Today I am having to totally re think my favourite piece of kit on an equipment list, first place previously has been dominated by the Matthews magic finger for at least the last five years is now changing, its not being replaced by nuns knickers, honker bonkers, dead cats (or kittens) stingers or even the world famous TBA. I contemplated replacing number one with a C47 just because half the industry don’t have a clue what that is anyway but no, first place is now firmly reserved for the fantastically named, CREEPER BUTT DOLLY! What a joyous name and it’s going to take something very special indeed to knock it off of top spot.

Reading the blurb on the website apparently it took years of development and I can only presume most of that was deciding on the name, time well spent me thinks.

So, what exactly is a Butt dolly and why is it a creeper?

Well in layman’s terms it’s a wheelie stool but who would get excited by a wheelie stool eh, butt dolly is far better.

So, it’s a dolly like a camera dolly but it’s for your bum (sorry its American so make that butt, lucky it wasn’t called a fanny dolly I suppose). But the creeper bit gets me too. Back in my school days a creeper was a kind of fart, a SBD (silent but deadly) one that you didn’t hear or notice until it assaulted your nose, they were always more fun to give rather that receive (ok so I went to a dodgy comprehensive school and we had to make our own fun in those days)

Creeper is obviously a reference to this as the butt dolly is designed to roll along silently thus not spoiling the sound recorders day.

Seriously the Creeper Butt Dolly (I’m never going to tire of using that name) is a very well-designed bit of kit, it’s a simple idea but has been engineered beautifully. Invented and presumably named by my new hero Carlos Boiles specifically for low angle camera work (including butt shots I guess) the CBD has a simple height adjustment system using various length riser rods (so a butt lift can be carried out in seconds). Its ultra-smooth, silent and effortless.

Hand made in California and now an industry standard all round the world with hundreds of units putting hundreds of smiles on the faces of film crews, tv crews and us rental bookers the CBD is a success due to it being so good (and having such a superb name).

My BCR (Brucie coolness rating) is the highest ever awarded at 100 out of 10, all joking aside it does exactly what its designed to do really well and has cheered up a cold Thursday for me enormously. It would have been even higher if we had a leopard print one like this.

I think Carlos should organise a Creeper Butt Dolly world series so all of us could race our CBD’s against each other culminating in the crowning of a Creeper Butt Dolly world champion (I’m in if anyone else wants to play)

The starting line for the CBD world Championships