Dolly Movement Thoughts

SkyCopeland · Nov 7, 2015

Hey guys,

So tonight I wrapped on a short my group has been working on for two months. It was pretty stressful to make sure everything turned out right from pre-production, building the set, and actually shooting the film....

But as we came to our last shots of the day we realized our establishing shots to open the film didn't look good. I came up with a great idea to dolly across our set and establish our location.

However, we were low on time and the wall of the set was too close to the desks for the dolly and cooke lens to get depth. So I had art split the wall connection and move the whole wall way back. Giving me a good five feet to move track back.

I decided to use the Chapmin and not only dolly with movement but also boom the camera as well. Now when doing this the DP and Director thought that of our 4 shots, 2 were usable, but one more so than the other.

I won't say which because I'd like to get an unaffected response... Can I get your opinions on which of these dolly shots look smoother/better?

For those that will ask this is shot on the Arri Alexa and our focal length changes as we dolly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zotsJVY1pBM

Thanks a bunch for the feedback guys!

film_autre · Nov 7, 2015

First one is better, second or. Is too jerky and feels amateurish

ILikef11 · Nov 9, 2015

I like the first one also. I'm not sure I like that her head is cut by the top of the frame, but that's just me.

SkyCopeland · Nov 9, 2015

ILikef11 said:
I like the first one also. I'm not sure I like that her head is cut by the top of the frame, but that's just me.

Yea, I hate that her head got cut off, but hey it's not my decision :/

pictureplanet · Nov 10, 2015

Her head gets cut off in both and the movement is better in the first one.

My own 2 cents, that camera move does nothing to establish the location that her next line, or a prop choice couldn't have said in 1/10th the time. I just know the races of people beyond the lead.

WalterB · Nov 10, 2015

1st one seems the best choice of these 2.

HU_Nathan7 · Nov 10, 2015

Definitely the first one IMO

SkyCopeland · Nov 11, 2015

pictureplanet said:
Her head gets cut off in both and the movement is better in the first one.

My own 2 cents, that camera move does nothing to establish the location that her next line, or a prop choice couldn't have said in 1/10th the time. I just know the races of people beyond the lead.

This is an establishing shot... you show your entire scene in one take. It's a crucial shot for coverage. Who knows if it'll all be used in the edit, most likely not. But you should get a lot of options when filmmaking.

An establishing shot should always be done, regardless if used or not.

pictureplanet · Jan 6, 2016

I disagree.

Audiences read visual storytelling faster than ever. They are very discerning. My knee jerk reaction to this sort of "introduction" is CBS Pilot. I don't mean that positively. Who is your audience? How on Earth can you have these broad generalizations about what you need to cover? That is insane to me.

If you are that concerned with coverage you have not considered your idea well enough. There are certainly opportunities to get additional coverage, but a planned 1 take move through a space is time consuming on set, weird to integrate in an edit and dull to a viewer.

The scene has to bring me in immediately. Sweeping across a space does not do that.

SkyCopeland · Jan 7, 2016

pictureplanet said:
I disagree.

Audiences read visual storytelling faster than ever. They are very discerning. My knee jerk reaction to this sort of "introduction" is CBS Pilot. I don't mean that positively. Who is your audience? How on Earth can you have these broad generalizations about what you need to cover? That is insane to me.

If you are that concerned with coverage you have not considered your idea well enough. There are certainly opportunities to get additional coverage, but a planned 1 take move through a space is time consuming on set, weird to integrate in an edit and dull to a viewer.

The scene has to bring me in immediately. Sweeping across a space does not do that.

Filmmaking 101. I'm not really going to argue this, because it's fundamental in making films.

Masters and Establishing are crucial. They may never even be used for a single frame in the final product, but you should always film them.

Lack of coverage doesn't show you have a solid idea, it shows you can't "kill your babies" and you're a dead-lock director(, DP, Producer, Writer) that lacks any sort of above entry-level pre-production knowledge.

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Also! I'll update in saying that this film has been edited by multiple editors in my program and one has been selected for GradFest. Some used this dolly shot, some didn't. Everyone used my other dolly shots, but they were generally very well done shots, I didn't need thoughts on those XD