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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:
For the remainder of this article, "steadicam" will be used in the first sense.
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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/her 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 the 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.
Many examples of Steadicam work are available on the internet, such as Steadicam author and operator Jason Torbitt\'s website.Steadicam Resources and Information. Jason Torbitt. Retrieved on 2007-08-14.
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[citation needed], while Kubrick would use the Brown Stabilizer in his 1980 film The Shining.
Though he was not the first to use it in a mainstream film, Kubrick\'s use of the steadicam in The Shining is considered the first breakthrough of the technology. The long, fluid tracking shots through the Overlook Hotel of the film had enormous impact on other filmmakers. Both Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have specifically noted the low tracking shots Kubrick made of the boy Danny riding his Big Wheel through the lobby of the Overlook. This could only be achieved with a steadicam because the camera could be positioned very close to the ground. The shots would have been impossible with a dolly track.
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 accessories manufacturer Tiffen.
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.
Today the steadicam is a standard piece of film-making equipment, used in many productions. Notable instances of steadicam use include:
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
