Tech Highlight #3 Dana Dolly

Camera movement is a major part of how we’ve learned to tell stories in film. A well executed tracking shot, or a perfectly timed push-in/pull-out are excellent ways to give the viewer a more dynamic, immersive view of any scene and can work in tandem with your actor’s lines and actions to help immensely in telling your story. This can be achieved in many ways through many different types of gear for a plethora of intended, or unintended, effects, but bar-none, one of the quickest, most seamless, and inexpensive tools for achieving smooth, beautiful camera movement is a Dana Dolly. In this post, we’ll walk you through a basic setup and some safety tips to help you get the most out of your time with this invaluable piece of equipment.

A Dana Dolly is a type of camera dolly with skateboard wheels that runs along metal speedrail pipes. They’re the halfway point between the simple but limited table slider and the flexible yet complex doorway dolly. The kit includes the dolly slider, three tripod head adapter bowls (75, 100, 150mm), a washer, two track ends and one centre support (compatible with 750/baby or 2k/junior stands), a skate tool for adjusting the wheels, and a mount for small monitors. 

For a basic setup, you’ll need the dolly kit, two stands (three if using centre support), and two metal pipes. The first step is to attach the pipes to the track ends. Easiest way to do this, especially if working alone, is placing the track ends upside down on the ground to set the pipes in. Once secured, pick the whole thing up and place it onto the stands. Like when mounting anything on a stand, make sure to sandbag one of the legs to prevent them from falling over. 

You’re now ready to place the slider on the pipes. Once on, you can use a bubble to level it, but an easier way is to simply adjust the height of your stands until the slider stops rolling. It’s always best practice when mounting your rig to secure the slider in place. You can do this by tilting one of the wheels or attaching clamps to the rails (also handy for marking stop points). Now choose the appropriate bowl for your tripod head and set it in the centre hole, place your rig in the bowl and secure it from below with the tripod screw and washer. Always remember that the slider is not attached to the rails and can easily fall, or get knocked off. To prevent this, and to also give more weight behind your camera movements, place another sandbag onto the slider itself. If you want to attach a small monitor to the slider instead of directly on your camera rig, take the mount, fasten it with the wingnut in one of the four large holes found on each side of the slider, then screw the monitor into the ballhead. Lastly, depending on the pipe’s length and the overall weight of your setup, you may need to use the centre support for stability. For this, place another stand in the middle of the pipes, attach the support, and raise the stand till it meets the pipes. Keep in mind the length of your mount screw as you may need to swap it for a shorter one if it makes contact with the centre support. 

  And with that, you’re now ready to begin rolling. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible with this camera dolly. It’s a highly adaptable piece of equipment; customizable for a plethora of different scenarios, such as attaching the camera to the bottom of the slider for shots low to the ground or to film top down, but hopefully the guidance we’ve provided is enough to get you started and has given you some ideas for how to incorporate a Dana Dolly into your next grip package. For booking information, please e-mail Info@filmpei.com, or call (902) 892-3131 between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.