Warwick Hempleman

Hi guys, sorry I'm late :) Their new dolly, which if I remember correctly was called the Albatros, was on display at the Cinec in 2014 in Munich. My opinion is biased and so I'll keep it to myself, excpet to say that it continues the tradition of Cine Tech dollies. That may be why you haven't seen one anywhere else yet.

Anybody else heading to Bydgoszcz? Camerimage has once again put together a good program and good workshops. I'll be there as will many of the usual suspects. The event is from Nov. 26th to Dec. 3rd. Here's a link to their site: http://www.pluscamerimage.pl/index.php?news=27008&lang=en

Bert, A simple explanation, really. I wanted to check with a person who would prefer to remain unidentified to keep his life simpler, so I went private. After I was able to contact him, he expressed no interest in getting involved in the rebuild projects and felt that he didn't have much to add to what's out there. So, let's see, respecting another person's right to privacy played a big role. Is that okay with you? Wick Hempleman J. L. Fisher GmbH

Keep at it with the methylated spirits, or petroleum, or acetone. Heat (like a heat pistol or hair dryer) will also help a lot. It'll take a while, but the gunk will all come off. If the C-stand is plated, DON'T use an abrasive.

I feel compelled to add a few words about track diameter, gauge and lengths. Standard Track diameter globally is an o.d. of 1 1/2" which is roughly 38mm. 1 1/4" is also common, but you'll find that most dolly wheels roll best on 1 1/2" as the manufacturers tend to build to that o.d. Standard Track Gauge is commonly 24 1/2" which is roughly 62 cm. A common length is 8', but as Phil says, use the lengths you get, especially when you are working with your own straight sections. The wooden sleepers work well, but bear in mind what your load rating will be on the sections. Spreading the sleepers too wide will certainly result in sag, bending or in a worst case scenario, breaking. Are you planning to construct curves? On that budget? As Phil says, get quotes up front. Phil, your dolly and track system looks great. Your description of how you've set it all up is excellent. I second your note on welding - don't do it (Pads lost me, too, by the way). Warwick Hempleman

Andrew, Rigging to planes is serious stuff. Don't do anything that is not approved by the FAA, the pilot, and your insurer. If any of these give you any reply less than "OK" in writing, do what they require for approval. When in doubt get a qualified person to perform the procedure. Like Brian said, the best thing in your case will probably be handheld and INSIDE the plane. Warwick Hempleman

If you can pull the covers (body panels) off the kart, go directly on to the frame. Grip heads and short or sawed grip arms will let you rig a platform fairly easily and flexibly. JD's comments about 3 points and not overtightening your safeties to the point that they compromise the primary rig are very good, also the camera tether and for that matter tethers in general. Those karts have next to no ground clearance, so any rig you add will lower and twist the car frame, watch for clearance and drag on the pavement. Above all, leave yourself time to rig. If you can get a kart for a few hours before shooting, buld rigs and play around. It will save an enormous amount of frustration on set. I just noticed the original request was in June - doh! - So how'd it go, Wes?

Ariel, It's not a myth at all. Rob and Onno pretty much hit all the bases. The main difference is flagging and rigging. You could say that's Us vs UK gripping, with the continent being a mix of both on smaller productions and smaller budgets. I tend to call what we do here in Germany the "Big Happy Family" school of crewing. Departmental jurisdictions are nearly nonexistent with very flat hierarchy. This works for smaller stories, but generally falls apart for big setups.

The accumulator fail is pretty easy to spot, loss of pressure, disappearance of oil as it displaces the gas, and ultimately loss of boom function. As long as the tires are normally inflated, using the troughs is no issue at all. As to a comparison - you're looking at machines that were designed decades apart. Fisher and Chapman built on what the McAllister and Moviola Studio dollies could do. It'd be nice to have a working McAllister sitting around a stage for low budget or maybe 3D rigs, but otherwise you'll get more fun faster with a newer dolly.

There was a thread some time back on McAllisters, if I recall correctly. And if I further recall correctly the biggest difficulty is finding a membrane accumulator for the dolly's hydraulics system. The type used in McAllisters is apparently no longer available new. Since the membranes inevitably fail, the issue was sourcing or making a comparable replacement, or replacing the accumulator wit ha comparable, newer design. Here you get into physical and weight constraints. As to the track, most dolly track is 1 1/2" in the US anyway, but riding on top of the rails with that dolly sounds dubious at best. The tires ought to fit into most skateboard troughs. And I stand by Pledge as an anti-squeak spray.

Or as Mr. Natural always said, "Get the right tool for the right job"!

Apart from securing the arm to the vehicle, you'll have enormous shake problems if you aren't using a stabilized remote head (Wescam, Libra, Flight Head, etc.), especially at anything approaching the speed of horses galloping. You may want to move the action to a location where the tracking vehicle is on a road and the horses & background are off-road. Also, horses will be very skittish with a crane arm swinging in front of their faces. Are the riders and horses familiar with working with cameras? Are the riders stunt people or "just" actors? Is your grip experienced with operating an arm in a moving vehicle? The physics of that are interesting, to put it gently. Is there enough room in the bed of the truck to operate the arm? Where are the remote head op, the director, the DP, the AC, sound, and the other essential crew going to sit / ride? Will the driver of the tracking vehicle be a stunt driver, or at least have experience doing this sort of thing?

..Not!

Servus Daniel, und Schöne Grüße an den Südtirol, The Elemack Cricket has a mechanically driven column, whereas the Magnum, Panther and GFM dollies use a pressurized gas cylinder. You will have extreme difficulty getting parts and service for an Elemack Cricket, so you might want to look in to that issue first. Oil leaking is a classic problem with the Elemack Spider dollies, the precursor to the Cricket. This almost always is a result of somebody pumping up the column before unlocking the risers. That permanently damages the seals, and - what a surprise - they leak oil. Elemack has good track wheels, but you'll want to see if they are integrated wheels, or if you have to swap the studio wheels for track wheels. Wick

** Shameless Plug ** Try a Fisher Model 23 next time out.