Motion Control Dolly - Group Buy

[Ben Feuer]

Hey all - found a really cool opportunity to buy a "pre-owned", never used, custom motion control dolly rig. For FX work this is invaluable - also great whenever you need perfectly smooth, precision, repeatable motion.

Talked to the guy - apparently this is a custom-built rig. Brand new, never taken out of the box. He bought it for a shoot (original cost of 10k, not 100k) but by the time it was built his shoot was finished and he couldn't use it.

So I'm gonna contact the company that made it tomorrow and get some details. Assuming they're reputable and he's reputable, I'm going to organize a group buy with anyone in Los Angeles who's interested. I'm expecting the out of pocket cost to be $2k, $1k if I get a bunch of people.

Pretty good price for true motion control!

If you want to be in the loop, just PM me!

http://www.peaceriverstudios.com/15_...l/TrailRai.pdf

[Ben Feuer]

3 people so far - the price will only go down from here...
More information on Monday...

[Mark Allen]

your pdf link is broken btw.

[Albert Cheng]

I might be interested. But I need some more information

[KETCH ROSSi]

I'm interested too,

as far as getting more info just go here: www.peaceriverstudios.com,

you will be able to download direct and view specs, just clic on the Trailrail.

Great little product and perfect for me since it uses a Mac platform to control the software, they used with an ibook, I have a beef up 17" Macbook Pro w/HD screen but for use with this I would get the smallest and less expensive new Ibook I can get.

It seams you will have to make the Mac laptop part of the package control system.

Keep as inform on your ordering progress, I'm in it for at list one or two.

Ciao,

KETCH ROSSI
www.KETCHFRAME.com

[Mark Mannschreck]

I think I saw this listed... I was interested, but even more so now with a group buy!

[Ben Feuer]

http://www.peaceriverstudios.com/15_trailrail/trindex.html

That's a better link -

Thanks for all the support so far, let me know if there's any specific questions you guys want asked.

[Bruce Allen]

Penfever, thanks for the PM response and thanks again for finding this...



Thanks for all the support so far, let me know if there's any specific questions you guys want asked.

Yep, how fast can the sucker move in go-motion mode with a Red sitting on it (or an HV20 ;)? The sample video they had was a static panning timelapse. But even if it's slow it would obviously be very cool for the odd Baraka-style shot.

And you're going to have to tell us about your Valkyrie opera thing... is this a Wagner Ring Cycle thing or your own music? That's always been something I've wanted to do... anyway sounds like fun and look forward to meeting you and chatting about motion controlled dollies and our predictions for the LA Opera...

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Ben Feuer]

Hey all -

So...
Here's the down-low. I've spoken with the guy who's selling the unit and with the guy who made the unit at length. I'm gonna lay down the following details.

The first detail (probably the one you're going to care most about) -
The price is higher than initally expected, BUT if everyone who contacted me is still interested, it still comes out to AROUND $2000 per person. Might vary slightly.

So around $2000.

Now here's the cool stuff -

This unit was designed for high speed - it can travel 20 ft of track in a few seconds (the motor was built to keep up with a moving automobile). It can also do low speed.

The dolly is motion controlled - it can be operated via software.

The extra cost comes from needing a motion control head to attach to the dolly, which would give us pan and tilt functionality (which I know is important to me, and probably everyone else also). What's nice about that is the same guys who built the unit build the head - so they would basically take it to their shop, verify that everything's in working condition (no reason it shouldn't be, it's never been opened), add the head, and also add a new feature they recently developed, an analog remote.

That means you can control all three functions with a 15-ft wired remote potentiometer - basically a knob. Dolly by knob - who needs a dolly grip?!

So that's pretty cool. It's precise to 1/20th of an inch (approximately), probably comes with 18-24 ft of track. Extra track or curved track runs about $1k per 6ft unit.

So, are people still interested?

[KETCH ROSSi]

Yes I'm still interested,

IO just spoked with the fox over atpace river studios for a Pano Head and clear some details about the Trail rail as well.

Continue to keep as up dated.

Ciao,

KETCH ROSSI

[Ben Feuer]

Well -

I heard back from a handful of people, but not nearly enough - I guess I'll give it another day or two, but given the expense I can't really go forward without more people committing...

[Tom Lowe]

I am potentially interested. So what is the overall price with the moco head?

Our friend and forum member here Curt is building something similar, though I'm not sure how this rig compares directly with Curt's.

My only concern is that I would only use it for timelapse stuff, so it might be a little bit of overkill. Then again, if this badboy could match a timelapse plate to some live-action RED shots, it might be worth it to me.

Have you been out to see the rig? Test it? Where is it located, etc?

BTW, thanks for doing this, man. It may not work out, but it was worth the effort.

[Bruce Allen]

Wow, I've been in transit from Johannesburg to LA and now all of this happens... Penfever, it sounds very cool and you know I am interested. Really glad to hear it can move quickly...

So, what's the total price, how many people do you have in the group buy, etc? I can talk to a few friends who might be very interested and would want to know this information. All nice relaxed people who take care of equipment. As with any group buy we'd want to figure out a written plan (what happens if the thing needs repairs / recalibration / gets stolen etc) beforehand but I understand this is more a kind of "show of hands" thing right now, right?


Our friend and forum member here Curt is building something similar, though I'm not sure how this rig compares directly with Curt's.
Curt has a mo-co head, is he working on a mo-co dolly too? That's the cool part about this setup as far as I can tell. I don't really see what is so cool about a mo-co pan and tilt head that can't move, except for highly specialized situations. If you're shooting on a Red you can always pan-n-scan around the 4k image a bit in post. This setup seems FAR MORE useful.



My only concern is that I would only use it for timelapse stuff, so it might be a little bit of overkill. Then again, if this badboy could match a timelapse plate to some live-action RED shots, it might be worth it to me.

Yes, I think it could, as long as the move wasn't too insane. Just think of it... shoot a move with your actors on green screen and match it to a timelapse location shot :D



BTW, thanks for doing this, man. It may not work out, but it was worth the effort.

Totally agreed. You rock, Penfever.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Tom Lowe]

Bruce, I think Curt has mentioned a dolly being incorporated into his system, but I could be totally wrong about that.

[Curran Giddens]

I agree that a MoCo pan/tilt head that can't move isn't ideal. Luckily Curt should have a MoCo dolly to go with the Mirus MoCo head sometime next year. I probably wouldn't have put in my reservation for the Mirus if there weren't any plans for a MoCo dolly to go with it. I would guess that the VFS system will be more portable, have more features, and be more user friendly.

Just my 2¢

[Ben Feuer]

Hey all -

Another weekend come and gone (sigh).

Curran, I'm all for supporting forum members in their work but there's a huge difference between promised tech and field-proven tech that's been shipping for years. Peace River is a very respectable name and the unit is custom-designed, definitely capable of precise motion ... including time lapse. The software actually has a special setting for it. The only issue is that the software may not interface with the RED at first, but it's a small company so if it was something we needed badly, they could deliver.

But the jump in price to get the unit fully functional means that I need more people to commit, and I don't think it can happen right now. Of course, that doesn't preclude getting a group of people together and getting a completely new unit somewhere down the line - I think at this point it'd be a difference of a few thousand dollars at most.

PS - this unit is ALSO remote controllable.

[Ben Feuer]

Read your post more carefully, Bruce - thanks for the compliment!!

We really have to make a solid commitment now on the dolly. Theoretically we could push the head back, but there's a manufacturing delay. Total price will be ABOUT 18,500. But it could go up or down by ~1k, depending on what we need.

So by my count we need nine people to keep it in a reasonable price range. I have something like five I feel confident in. That's enough to buy the dolly now, but then we have to get four more for the head.

[Tom Lowe]

pen, i think 18K is going to be too much for me.

sorry, and thanks for doing this!

[Russ Fill]

Hey all got in to this a little late but I would be interested in getting in on this crane deal. I work with SLR for time lapes and have built a dolly and pan head and Im in the process of working with some engeneers to make just such a telescoping jib for the SLR's but if I could leap frog and not have to reinvent the wheel that would be great. How portable is this thing? Most of my work is in really remote places.

[Matt Sconce]

Sorry I'm late but my business partner and I are interested I will get you details and decisions within a day. -Matt Sconce

[Ben Feuer]

Hey all -

Back after a bit of an absence, but I bring good news...

Turns out we won't have to pay 18k after all - the original seller has agreed to sell his own mo-co head along with the dolly for only $4k, for a total of $10k! Not bad! This is very close to the original price I was looking for.

So let's rally the troops one last time - if we have 5+ interested people I'm going to go ahead and pull the trigger.

Anyone interested, please PM me with your e-mail address if you haven't already done so!

-Ben

[Ben Feuer]

Oh, and Russ ... it's not a crane, just so you know. It's just a dolly and a head.

[Ben Feuer]

Sent out e-mails to the people I have addresses for...where'd everyone go?

[Mark Mannschreck]

reply sent

[Dan Blanchett]

PM'd you twice but no response.