Tuning Up Your Dolly

   Hi all. It's been a while. As most of you know there have been  very few posts in the last few years. Some of that is just a matter of time management. Family, work, laziness, and lack of inspiration have all been a factor. Mostly, it's just inspiration. This is the nineteenth year of Dollygrippery. I've done hundreds of posts. At some point I just couldn't think of anything else to write about without repeating myself. But every now and then I'll be doing something at work, or mowing my lawn, and an idea will come to me. Sometimes I go inside and write up a new post. Most of the times these days, I let it pass and just don't have the initiative to write it up and post it. I'm trying though. I've been without a regular gig for a while. I finished my last full-time show about six months ago and have spent the time up until now doing second units and fill in work for friends who need a day off. Not a bad way to make a living. I'd rather work three days a week for a few months than every day for four months if I can. But, the accounts need a boost and I am soon to start a fairly large movie which will take up the most of the next six months. Being a little rusty, I've been spending a little more time at the new Chapman facility which is luckily only a fifteen minutes drive from my house. In getting ready for my new gig, I've been spending a lot more time getting reacquainted with my regular dolly, Number 34 Hustler 4. I've been using this particular dolly for probably ten years or so. She's solid. The tranny is good and the arm is nice. We've done a lot of miles together and she has never let me down. She's carried me through everything from tv movies, to Marvel pictures. But I haven't really paid a lot of attention to the details. Over time the boom handle has gotten a little stiff and the wheel tabs have gotten a little loose and I haven't really noticed or brought it to anyone's attention. So I've been spending a little more time bringing her back up to snuff. My main thing with dollies is the arm. The transmission is usually fine. As long as it shifts smoothly, I don't really have any problems with it. The arm, though, is the heart of the dolly. That's where the most intricate work happens. When I first chose Number 34 as my favorite, she was perfect. The moves almost did themselves.  So I didn't notice her age over the years until I did a second unit with a Hybrid 4. Now, I'm going to say right off the bat, I'm not a fan of the Hybrid 4. It's totally a personal preference. The best dolly grips in the world, who are also friends of mine, use the Hybrid 4. I'm just not comfortable with it probably because I've used the same dolly for so long. But the arm, the heart of the dolly, on every Hybrid  4 I've used is almost always pristine. While I don't like certain things about that particular model of dolly, I love the arm. To use an overworked cliche, it's like butter. It's really sweet. It reminds me of when the Hustler 4 came out and I first tried it. I thought, "This. This is what I've been looking for!" Over time though, the Hustler, like every older model, has gone through some shit. Miles have been put on it. You have to hunt and search for one that gives you the  particular action you are looking for. I'm pretty sure that over time the Hybrid 4 and 5 will reach the same point, where so many people have used it and so many adjustments have been made that every one won't be exactly to your preferences anymore.  Anyway, back to my Number 34. Once I used the Hybrid 4 on a second unit and saw how good the arm was, I noticed how I had let the arm action on my favorite dolly degrade without addressing it. So, a few weeks ago I started going into Chapman and working with their tech, Conner, to get her up to snuff before I start the next job. I went over to a Hybrid 4, tested the boom handle, and told him, "This is what I want."  Every dolly grip has his or her own preferences when it comes to the boom handle. I like it very loose. I don't like a lot of resistance. I like a little bit of turn before it begins a slight feather. Conner felt the arm, took my 34 over to the workstation, and in about thirty minutes had it feeling like a new dolly. This is the kind of service you should utilize from your dolly vendor.  Chapman  (and Fisher for that matter) has always tried to make it right for me. Take the time. Believe me, you don't want to spend four months with a machine you are not comfortable with. I use the same dolly for every job. Not because it's necessarily the best dolly in the shop. But mostly because I've spent years with her. I know what the dolly will and won't do when I walk up to put it to work. We're comfortable together. It just needed a little tuneup. So don't settle. That machine, even though it belongs to Chapman, or Fisher, is your best friend for the foreseeable future. Make sure she's to your liking, or find one that is. Then once your dolly is tuned up, tune yourself up. Put some tape on a wall. A laser pointer on the head. And get reacquainted with your machine. Practice compound moves and keep the laser on the tape. You're never too good for a little practice.

Exercise courtesy of Sanjay Sami.

Signed,

The Captain

Big vs Little

   For years I used the biggest dolly that would fit in the space. That's what we're taught, right? The majority of shows carry a two dollies, a big one and a little one. Naturally, the bigger dolly was the "A" camera dolly. "A" camera stayed on the big dolly and when the space was limited you switched over to the small dolly.It's been this way for years. I've recently changed my thinking on this.  I generally push a Chapman Hustler 4. This has been my dolly of choice for probably twenty years. It's a masterpiece of engineering. The arm is pristine. The sideboard system is well thought out. Back when every operator used an eyepiece, I could put them anywhere I needed to and they were comfortable. Then the film world went digital. Now, an operator using a monitor can be on either side of the camera. I rarely use sideboards and privately look disdainfully on operators who ask for one (just kidding, operators who know me will laugh at this) So this still went on for years. I tried to shoehorn the big dolly into any space it would fit into. Then, something happened. The film world went digital. Operators didn't use eyepieces as much so they were much more flexible on where they needed to be on a dolly. Then something else happened. I did a movie with a director who forbade me to use a big dolly. He insisted on the Peewee. He didn't like big dollies, they take up too much space, people lounge on them (he's British) and treat them like a big snack table that you can also sit on. I grumbled but, of course, complied. A few days into the show I realized something. I can do everything with a small dolly that I can with a big one, barring high offset shots or jib shots etc. But actual moves are the same. Even easier. It's lighter, It takes up much less space. I can get more move out of a given piece of track or floor. Stand ups, sit downs, compound moves, I could do them just as well on the Peewee as I could the Hustler. In reflection, a lot of this has to do with taking the eyepiece out of the equation. In any case, it worked fine. Then I did another movie that required long runs down hallways ducking into doors and through multiple rooms. Again, the Peewee did everything I needed it to. Now, I'm finding more and more that my primary dolly is the Peewee and my backup for certain shots is the Hustler. B camera uses it more than I do. The worm has turned. 

Let me know your thoughts. Has anyone else experienced this?

 Anyway, hope it's a good weekend for you all. 

Lay Of The Land

   Sometimes, you just have to go with the lay. Two instances have come up in the last couple of weeks. One, underslung following feet. Of course the director, location manager or whoever makes these decisions picked a huge slope on a street in a town that could have been anywhere. In this case, yes, I had to lay on a slope so that the camera doesn't get higher as I go. Also, yes, I could have done a steady boom down as i went to keep the camera at ground level. I've done it many times. I decided to save myself the dialogue of explaining that I could do it on a level track and just go with the lay. Same thing happened last night. Push in on a downward slope. I was worried about the track being too high at the end and seeing it, so I went with the lay. I will suggest that you cheat a little as you do it though. No one understands track laying, so always bring the low end up a little so that you aren't struggling. No one will know the difference and just throw out some explanation about "side to side" or something and they'll buy it. At the end of the day, I didn't pick the location and I have to manage a 300lb plus dolly. It'll be fine.

Stay safe, 

Cap                                                                                

Session Players

  I'm up in New England doing a TV series. It's lonely. It rains a lot. And it's still cold a lot of the time. I'm going to talk about something that's been on my mind for several years now, which may seem a little strange, but, I've had a couple, so hear goes:

  I have a huge respect for the old school studio guitarists. Stay with me, this does tie in to Dolly Grips. Steve Lukather, Dan Huff, Tim Pierce, I've watched endless numbers of Youtube videos on these guys. These guys showed up for any given session in the 60's through the 90's, often not even knowing who the artist was whose record they were making. And they had to be perfect. Every time. Or they were gone. Just about any record you heard in those days from Micheal Jackson to Boz Scaggs had these guys on it. And their parts were often made up on the spot. The mastery of their instrument assured that they would be called back for the next record. 

   This is something that I've recently tried to bring out in the classes I teach to young Dolly Grips. You have to learn your instrument. Moving a camera isn't about going from one mark to another. Especially now in the digital world where we often roll on the first take. You have to be able to interpret instructions on the fly and make the shot happen the first time you do it. "Move right, boom up, push into a fifty-fifty" with no rehearsal. That's your job often these days. In the last few years, I've often thought about myself as one of those old studio guitarists. Learn it so well you can do it on the fly. And nail it in the first or second take. You're making music. Visual music, but music just the same. Learn your instrument. Learn it.

In the meantime, go to Youtube and type in "Steve Lukather", or "Dan Huff" or even "Glen Campbell" and learn about people who mastered their instrument. Then master yours.

From rainy New England, the Captain has spoken.

  

 

Walk and Talks

   Here is a subject near and dear to my heart. I realized that after hundreds of posts and thinking I had covered just about everything, I never covered Walk and Talks.  I love them. It's a way to knock out three pages of dialogue in one shot ( unless they want tighter coverage). I did a movie last year, Saturday Night, where the first shot of the movie was a seven minute walk and talk on a Peewee with a Matrix head and we covered seven pages in about ten hours.  I love them almost as much as I love stand ups and sit downs. There are a few things to know however. Rule one, no matter what machine you choose to do it on,use a monitor. For years I have preached about becoming overly dependent on monitors. I stand by that. However, in this case they are a valuable tool and I've come to believe that they are really helpful for this particular shot. Before they were widely available, I did what most dolly grips did and locked into a space between the actor's feet and the front of the dolly and held it. And I was pretty good at it. For the last few years though, I have really relied on a monitor to help me hold a frame size. Now, I didn't use one for the shot on Saturday Night. The operator, Matt Moriarity, and I decided to use a combination of dead reckoning and headsets to basically talk our way through the shot. But it was a very unique shot that required a little more finesse than a standard walk and talk. But in general, for a rickshaw or dolly down a hallway, I use a monitor. The technique is simple. Pick a size, base a reference on the bottom frameline (belt buckle, first shirt button, knees) whichever you choose. And hold it. Be warned: these moves are almost always faster than you think they will be. Don't be too proud to ask for help.

Good luck and don't hit any of the extras.

The Captain.

Specialization (or Specialisation, for our British friends)

   Today's motion picture industry is light-years different from even 10 years ago.  It doesn't take a genius to see that. With the advent of streaming in addition to the other outlets (Theatrical, cable, and network), up until 2020 or so, there was more work than there were technicians. I turned down as many jobs as I took. There just weren't enough days in a year to do it all. As a result the industry took in a huge influx of people. Suddenly it wasn't that hard to get started and work almost constantly, even if you hadn't developed the skills you would normally need to be successful. Then, with the collapse of the streaming bubble, corporate mergers, strikes, and pandemics, the industry ground to a halt. People with only two or three years of experience found themselves suddenly out off work. For a long time. This would be a normal correction except for the previously mentioned factors. The business has always gone through periodic purges. Work is cyclical and if you want to survive you put aside money for the lean times. Those that don't, that become heady with being in their twenties and making thousands per week, fall by the wayside.The veterans of the business know this and plan accordingly. This time is a little different. Even the old-timers suddenly found themselves unemployed for months on end. As work is slowly beginning to crank back up (notwithstanding the Teamster contract talks) I decided to speak up on a couple of things.

  It's not enough to just show up anymore. If you really want to continue in the business you have to be exceptional. For Dolly Grips, this means, if you are still developing your chops, you have to practice. There are a lot of dollies sitting around rental houses gathering dust. It's a prime opportunity to get some practice in. Most rental houses are happy to let you come in and play around (at least they were when I was starting out). Call them. Ask for a couple of hours to go in and mess around with a dolly. Claim a space, put some marks down, and do some compound moves. Get a friend and a chair and practice stand-ups and sit-downs. The moves seem daunting at first. With practice and experience (a lot of it) you will reach the point where the setup of a shot, or finding the best most efficient way to do it is the most challenging part. The moves, you'll just walk up and do. Take some classes from your union local if they are offering them. I teach a   couple a year and sometimes the majority of students aren't even Dolly Grips. To succeed in this field you have to specialize. That means you aren't a best boy one show and a Dolly Grip the next and a rigging grip on another. Specialization is something I've harped on for years and you'll probably find another post on it somewhere in the archives.  Work towards it. Become a master of your craft. Any decent set grip can lay track and go from one to two. It's the Dolly Grips who can effortlessly do a six point move with two booms and land it by the second take who will be in demand. Anyway, I'll step down off the soapbox. I hope everyone is hanging in there.

The Captain has Spoken,

D

One Fire At A Time

   I have a philosophy called "One fire at a time." It started with doing dance floor moves. Basically, it states that when faced with a seemingly insurmountable set of problems, you don't look at the whole daunting pile at once. You break it down into a set of smaller problems to be solved in sequence. A dance floor shot with multiple floor and boom marks can be terrifying to a new dolly grip. But if you don't think of the whole, and separate it into individual moves based on actor movements, it becomes much less daunting. Once you have put down marks and get into the actual execution of the shot, you just think of it as separate dolly moves based largely on actor movement. He moves to there, you look and see where your previous mark is, and it makes sense. After a couple of run throughs, it starts to become clear. This mindset has helped me get through a lot of complicated shots, and a lot of life problems that seemed huge upon first look, but when broken down, become manageable. Put out one fire at a time. Believe me it will make a huge difference in how you not only approach complicated shots at work, but complicated problems in life.

The Captain has spoken

Have a good one.