Jib/Dolly move on the beach

[tanner wolfe]

Hello. I'm trying to work out some difficult requests from my director. We need to have a jib and dolly move occur simultaneously. I need to know if I can mount a 25ft. jib onto a fisher or Chapman dolly. Whether it is a Jimmy Jib mounted onto a Fisher or a jib from Fisher, it doesn't matter. This shot also occurs on the beach. I'm going to hire an experienced Key Grip, etc. I'm curious whether this shot is do-able without renting a technocrane.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

you'll need some plywood.... but yes, doable. depending on the "type" of beach, be it sandy or rocky. On a sandy beach you lay down the plywood as a base (big size) to spread out the weight of the dolly across the sand and give all involved a nice place to walk on. Best to attach the plywood together, hence making a little floor to throw the dolly on to your content. That'd be my solution at least.

Now, weather a jib/dolly will accomplish what you want as well/easily as a techno-crane, well that depends a bit, but the plywood method has worked for me in the past (though the final shot was nothing to write home about for reasons not related to the dolly move in question.)

[Joe Lotuaco]

You could also get some luma beams and secure your dolly track to them. Although it becomes a heavy SOB, it's quicker to move around in the sand since you're only picking up one solid unit rather than a bunch of pieces of track, wedges, sheets of ply, etc. It's also great because you just have to level the 4 corners with some apple boxes and throw a couple more in the middle for support. I've setup 30ft runs in the sand with only 6 points of support and it worked out perfectly. For one setup we even had our A and B dollies on the same 30ft run of track.