I’ve been doing more and more solo shoots. No assistants or colleagues to help setup shoots, sound, light or mitigate the weight of my kit. The problem is, creating cinematic journalism requires some kit. So for me – when it comes to solo video production, it’s all about “bang for your buck.” Or in DSLR terms, how to create the greatest visual impact, with the smallest amount of kit.
For news videos I want to mix some type of mechanical movement, with natural movement, with stationary shots. This means I need a tripod, a shoulder rig and one more device for mechanical movement. After a recent assignment, someone asked in an email:
“Really nice shooting on the piece. Did you lay down track for those slow dolly shots, use a jib, or use some new toy I don’t know about?”
And this is my answer to achieving mechanical movement for the solo shooter — the Kessler Pocket Dolly v2.0, Traveller size. What people are doing with this product is truly amazing. There are countless examples of beautiful work with this dolly; but in particular, on a run-and-gun shoot that doesn’t allow much possibility for planning, this tool is excellent. In a matter of 30 seconds you can be set up and ready to shoot in any environment.
Here’s Kessler’s Pocket Dolly v2.0 Traveler Size a week earlier during a shoot in the deserts of Inner Mongolia. This product is simply amazing. The length of this slider (26.5″) fits perfectly on the side of my F-Stop Gear Satori bag (or inside the bag if necessary).
The slider itself weights 5 lbs and balances quite nicely with a Manfrotto 190Cx carbon fibre Q90 4-section tripod (weighing in at 3 lbs) – which is the smallest/lightest tripod I can find that will support the weight of the Kessler’s slider and a Canon 5D mkII with a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 lens on it.
When you have the slider and tripod on the side of the bag the weight balances out well and you can continue to shoot stills if you need. Here I am a couple months ago shooting stills in India with both tools on the side of my F-Stop bag. So … it’s portable, useful — and guess what, you can even break it.
Ok, so you don’t want to ever break a piece of gear, but in case you do, this might be the product to break – because it was designed for people like me who might shoot in some less-than-controlled environments.
At the Desert’s Edge from Jonah Kessel on Vimeo.
I just finished a film for the Asia Society called At the Desert’s Edge. The short film documents the trials and tentative successes of a collaborative effort between locals, governmental initiatives and NGOs fighting to combat China’s growing deserts by planting vast barriers of trees.
However, while shooting and traveling my slider got a couple of nicks in the rails. Shooting in sand storms, travelling in less than comfortable conditions and constantly moving — things like this are bound to happen.
Although these nicks don’t look so bad they will affect your shots. The above photograph is taken with a Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x Macro Lens at about 4x — so this nick is almost invisible to the naked eye. But Kessler’s dolly was made with insertable rails which – they told me in an email – is “one of the reasons we went to the insert, so dings like this could be repaired”.
Kessler’s labour costs are very reasonable, and for about $35 my slider is being repaired. Other sliders I’ve seen would need to be completely replaced in the case of a dent or nick.
By no means are Kessler’s products “breakable” or even easy to break. However, the reality of video journalism is that that you can’t control your environment, the people around you — or how airport security handles your kit. So beyond the beautiful movement you can achieve with the slider, the versatility in build is a huge bonus.
– Jonah M. Kessel is a Beijing-based freelance visual journalist and interactive art director working with photography, video, print and web design.
