropes. Also to leave unattended, I would prefer a truckers hitch. It should be fine for most applications, except while using some modern ropes such as Polypropylene or Dyneema.

Have you considered a basic speedometer app available in the appstores? I'm sure most of us have a smartphone with GPS nowadays. You wouldn't have to worry if it's not calibrated perfectly so much, since the inaccuracy would be consistent for each take, anyway.

It would be by no means perfect, but a free solution!

Try it .... do a test with a handycam on a skateboard dolly.

By the time your GPS locks into the fact that you've started to move, your shot will be half done.

And it will not be consistent.

And at the start for the first few seconds of your move, when it says speed zero, how do you match that from take to take ?

And what do you do to compensate the MASSIVE latency in feedback on a GPS unit ? You accelerate ... then 4 seconds later you find that you were too slow ... then you slow down till you stop, and it still shows you doing 3 km/h.

Please do a test and get back to us with your results

Good luck ... tell us how it goes. I use the Steinway metronome app on my iPhone. I put my headphones on and keep it on Airplane Mode, so I dont get a call mid-shot. Its very easy to fine tune the speed with this app, and then no one but me needs to hear it.

I actually heard myself saying "kill the baby in the fireplace" after a set-up a few years ago.

Don't do that on a Johnsons commercial !

This has been an interesting problem solving challenge. Best guess I can come up with so far-- silent metronome on an iPhone or similar. let's say you get it to blink 1 per second. each blink corresponds to a "tie" in the dolly track. more than likely the ties in the track are at even distances. if you need your dolly grip to speed up, tell him to change the metronome to 1.2 blinks per second, and the tip of his foot needs to hit the "tie" on every blink. this will be pretty accurate as long as you give him 10 minutes to practice beforehand.

Jason, look at post #7

.... but nobody pushing on a dolly is ever going to be a repeatable motion control device.

 

Maybe not ... but you can get EXTREMELY close with a good dolly grip. If you haven't worked with one you wouldn't know what they are capable of.

My recommendation is to speak to John Flemming, since you are in the UK, and you will probably get a good solution from him.

I think a dolly grip can pull this off. You are tracking in, which already makes it easier to match than tracking across.

If you have marks every 6 inches, and the dolly grip has a clicking metronome app on his iPod that he matches click to mark, you can be extremely consistent. I have done this, even on IMAX, and it has not been a problem. It is more complicated if you are tracking across the scene, because the objects cross frame faster, and inconsistencies will be more apparent.

If I understood right, you will be stitching bits together, not layering them ?

I think its very possible to do.

I have done layered moves this way with good results.

I also built a poor mans moco track, using a dolly with cable and a DC motor with rheostat attached to a cable drum. You set the rheostat to a particular speed on the dimmer, and go. The starts and stops are not the same, but the move after it ramps up is dead accurate.

For your job I would get a good dolly grip. Call John Flemming. PM me if you need his phone number.

what is the length of the move ?

Metronome ... clicks lining up to marks on the track

I would go insane if we had odd sized frames and rags. Its just one more thing to slow the whole process down ... 4x4, 6x6, 8x8, 12x12, 20x20, 12x20 - plenty to choose from.

Maybe I'm just getting old :-)

I started using off the shelf rigs 20 years ago, and quickly realised that none of them were really that great. All my rigging gear has been made by me. I can also vouch for many other Grips who make a lot of their rigging gear themselves..

It is more expensive than buying over the counter, but you have a very personal setup then.

This is an example of some of the rigging gear I make. My wesite hasnt been updated in many years, so it doesnt have a lot of the newer stuff Ive done in the last 6 years, but to give you an idea of what you can do DIY ...

http://www.thegripworks.com/rigging.html

Most experienced Grips use gear that has evolved out of the fact that none of the off the shelf stuff really works well.

Most good Grips make a lot of the components themselves, or buy from other Grips who have made gear.

Having said that, Tevor Faber from Griptech Australia makes a pretty usable system, straight out of the box.

It is way better than the 2 mentioned here.

Stay away from the Mathews gear. It really is bad.

The SSE rig looks alright ... the Mathews one is horrible. Are you planning on doing the rigging yourself or do you have a Grip ?

The easiest part of rigging is getting the gear. The critical part is getting someone who knows what to do with it.

I think the stability will be based on the condition of the ice. it looks like a wedge plate mounted on an aluminium plate.

I think the smoothness will be good for either material if the surface is finished fine enough. also I would round off the leading edge of the plate on the side that sits on the ice.

BTW - i do not think this is going to be stable at all for high speeds.

Get a good Grip. That's really the best advice I can give you.

There are some pictures here :

http://www.thegripworks.com/rigging.html

To get back to the example at hand, I would be upset if the first AC tried to rebuild a platform with a Techno 50 on track riding on the platform. But he wouldn't . And no DoP would be rash enough to ask him to. But to roll a dolly a few inches left or right - no big deal. I have been on set, standing by the DoP whilst we are lighting a set, where the 1st AC has stepped off set to smoke a cigarette (few opportunities for them) and the DoP wants focus thrown to the background, but there is a motor on, and he cant do it by hand, I have reached for the Preston hand unit, hanging on the dolly push bar, on several occasions and done it myself. Doesnt mean I would pull focus on the shot - we'd wait for the 1st to finish his cigarette.

Similarly, If it was a 17 point dancefloor move, I am sure the DoP would wait for the dolly grip.

The DoP will excersize his judgement in situations like these. He has the ability to excersize his discretion - its how he became the boss.

I am not saying that you are wrong, I just don't agree with it, and to a large degree I dont work like that.

Hi James,

Just to be clear, I am not trying to say that this does not happen.

It happens a lot.

I just dont agree with it.

Movie making is movie making and we have a movie to be made.

Sometimes a Dolly Grip needs to take a leak.

Maybe there is a big lighting setup in progress and there is no grip available to step in.

The Dolly Grip thinks "OK, its all locked off, lightings going on, nows a good time to go."

Just then, the DP wants to move the camera, so he asks the 1st AC.

No big deal.

If the Key Grip comes and starts bawling out the 1st AC, he is not just out of line - he is out of a job, as far as I am concerned.

Everyone is a part of a team.

Now as far as this is concerned :

" the DOP, being in a hurry to get the next shot ready, again for whatever reason, oversteps his authority and asks the Camera PA to move the dolly to save time"

This is absolutely not overstepping his authority. The DoP has every right to intervene in any department that falls in his purview - Camera, Grip and Electric certainly do.

He is my Boss, and if he needs to step in, so be it.

As far as I am concerned, the DoP is the guy who can hire or fire the Key Grip.

I WANT him to be happy with my department.

I certainly dont want to reprimand him for stepping in to cover for the screw ups of my department.