TechnoDolly is a completely unique (and complicated) piece of film making equipment and is available in three sizes on location, in your studio… or ours at Ealing. 

All TechnoDolly’s are fully repeatable. Whether the original move is made by hand – like a traditional crane move, using keyframes like a motion control or from an imported move like an FBX. 

Variants of TechnoDolly 

– TechnoDolly 10 is the smallest and most portable setup, a brand new 10ft mini crane, it has no track and the head can only support small cameras. But if you need a repeatable camera move in a hard to reach spot or where access is an issue, this is the TechnoDolly for you. 

– TechnoDolly 15 is the industry standard, well known with seasoned feature and commercial crews around the world. This rugged, fully repeatable camera crane has a height of 15ft and reach of 13ft. It comes on 60ft of custom repeatable track (built in 10ft sections), it can be base mounted too. This is the most flexible and affordable option available to you and is delivered in a single low-loader luton van without the need for a taco.

– TechnoDolly 25 was born from demand for faster and further, utilising the same track and column as the 15ft, with a longer arm to give 25ft reach and 20ft height (without a rostrum with a standard max height of 23ft underslung – see tech sheet for more details) the head is also easily overslung to reach 25ft. TechnoDolly 25 gives you the extra reach and speed, but as a consequence is much heavier and the bucket (back end) is 9ft long. That small inconvenience is a minor issue when you consider all the advantages you get from this incredible new version of the TechnoDolly.

All TechnoDolly systems can be operated: 

– Fully manual (like a traditional crane and remote head and then repeated)

– Part-manual (for example the crane moves on keyframes, the head is operated manually… and then repeated)

– Keyframed (find a position, find a second position – or thousands of positions, let the TechnoDolly find the most effective way to travel between them, including the head and the focus)

– From FBX files or other move postproduction data files

– Anything in between

You can repeat a move in its entirety (crane, head and lens) or just a part repeat. You can also scale movement (make the move bigger or smaller), slow or speed up movement (for example to blend FPS in a shot) and jump in and out of a move at any point (for example where, in a repeat, you might impact an object – the crane can be told to avoid this part of the move). 

This is the most flexible way to create beautiful, repeatable camera moves with simplicity. We’ve shot entire films on a TechnoDolly right down to one shot for a show.

Extremely important info:

– Useful films on how to work with TechnoDolly are on our YouTube Channel. 

– For FIZ (Focus Iris Zoom) repeat we can work with Preston AND Arri (C-Motion) systems natively. All cables to connect to your FIZ are provided, for Arri we provide an LCube also. We also bring a Preston MDR4 kit with us as some Preston systems cannot be read, depending on age and firmware. 

– What can a TechnoDolly repeat? All crane, head and lens functions! From a manual track push to a contra zoom. It can also keyframe any of these too. Which can really win the day on complex contra-zooms or macro focus work (if the subject is static too – of course).

– POWER, we need lots of power. Ideally a clean 10KW that isn’t being shared with the lights!! So a clean 63A single phase split to 6 x 16A feeds, a 32A 3ph split out will also work. We can map out moves with much less power, but if you need speed, you need power. 

– Track lengths – our native length is 10ft, we have a small supply of 5ft lengths, but these are not included in the standard kit – so please call ahead if you need them.

Transport:

Our TechnoDolly’s come in custom-built low-loader luton vans with experienced operators.

The most important bit:

You tell us how you want to work and what you want to achieve and Sandstorm will ensure it happens. We are the world’s most experienced TechnoDolly team and the only qualified team in the UK. 

Need to know more – watch our YouTube channel – or view the videos below, all films have captions if you’re watching on set.