Dollying: an interesting concept

Eventually, a point in our film came where we had to decide upon our shot list. In an earlier post, we discussed things that we had learned from last year, one of which was that the camera very rarely stays *perfectly* still - after watching multiple short films, large scale films, music videos.. infact the majority of professional films.

As we studied camera operations last year, we were aware of all the terms used to describe the camera techniques used. In our first AS project, we tried to use many pans, tilts and zooms to not only help with continuity, but to subtly help the film appear, essentially, less boring.

I wondered. Why do students rarely use Dollies?

First of all, we had to understand if the difference between a dolly and a zoom. It is difficult to explain this concept without the use of a moving image, so the video below explains (as well as my interpretation/explanation)

My explanation: With a zoom, although everything in the image appears to be getting bigger (or closer), they are actually getting bigger at a constant and exact same rate. I.e. There is no real indication of distances or perspective. With a dolly, however, things appear to get bigger (or smaller if you're dollying/zooming out), at different rates - the perspectives of objects change.

Identifying a dolly from a Zoom is usually very easy, but I think it is hard to recognise the differences unless you take the time to learn about them.



The Dolly-Zoom effect, or the Vertigo effect has been used in many Movies. They are used for a huge range of reasons (Usually, to make distances really apparent, but I will not digress). It is basically Zooming one way, whilst dollying the other way. The video below shows examples of many movies which have used the technique, such as Jaws, Poltergeist, Goodfellas, and The Fellowship of the Ring (and should make apparent the differences between dollying and zooming)



So why are dollies rarely used, and zooms are used extensively?

First of all. Optical zooming is built into almost every modern camera available on the market today, including the models that Barnsley College has available. Essentially, zooming is easy. You have 2 buttons, one to zoom in... and one to zoom out. It is easy as pie.

To dolly, you have to have a method in which the camera is able to move on the X/Z axis. The easiest way would be to use a tripod with wheels. Although I have seen a few of these around college, they have enormous cameras attached to them, and are huge! Trying to take that equipment to each scene would be a real hastle, not to mention things such as uneven surfaces, lack of room, not knowing how to fully operate the camera and gaining permission.

Essentially, we had sort-of disregard dollying shots (Not by knowingly doing so, but ignorance of not knowing the effects of the two.. or not knowing what is in this post). If we wanted a similar effect, it would have to be a handheld shot, (which has been proven to be extremely difficult). Although, ideas such as using a Skateboard, Push Bike, Cars or Roller Blades were all considered (but promptly disregarded due to the safety of it, and wrecking a very expensive camera).



However, I came across an article just a couple of days ago on TutsPlus.com (They have a network of subdomains, covering a large area of creative techniques for photography, filming, editing, music, Photoshop.. etc). Which explains how to make a dollying platform for around $20 (£15). Here are a few photos of the tutorial, each of which links to the tutorial.







Although it's likely that we cannot use a propper Dollying shot (due to the shot list already been completed, deadlines.. etc) - This is a great technique to bear in mind for when I do projects in the future. It's a shame that naivety has caused the loss of an interesting camera technique that WAS available. But it is all a learning curve so I don't mind too much :)