Steadicam

Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation. It was designed to isolate the camera from the camera operator's movement, keeping the camera motion separate and controllable by a skilled operator. History Before the camera stabilizing system, a director had a number of choices for moving (or "tracking") shots: The camera could be mounted on a dolly, a wheeled mount that rolls on specialized tracks or a smooth surface. The camera could be mounted on a crane, a counterweighted arm that could move the camera vertically and horizontally. The camera operator shoot hand-held which would produce footage suitable mostly for documentaries, news, reportage, live action, unrehearsed footage, or the evocation of authentic immediacy or cinéma vérité during dramatic sequences. While these cinematic techniques are still common, smooth and steady tracking shots with lighter weight camera systems was enabled with the creation of the Steadicam in 1975 by inventor and cameraman Garrett Brown. After completing the first working prototype, which was called the "Brown Stabilizer", Brown created a ten-minute demo reel of the new cinematography techniques enabled by the Steadicam and was shown to numerous directors, including Stanley Kubrick and John G. Avildsen. The Steadicam was subsequently licensed to and manufactured by Cinema Products Corporation, which later diversified the brand into a consumer line of Steadicams for light weight DV cameras. The Steadicam was first used in the Best Picture–nominated Woody Guthrie biopic Bound for Glory (1976). Cinematographer Haskell Wexler had Brown begin a shot on a fully elevated platform crane which jibbed down, and when it reached the ground, Brown stepped off and walked the camera through the set.