The SECOND EDITION ® A Focal Press Book HOLWAY HAYBALL Handbook The JERRY HOLWAY LAURIE HAYBALL Foreword by Garrett Brown. Inventor of the Steadicam® PRAISE FOR THE PREVIOUS EDITION “The Steadicam® Operator’s Handbook is the most comprehensive and complete text available on Steadicam equipment and operation. It is essential reading for beginners and experienced operators alike.”—Dan Kneece, President, Society of Camera Operators “This is the first book to demystify the operation of the Steadicam.”—Paul Taylor, Steadicam owner, operator, and instructor Both informative and inspirational, The Steadicam® Operator’s Handbook • Offers a complete course in itself: whether you’re a novice or is the number one comprehensive guide to becoming a successful owner experienced Steadicam operator, you can use this book to build your ® and operator of the Steadicam. Packed with interviews and instruction by skill set and move forward in your career. the world’s premier Steadicam professionals, this book will get you up and running with your rig in no time. You will learn a wide range of practices • Companion website (www.steadicamoperatorhandbook.com) provides for the Steadicam, including the physics and balancing through a series of exclusive video instruction and interviews from Steadicam pros. step-by-step line dances and practice shots, to the most personal aspects of filmmaking—how individual operators make creative and practical decisions using this unique camera support system. You will also learn the business JERRY HOLWAY has been a Steadicam operator for 30 years, with many side of a Steadicam career, from buying your best rig to negotiating deals feature film credits including Donnie Brasco, As Good as it Gets, Rounders, with producers and unit production managers. Also included are observations The Apostle, All the Pretty Horses, and Reign Over Me. Over the past 18 and anecdotes—inspirational, funny, instructive, and cautionary—written years, Jerry has been the head instructor at more than 60 week-long Handbook by a number of other experienced Steadicam operators around the world, Steadicam workshops worldwide. He is generally regarded—along with The SECOND EDITION including the legendary inventor of the Steadicam himself, Garrett Brown. Garrett Brown, inventor of the Steadicam—as one of the premier Steadicam ® The Steadicam® Operator’s Handbook is both a master class and a master workshop instructors in the world. reference for all camera operators and directors who want to move the LAURIE HAYBALL has been a Steadicam operator and workshop instructor camera well. for 15 years. She earned a degree in Motion Picture and Television from • Updated movie examples and ample coverage of new technologies and UCLA’s School of Fine Arts. Her training as a cinematographer brings a accessories, including Garrett Brown’s new invention, The Tango® and comprehensive understanding of all aspects of media production, especially using a Steadicam for filming 3D. as it pertains to visual storytelling. Laurie is the author of The Infrared Photography Handbook, The Advanced Infrared Photography Handbook, and How to Photograph Your Baby’s First Year, all published by Amherst Media. SECOND EDITION FILM/VIDEO PRODUCTION Cover image credit Donal Holway Handbook JERRY HOLWAY Foreword by Garrett Brown, LAURIE HAYBALL Inventor of the Steadicam® www.routledge.com The Steadicam® Operator’s Handbook second edition The Steadicam® Operator’s Handbook PB The Steadicam® Operator’s Handbook second edition Jerry Holway and Laurie Hayball PB The Steadicam® Operator’s Handbook First published 2013 by Focal Press Published 2017 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013 Jerry Holway and Laurie Hayball. The right of Jerry Holway and Laurie Hayball to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval sys- tem, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. STEADICAM, G-50, G-70, Clipper, UltraBrite, Ultra, Ultra2 Flyer, Pilot, Merlin, and JR are registered trademarks of the Tiffen company. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Holway, Jerry. The Steadicam operator’s handbook / Jerry Holway and Laurie Hayball. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Steadicam (Trademark) 2. Motion picture cameras. 3. Cinematography. I. Hayball, Laurie White. II. Title. TR880.H86 2012 777'.5—dc23 2012019179 ISBN: 978-0-240-82380-5 (pbk) PB Contents Foreword ix Preface to the second edition xiii Introduction Cut. Print. Great. 2 How to begin 6 Section One the Steadicam® and its parts Wearing the Steadicam® 8 Basic physics 9 Getting to know the rig 12 Basic Steadicam® terms 20 Building the rig 22 Four balancing acts 25 Static balance 26 Dynamic balance 31 Section Two getting started Putting on the Steadicam® 40 Moving with the rig 49 The right touch 52 Starting and stopping 57 The camera’s path 60 Making the switch 61 Variations on the line dance 65 Memorizing the shot 74 Section Three beyond the basics Low mode 80 Navigation 88 Keeping the camera level 100 Steadicam® posture 103 General health and operating 108 Women and Steadicam® 110 Are you ready? 114 My big break by Dan Kneece 118 Section Four Steadicam® and filmmaking Basic shot design 124 Take after take by Janice Arthur 128 Your role as storyteller 130 Point of view 133 Moving composition 136 Strong camera moves 142 v The Steadicam® Operator’s Handbook Section Five movement techniques Would you care to dance? 148 Moving through space 151 Floating the camera 162 No second takes by Peter Abraham 164 Put the rig on the other side 166 Negotiating tight spaces 170 Running with a rig 180 Section Six framing techniques More on operating 186 Framing corrections 189 Precise framing techniques 190 Lock offs 194 Whip pans 196 Longer lenses 199 Zoom lenses 201 Pass-bys 202 Telling the story 206 Section Seven getting to work Accessories 218 Focus pulling 222 Preparing for a shoot 230 Communication 234 Using grips wisely 242 Section Eight extending the range of movement Inventing the wheel 248 Configuring the rig 250 Flying with a motorized stage 256 Inertial augmentation and balance 259 Gyros 264 Vertical control 268 Arm posts 277 Section Nine extending the range of options Steadicam® and vehicles 282 To ride or not to ride? 288 Hard mount or soft mount 290 Safety, speed, communication 294 Types of vehicles 299 Endurance a test of mind and body by Brant Fagan 306 Vehicles to avoid 327 This is just a little part of the Turkish helicopter story by Jakob Bonfils 330 Interesting vehicles we like 332 vi Contents Section Ten the business side of Steadicam® Buying a Steadicam® 338 Negotiating your deal 350 Advertising 353 Insurance 356 Section Eleven unique environments and requirements Weather alerts 360 Survivor no. 1 by Scott Lakey 366 Documentaries and industrials 368 Capturing reality by Chris Fawcett 370 Video and Steadicam® 374 Steadicam® and live TV by Lars Riis 382 Heavy cameras 384 Unintended consequences 385 Lightweight rigs 386 Steadicam® light by Garrett Brown 388 Lightweight Steadicam® 392 Garrett’s big night out 398 DSLR cameras and Steadicam® 400 Section Twelve new directions Sometimes I dream in Tango™ 402 Steadicam® in 3D 406 Section Thirteen the experienced operator The right attitude 412 Additional concerns 414 How do we get this shot? by Charles Papert 416 Breaking the rules 420 The emotional stuff 422 Long shots 423 A great walk and talk 425 The long Steadicam® shot by Larry McConkey 430 Camera Darwinism 438 and Action! 438 Conclusion How was it? 442 Acknowledgments 446 DVD References 447 Websites 448 449 Index vii The Steadicam® Operator’s Handbook A note regarding the word Steadicam: Steadicam® is a registered trademark of the Tiffen Company. It refers exclusively to Steadicam brand equipment, and the term Steadicam operator refers to operators of that equipment. Garrett Brown’s original patent expired in 1994 and since that time other manufacturers have sold “stabilizer” equipment based on that expired patent. In general, the same skills sets and understanding are used for operating Steadicam® equipment and other brands of stabilizers. Post-1994 Steadicam® stabilizers have additional, patented features which are important for operating technique and also are covered in detail in The Steadicam® Operator’s Handbook. viii Foreword by Garrett Brown Ancient history In the winter of 1965, I spent 3 months in the Philadelphia Free Library, reading my way through 30 shelf-feet of old movie books. That spring, for an even thousand dollars, I bought a truckload of antique equipment from a bankrupt local producer. Two young friends helped improvise a “sound stage” in a barn, and we were in business — a comically threadbare 1940’s– style film studio — just as the real movie world was headed out on location! There, on that rough plank floor, were stands of Bardwell & MacAllister lights with ridged Fresnel lenses and a weary Mole-Richardson mike boom, and a massive, dirt-encrusted Fearless-Panoram dolly; plus racks of scrims and nets, cables and stage-boxes, a jig-sawed kookalorus to make foliage shadows, and an assortment of old editing gear for both 16 mm and 35 mm film. We had only a vague idea how these wonders should be deployed. The essential lore, the useful tips and tricks from the world’s grips and gaffers and camera assistants, had not turned up in the Free Library, and neither A Grammar of the Film by Spottiswoode (1951), nor Make Your Own Movies for Fun and Profit, by A.