Steadicam

To film this recreated Victorian London street scene, the cameraman next to the lamp post is using a steadicam and wearing the harness required to support it.

The term Steadicam has several senses:

1. In the loosest sense, it refers to a stabilizing mount for a motion-picture camera, which mechanically isolates the movement of the camera from that of the operator, providing a very smooth shot even when the operator is moving quickly over an uneven surface.
2. Many familiar with the general concept use it to refer to the combined assembly of mount and camera.
3. "Steadicam" is a registered trademark of Tiffen for their camera stabilizers.

For the remainder of this article, "steadicam" will be used in the first sense.

Purpose

For static shots, a motion picture camera is typically stabilised with a tripod, or one of a variety of mounting systems which place the camera firmly on the ground.

Traditionally, for moving (or "tracking") shots, a director has two basic choices. Typically, the camera is mounted on a dolly—a wheeled camera mount that rolls on tracks or levelled boards. This has the advantage of permitting smooth camera movement, but takes time to set up, and can be impractical in certain situations. The director must compose the shot's movement so as to prevent the tracks or boards from appearing on screen.

Alternatively, the director can use "hand-held" camera work, in which the camera operator holds the camera in his hands. This has the advantage of speed and flexibility. With sufficiently small and lightweight cameras, camera operators can obtain shots that would otherwise be impossible. Even the most skilled camera operator cannot prevent the image from shaking, if only minutely, due to his body's natural movements. Hand-held footage has traditionally been considered suitable mostly for documentaries, news, reportage work, live action, unrehearsable footage, or as a special effect to evoke an atmosphere of authentic immediacy during dramatic sequences. The gritty police television drama NYPD Blue became quite famous for its use of hand-held camera work as a dramatic element.

A steadicam essentially combines the stabilised steady footage of a conventional tripod mount, with the fluid motion of a dolly shot and the flexibility of hand-held camera work. The steadicam's armature absorbs the jerks, bumps, and other small movements of the operator, while smoothly following the broad movements needed to cover any given scene, such as moving over uneven terrain or through a crowd.

How it works

This steadicam's 'sled' includes a battery pack and LCD monitor

The operator wears a harness which is attached to an iso-elastic arm. This is connected by a gimbal to the steadicam armature which has the camera mounted at one end and a counterbalance weight at the other. The counterbalance usually includes the battery pack and a monitor. The monitor substitutes for the camera's viewfinder, since the range of motion of the camera relative to the operator makes the camera's own viewfinder unusable. In the film industry the armature and weight are traditionally called the "sled", as they resembled a sled in an early model of the steadicam.

The combined weight of the counterbalance and camera means that the armature bears a relatively high inertial mass which will not be easily moved by small body movements from the operator (much like it is difficult to quickly shake a bowling ball). The freely pivoting armature adds additional stabilization to the photographed image, and makes the weight of the camera-sled assembly acceptable by allowing the body harness to support it.

When the armature is correctly adjusted, the operator is able to remove his hands from the steadicam entirely and have the camera stay in place. During operation, the operator usually rests his/her hand on the camera gimbal and applies force at that point to move the camera. To avoid shaking the camera when lens adjustments must be made during the shot, a wireless remote operated by the camera assistant is used to control focus and iris.

For low shots, the camera/sled arm can be rotated vertically, putting the camera where the sled normally sits and vice-versa; since both camera and display are inverted, the operator still sees a correctly oriented picture. The upside-down image recorded by the camera can be fixed in post-production.

Introduction of the steadicam

The steadicam was invented in the early 1970s by inventor and cameraman Garrett Brown, who originally named the invention the "Brown Stabilizer". After completing the first working prototype, Mr. Brown shot a 10-minute demo reel of the revolutionary moves this new device could produce.

The reel was seen by numerous directors, including Stanley Kubrick and John Avildsen. Avildsen directed Rocky in 1976, one of the first movies to feature steadicam shots. The Steadicam was first used in the biopic Bound for Glory, whilst Kubrick would use the Brown Stabilizer in his 1980 film The Shining.

The invention was exclusively licensed by Cinema Products Corporation and later brought to market as the Steadicam. As of October 2000, Steadicam® became a trademark of camera manufacturer Tiffen. [1]

Filmography

Today the steadicam is a standard piece of film-making equipment, used in many productions. They have been used to great effect in some notable movies including:

• Bound for Glory (1976), the first feature production to use the Steadicam.
• Marathon Man (1976), the first feature released with Steadicam shots (although these were shot after Bound for Glory)
• Rocky (1976), during its training montage sequence and certain fight scenes (it can even be seen in the high angle wide shots of the ring). Garrett Brown was credited for Special Camera Effects.
• Halloween (film) (1978), the opening sequence of young Michael Myers finding a knife in the family kitchen, putting on a mask, walking up the stairs and murdering his sister. The sequence was actually shot in three separate takes and spliced together with invisible cuts.
• Director Martin Scorsese has made extensive use of the steadicam in many of his movies:
  • Raging Bull (1980) features a long steadicam shot that follows boxer Jake Lamotta (Robert De Niro) from his dressing room through a crowd of 2,000 extras posing as spectators and into the ring.
  • In Goodfellas (1990), the camera follows Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) from the street, behind a building and down stairs to a service entrance, through a long hallway, through the kitchen, and to the stage of the Copacabana in a three-minute long tracking shot.
• This award-winning shot by Larry McConkey was acknowledged as the best example of steadicam work in Jon Favreau's Swingers.
• There is a long steadicam shot like this in Boogie Nights (1997). Director P.T. Anderson has acknowledged that this is an homage to Scorsese.
• Several tracking shots of Danny the little boy on his tricycle in The Shining (1980).
• Return of the Jedi (1983) used the steadicam with two specially mounted gyroscopes for additional stability to film the background plates for the speeder bike sequence The sequene was then sped up to 24 frames per second. This cinematography was an early pioneer in steadicam shooting.

File:Alienssteadi.jpeg

The M56 smart guns from the movie Aliens

• American director Brian De Palma frequently uses continuous steadicam shots to narrate his films. Most notable among these are:
  • The opening shot of The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) is a four-minute long trek through the bowels of a city building, starting from an underground parking garage and ending on the lobby floor.
  • In Snake Eyes (1998), there is a 20 minute sequence of steadicam shots that initially appear to be one shot, but are actually eight takes spliced together with invisible wipes.
  • Carlito's Way (1993) has two such shots—one that lasts two minutes of winding on and off a subway train, and the other lasting four minutes, going up and down an escalator.
• The M56 smart guns used by the United States Colonial Marines (USCM) in Aliens (1986), used CP mk III steadicams with the sleds removed and a modified MG-42 machine gun fitted to them.
• In Titanic (1997), Jim Muro used the steadicam to great effect in many of the shots taken running through the decks and corridors of the ship. A notable sequence is the scene of Caledon Hockley chasing Jack and Rose with a gun down Titanic's Grand Staircase.
• The opening to Boogie Nights (1997) was filmed with a Steadicam operator standing on a crane platform, then stepping off to follow the central character through a night club.
• American Pie (1999) and American Pie 2 (2001) both had a Steadicam sequence wandering through a house party at the Stiflers' house.
• Russian Ark (2002), in which the entire movie consists of one uninterrupted 90-minute steadicam shot, with the camera following the principal character as he wanders through the Hermitage, the palatial museum in Saint Petersburg.
• Before Sunset (2004) is an example of the use of steadicams in a modern independent film production, featuring 7–8 minute shots of its two main characters strolling down Parisian streets. Jim McConkey, the movie's steadicam operator, also served as camera and steadicam operator for The New World which was nominated for an Academy Award for cinematography.
• The West Wing (1999–2006) is noted for its steadicam tracking shots, long sequences showing staff members walking down hallways. In a typical tracking shot, the camera follows two characters down the halls as they converse. One of these characters generally breaks off and the remaining character is joined by another character who initiates another conversation as they continue walking, leading to such scenes being dubbed Walk and Talks.
• The opening shot of the interior of the title ship in the movie Serenity (2005) was shot with a steadicam. The shot last gives the appearance that it is one continuous shot lasting for almost five minutes. It is actually two shots connected together with an invisible dissolve during a whip pan as the shot moves down stairs. Each floor of the set of the vessel Serenity was constructed on a separate stage.
• Tom-Yum-Goong (2005) features a four-minute long steadicam shot following the protagonist encountering and dispatching a number of combatants as he ascends up a multi-story building.

See also

• Fig Rig

External links

• Homepage of Steadicam inventor Garret Brown
• Steadicam Operators Association
• How Stuff Works - Steadicam
• Steadicam Patent Page
• The BBC's Guidelines on using a steadicam safely
• Steadicam Operators
• Steadicam Posture
• Steadicam Images