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.

A steadicam is a stabilizing mount for a motion-picture camera, which mechanically isolates the operator's movement from the camera, allowing a very smooth shot even when the operator is moving quickly over an uneven surface. Informally, the word may also be used to refer to the combination of the mount and camera.

Steadicam is a registered trademark of Tiffen. A trademark or trade mark, represented by the symbols ™ and ®, or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual Tiffen Manufacturing Corporation is a company in Hauppauge, New York, U

History

Before the steadicam, a director had two choices for moving (or "tracking") shots.

• The camera can be mounted on a "dolly", a wheeled mount that rolls on tracks or leveled boards. A camera dolly is a specialized piece of Film equipment designed to create smooth camera movements However, this is time consuming to set up and impractical in many situations.
• The camera operator can hold the camera in their hands. This allows greater speed and flexibility, but even the most skilled camera operator cannot prevent the image from shaking, if only minutely. Hand-held footage has therefore 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. Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt in one fashion or another to " Document " reality News is any new information or information on Current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or Word of mouth The gritty police television drama NYPD Blue is quite famous for its use of hand-held camera work as a dramatic element. NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct

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. While smoothly following the operator's broad movements, the steadicam's armature absorbs any jerks, bumps, and shakes.

The steadicam was invented in the early 1970s by inventor and cameraman Garrett Brown, who originally named the invention the "Brown Stabilizer". Garrett Brown (native of Philadelphia Pennsylvania an American Cinematographer, best known as the inventor of the Steadicam. After completing the first working prototype, Brown shot a 10-minute demo reel of the revolutionary moves this new device could produce. This reel was seen by numerous directors, including Stanley Kubrick and John Avildsen. John Guilbert Avildsen (born December 21, 1935 in Oak Park Illinois) is an Academy Award -winning American Film director The Steadicam was first used in the biopic Bound for Glory, but its breakthrough movies are considered to be Avildsen's Rocky in 1976, and Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining. A biographical motion picture &mdash often shortened to biopic &mdash is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people Bound for Glory is a 1976 biographical film which tells the story of folk singer Woody Guthrie, with David Carradine in the title Rocky is a 1976 Film written by and starring Sylvester Stallone and directed by John G The Shining is a 1980 horror Film directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Stephen King 's novel of the same name

Description

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

The operator wears a harness which is attached to an iso-elastic arm. In engineering iso-elastic refers to a system of elastic and tensile parts (springs and pulleys which are arranged in a configuration which serves to 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. A gimbal is a pivoted support that allows the rotation of an object about a single axis The counterbalance usually includes the battery pack and a monitor. In electronics a battery is a combination of two or more Electrochemical cells which store chemical Energy which can be converted into electrical energy 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. A sled, sledge or sleigh is a Vehicle with runners for sliding instead of wheels for rolling

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 vis insita or innate force of matter is a power of resisting by which every body as much as in it lies endeavors to preserve in its present state whether it be of rest or of moving A bowling ball is a round ball made from Urethane, Plastic, Reactive resin or a combination of these materials which is used in the Sport of 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. A gimbal is a pivoted support that allows the rotation of an object about a single axis 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. See also Filmmaking Post-production occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, Videos audio recordings

Filmography

Today the steadicam is a standard piece of film-making equipment, used in many productions. Notable instances of steadicam use include:

• Bound for Glory (1976) was the first feature production to use the Steadicam. Bound for Glory is a 1976 biographical film which tells the story of folk singer Woody Guthrie, with David Carradine in the title
• Marathon Man (1976) was the first feature released with Steadicam shots (although these were shot after Bound for Glory)
• Rocky (1976) used a steadicam during its training montage sequence (including the famous run up a flight of museum steps) and certain fight scenes. Marathon Man is a 1976 thriller film based on the novel of the same name by William Goldman. Rocky is a 1976 Film written by and starring Sylvester Stallone and directed by John G
• John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) - Director John Carpenter used the steadicam for the infamous opening scene of the film where Michael murders his sister along with numerous other shots during the film. Halloween is a 1978 American independent Horror film set in the fictional midwestern town of Haddonfield,
• Destiny of the Daleks (1979) is credited as being one of the first British television productions to make use of the steadicam. Destiny of the Daleks is a serial in the British Science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast
• Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) used a steadicam for the entire scene where Brian encounters the "ex-leper". Monty Python's Life of Brian, also known as The Life of Brian, is a 1979 Comedy film written directed and largely performed by the
• The Shining (1980) includes several famous tracking shots, notably of Danny riding his tricycle through the lobby of the Overlook Hotel. The Shining is a 1980 horror Film directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Stephen King 's novel of the same name Both Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have specifically noted this scene, which would have been impossible with a dolly because the camera was positioned so close to the ground. Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE (Hon (born December 18 1946 is an American Film director, Screenwriter and producer.
• Das Boot (1981): Filming inside the rocking submarine was done with steadicam, often with a slight fish-eye lens. Das Boot (das boːt German for The Boat) is a 1981 feature film directed by Wolfgang Petersen, adapted from a novel of the same
• Return of the Jedi (1983) used the steadicam with two cross-mounted gyroscopes for additional stability to film the background plates for the speeder bike sequence. Star Wars Episode VI Return of the Jedi is a 1983 Space opera Film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of Angular momentum. ^[1]
• Come and See (1985) Much of this war movie was filmed with Steadicam. Come and See ( Иди и смотри, Idi i smotri) "Go and look" — directed by Elem Klimov, is a Soviet War movie
• Aliens (1986) utilized a steadicam harness to create the attachment point of the fictional M56 Smart Gun used by characters Vasquez and Drake. This article is about the film for the video games see Aliens (Square computer game and Aliens (arcade game.
• Russian Ark (2002) 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. Russian Ark (Русский ковчег is a 2002 movie by Russian director Alexander Sokurov. The State Hermitage Museum (Государственный Эрмитаж Gosudarstvennyj Èrmitaž) in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of the largest Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River
• Atonement (2007) contains a memorable continuous five-minute steadicam shot recreating the Dunkirk evacuation during WWII. Atonement is a 2007 film adaptation of Ian McEwan 's critically acclaimed novel of the same name, directed by Joe Wright, and based The shot used over 1000 extras and had to be completed in one day due to budget constraints. ^[2]
• The West Wing (1999–2006) is noted for its long steadicam "Walk and Talk" sequences showing staff members walking down hallways. Walk and Talk - sometimes referred to as pedeconferencing - is a distinctive storytelling-technique used in film and television in which a number of characters have a conversation
• Director Martin Scorsese has made extensive use of the steadicam in many of his movies.
• The Protector has a steadicam fight scene that lasts nearly four minutes where the protagonist fights a large number of thugs, destroys many props, and runs up several flights of stairs. The Protector ( is a 1985 Hong Kong / US action film, directed by James Glickenhaus and starring Jackie Chan The brief use of digital effects to fix problems caused by a few props that worked incorrectly prevented the scene from being shot several times.

References

External links

• Homepage of Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown
• How Stuff Works - Steadicam
• SteadiShots.org Website dedicated to the study of Steadicam Operators and their work.
• Resource website for the Steadicam Merlin
• Steadicam Operators Association
• Steadicam Patent Page
• Steadicam Posture
• The BBC's Guidelines on using a steadicam safely
• Steadicam Operators
• Steadicam Images
• Interview with Dan Kneece, steadicam operator and president of the Steadicam Guild
• SteadicamGuild Founded by Steadicam operators Dan Kneece and David Allen Grove