VFX Shoot: increasing production value

Today we spent half the day shooting and learning how to set up a crane lift and dolly tracking equipment. I go through what I briefly made notes on in the post about setting up this type of equipment.


The equipment we took out were:

• tripod
• Canon 5DSLR camera
• indie dolly tracking
• velcro strap for dolly
• chalk stands for dolly
• dolly wheels
• dolly seat
• LCD monitor
• SCART cables
• Boom mic/stand
• sound recorder
• camera crane
• camera crane lift

There is probably some that I have missed out but the list does not include light equipment which would have meant a lot more equipment to keep track of and it shows you that you need an extra hand to help set up this equipment.

CAMERA CRANE SET UP

Set up wheels first, then a tripod goes on top with the two pointy pins going in the wheel slot.
When applying the crane if there are arrow stickers present as indicators, they should meet (arrow to arrow) or any other form of indicators is a good thing to look for so it helps your intuition when setting up.

 If using the crane, connect the camera to a monitor so the director or camera man can see what the scene looks like, the same applies to a dolly track.

As shown below, the crane has weight handles that allow the user to control the crane in horizontal and vertical directions. 

DOLLY TRACKING

Velcro straps to the dolly helps to keep it in place and make sure that when the camera runs across it that it does not come apart.

Little chalk stands go under the dolly poles to keep it in place. These are safety measures that should be checked so a two or more people are given the role of making sure the dolly track is set up right.

The images show different angles and parts that make up a dolly tracking equipment. The camera can travel down and this gives the illusion of zooming in on a scene. This technique can help to draw in the viewer instead of bringing the scene to the viewer, the viewer feels like they are brought into the scene, therefore enhancing the storyline.

The image above shows that black straps have been placed to keep the dolly track together while the camera tripod travels down it. Just a little information to add, a small fact to overlook.

At the end of the day, I learnt that there are many roles on a film set and a person could be in charge of holding cables or making sure the dolly track is in the right place and does not cause any complications while filming and that the set up time of a set/scene needs to be considered. A scene could only be 10 seconds long but to set up the scene to get the shot could have taken 15 minutes with the right number of crew members, this is where working in a group benefits your time management skills and work ethic.