Lesson 2: Shot Types: The Human Dolly

Ready on set? Welcome to DRIFF’s DIY Film School, where we introduce you to some tips and tricks that any aspiring filmmaker can try from the comfort of their home. We’ll guide you through exercises to sharpen your skills as a filmmaker, showing you the basics of what it takes to succeed behind the camera so you can start shooting your own films today.

Lesson 2

Shot Types: The Human Dolly 

If you’re looking for a simple trick to make your films look a bit more cinematic, let us introduce you to the human dolly.
The human dolly is a DIY riff on the dolly shot, a popular tracking shot that filmmakers use to add dynamic movement and atmospheric meaning to their scenes. A “dolly” refers to a wheeled cart and a dolly shot refers to the footage you can get when you mount a camera onto said wheeled cart. The dolly shot is basically a tracking shot, but the only difference is you use a cart.

Directors often use the dolly shot to give a sense of scale to a character’s setting, also functioning as a tool to build suspense. Dolly shots can create intimacy and reveal new perspectives, both physical and psychological, which Spike Lee often does in his shots, lending his films a particularly creative and poetic quality. 

Since we don’t all have wheeled carts lying around for us to prop our cameras upon, we’re going to use our own bodies to create a similar effect. 

Once you’ve got the idea, let’s try it out! Grab your smartphones and you’ll be ready to create your own human dolly shot. 

You’ll need:

  • Smartphone (or camera)

Steps: 

  1. With your elbows at your side, hold your camera horizontally with your legs apart. 

  2. Shift your weight onto your left side. 

  3. Press record. Slowly shift your weight to the right side, traveling about 18 inches. 

  4. Stop recording. There’s your human dolly shot!

There are different types of camera shots, but the human dolly is a fun and simple place to start. Try it out and message us on Instagram at @catchthedriff or use #CatchTheDRIFF to show us how it turned out!

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Thank you to Colin Burwell of Empty Cup Media for leading this assignment with his generous support and film knowledge. 

Hannah Polinski is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker from Southern Ontario.

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If you’re interested in becoming part of a local film community or attending a film festival near you, the Durham Region International Film Festival’s events are for you! DRIFF presents an annual fall film festival in Durham Region, summer drive-in movie screenings in Whitby and DRIFF in a Jiff short film screenings in Oshawa. Visit driff.ca, become a DRIFF insider or follow us on social media at @catchthedriff for all the details.

Hannah Polinski, DRIFF BloggerComment