We recently stumbled across an interesting 
report that introduces Anderson's Key Grip Sanjay Sami. Dolly Grips are, after all, one of the more unglamorous members of a film crew. They lay tracks by the meter to make the camera float through the set, but are rarely featured - unless they're helping Wes Anderson execute his meticulous and actually impossible camera moves.
The text revolves around a particularly challenging, nearly 90-second tracking shot in which the camera changes direction 90 degrees several times. It can be seen in Wes Andersen's latest film, The French Dispatch, which was released in October, so it's not particularly new anymore (though it is available online). In fact, Anderson's films are all largely filmed from the dolly - the conveyor belt-like gliding and abruptly stopping camera movements are one of his trademarks (along with deep focus and absolute symmetry). One usually looks in vain for an organic-looking camera in his films; in The French Dispatch there is just one sequence that was filmed by hand and one that was implemented with a Steadicam. Anderson and his DoP Robert Yeoman also like to shoot on analog film stock, including this film. So it's not a small camera that's being balanced on the dolly, but filmed with ARRICAM ST and LT cameras (with Cooke S4 primes and Zeiss anamorphic lenses).
Still from The French Dispatch Featurette
For the tracking shot, the set was custom built (as is so often the case with Anderson). The dolly tracks run parallel with the protagonist's movement through the police station, but at some points the camera suddenly moves into a room as well. A screenshot from the featurette linked below shows how the tracks are laid. As always, the timing between the moving camera, the walking protagonist, and the action in the various rooms had to be perfect during the shoot. To top it all off, the monologue was also voiced and fished live during the process. Unfortunately, exactly how the camera car manages to seamlessly change tracks at right angles is not clear from either the clip or the article.
How much ingenuity, work and attention to detail went into this film production - as in all of Anderson's films - is shown very entertainingly in the featurette.
Also highly worth reading is this article in American Cinematographer about Yeoman's camera work on this film.
Set-Foto The French Dispatch / Searchlight Pictures
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