The latest version of the Burly Grip Dolly as it rolled off the assembly line (a.k.a. my garage).
Passthrough legs:
Dog not included:
Additional versatility not automatically included, but can easily be modified for otherwise hard to get shots.
The Burly Grip Dolly (also known as the Shooty Shooty Slide Slide) was born out of frustration with the Dana Dolly. I don’t want people to get the wrong impression. I have nothing bad to say about Mike Hall or his dolly. We are both key grips and, in fact, work with a couple of the same DP’s. But the Dana dolly has two issues. The first is that it is designed to use junior stands and even the shortest stands only go so low. The following photo is an example.
Why don’t you just put it on apple boxes, you say? Well, because we’re working out of a van and there’s only one family of apple boxes on board. So we made a qualifiable “shitty rig” to achieve the desired height.
The second issue is that the Dana Dolly is designed to go on junior stands. I know I already said that, but look at the next photo.
I don’t know when Dana Dolly first hit the market, but this was something a couple of us threw together in January, 2006. The DP wanted a dolly on top of a ski hill, but we didn’t have the manpower or time to bring a dolly and track up to the top, certainly not for the number of setups they wanted. While it isn’t a Dana Dolly per se, it’s the same basic design and has the same problem with larger cameras. The track only has two points of contact, one at the top of each stand, and it rocks front and back when the camera gets moved. And yeah, the DP didn’t like it.
The Burly Grip dolly isn’t here to compete with Mike. It’s not even mass produced. In fact I tell everyone who has a Dana Dolly to replace the stands in favor of some speedrail fittings and legs. This gives the track 4 points of contact which prevents rocking up until about 12′ (depending on the weight of the camera), but also has adjustable height all the way down to the ground, or a table, or anything.
The Burly Grip Dolly can be rented, but it mostly goes out with me.