Dolly Golightly [Skateboard Dolly Part II]

You can read Part I of this blog here.

The base for the skateboard dolly is two sheets of 12mm plywood bolted together. You need something to hold the tripod in place - I've used furniture coasters.
I reversed the direction of the wheel bolts for better spin. The wheel trucks have to be positioned accurately so they keep the rails parallel. For this step you will need : one Doctor Who Series Three box set and one Woody Allen box set.Welcome to the future of high-tech filmmaking.
First test run footage:

OK. Runs smoothly except for wobbles where the pipes join - at the moment I only have very loose joining plugs for them (next on the to do list.) The wheels are completely silent, track is self straightening and there's no lateral roll.

Hello Dolly! [Skateboard Dolly Part I]

It's time to upgrade the Sci-Fi Gene standard package: starting with the camera department. There are three options, any of which should improve some aspects of film quality.

1. Invest in the latest semi-professional HD camcorder for higher resolution, better image quality and all the latest built-in features.

2. Build or buy a camera rig, matte box and French shutters and 35mm adapter device to enhance the capabilities of the current camera with professional lenses and filters.

3. Sign up for a camera operator training course to learn how to get the best from existing equipment.

As you can see here I chose option 4.

The next project is a track and dolly system. I've based mine on a design featured in The Guerilla Filmmaker's Blueprint by Chris Jones, reviewed here, but there are variants of this design all over the internet. The base will be made from two 96cmx60cmx12mm sheets of plywood.

Building the wheel trucks: 8mm holes on each side of the bracket for the wheel bolts, 4mm holes on the corner for woodscrews. 8mm bolts for the wheels were cut to required length.

On each side of the bracket: bolt, nut, 2 x washer, 54mm skateboard wheel with two bearings, 2 x washer, nut.

Wheel trucks are screwed to wood blocks which can in turn be screwed to the base and easily repositioned if needed.

To be continued...

Guerillas In The Mist [Review: Urban Ghost Story]

Urban Ghost Story is directed by Genevieve Jolliffe and produced by Chris Jones, authors of the Guerilla Film-Maker's guidebooks. Nine years before Paranormal Activity, this film brought the ghost story into a downbeat setting: Glasgow, a block of flats, complete with poverty, loan sharks, drug use and teenage pregnancies, and it brought the paranormal together with real-life menace to create a tense, creepy atmosphere.

The ghost story element is intelligent and non-patronizing - possible explanations for the entity are presented by characters we don't quite trust so there is no glib solution to the mystery, and in any case it's really a film about trauma. The heroine, Lizzie, has survived a car crash in which her best friend died, but is traumatized over and over again by the crash itself, the mysterious happenings that follow it, and then by the various responses from the police and social services, the spiritualists who terrorize her and the para-scientists who tie her to her bed for one more experiment.

This is an awesome film which I would recommend to anyone, with a great story and a lot to say about trauma. It has a strong cast, headed by child actress Heather Ann Foster who plays Lizzie perfectly, and has a memorable look: it's filmed in drab blues and greens that perfectly convey the mood of despair and fear, offset by the bright colours of the goldfish, a symbol of Lizzie's dilemma that appears throughout the film.

Filmmaking In Three Acts: Act I [Review: Guerilla Filmmaker's Movie Blueprint]

The way to learn filmmaking is to make a film. However when I'm planning a film or stuck at any part of the process I tend to turn to a small number of moviemaker bibles: this article is the first of three book reviews. The first bible is The Guerilla Filmmaker’s Movie Blueprint byChris Jones. This large book covers each role on a film crew, e.g. scriptwriter, producer, director, caterer, lights, sound, editor etc. It’s written for filmmakers at three different low-budget levels each with a different sized crew and covers the whole process from concept and script to mastering and distribution. It’s more broad than deep, but as it is so comprehensive it’s an excellent reference, and really helped me to grasp the basics.

Author Chris Jones worked on the feature Urban Ghost Story with director Genevieve Jolliffe. I'm waiting to receive my copy of this film which was generally well received.