5GBP video camera dolly, PC side panel

Instant dolly, no equipment, just simple duct tape, and the side panel of a PC.
What do you see? A levitating piece of aluminium? Almost there!

Dot made this video with this video dolly.

Step 1 Get a flat rigid plane, here an aluminium PC side panel (structured)

First of all, it is not my invention, it is just a quick way my friend Dot http://www.dotmancando.net made.
With super limited budget and time, we needed something to make a video dolly, so a plane surface with perhaps wheels (soft ones) for a smooth linear movement. The aluminium side panel of a PC was the nearest flat element at that moment... (not with the wheels of course).

Comments

[dchall8]

Nice job, but what does 5GPC refer to?

[dchall8]

I mean 5GBP...sigh

[cesar harada]

GBP refers to Great Britain Pound I believe... yes my lord, this is a british instructable, the appropriate symbol hardly comes out right unfortunately, see : £. So 5 GBP = about 10USD today.

[ll.13]

Cool! you're still alive! =)

[shooby]

Is a dolly only meant to move linearly?

[cesar harada]

This particular dolly is extremely basic, you may have noticed there isn't even a screw to hold the camera to the plane : the cameraman is just applying pressure on the camera to keep it in position on the dolly, and eventually add a rotation, zoom etc... If you want a more advanced dolly with multiple axis etc, you may want to transport the cameraman on the dolly itself: I'm quite sure there are some Instructables like this, I also found this one just now
http://www.jorenclark.com/whitepapers/dolly.html
with a nice rail junction-locking system. Good luck for your smooth cam moves!

[PKM]

I assumed you would put a tripod on it (and maybe tape down the legs) so the camera isn't necessarily a few inches above the surface it's moving on. That's what I'd do, anyway. If you have any similar bright ideas about how to make an uber-cheap Fig Rig, I'd love to see them as I have a major filming project coming up in a couple of months.

[shooby]

Cool, thanks! I was just wondering about the technicality of the word 'dolly' with regards to this device, I'm not into film myself. Could be used to produce some fun long exposure photos though.

[cesar harada]

Waahh, interesting, yes definitely, I'd love to see long exposure + mouvement, nice idea, please do it !

[Mr. Rig It]

Now that is truly out of the box thinking (pun intended).

[dotmancando]

i think the inventor is very handsome

[cesar harada]

Of course, it is Dotmancando, anything you want : Dot Man can do, and being being beautiful : yes, indeed.