{"id":44542,"date":"2014-08-18T13:05:11","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T18:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=44542"},"modified":"2016-10-06T10:00:20","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T15:00:20","slug":"impossible-shots-the-invention-of-the-steadicam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/impossible-shots-the-invention-of-the-steadicam\/","title":{"rendered":"Impossible Shots: The Invention of the Steadicam"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 id=\"in-the-1970s-cinematographer-garrett-brown-was-tired-of-the-bulky-dolly-equipment-needed-to-get-a-smooth-moving-shot-out-of-this-frustration-came-an-invention-that-would-revolutionize-the-c\">In the 1970&#8217;s, cinematographer Garrett Brown was tired of the bulky dolly equipment needed to get a smooth, moving shot. Out of this frustration, came an invention that would revolutionize the cinema industry &#8211; the Steadicam.<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-44556\" style=\"border: none;\" title=\"Impossible Shots - Steadicam\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/pbblogassets\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-18-at-12.18.21-PM.png\" alt=\"Impossible Shots - Steadicam\" width=\"477\" height=\"272\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When Garrett Brown created the first <strong><a title=\"Steadicam\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Steadicam\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Steadicam<\/a><\/strong> in the early 70&#8217;s he created a short demo reel to showcase the shooting capabilities of his device. This film, titled\u00a0<em><a title=\"30 Impossible Shots - Steadicam\" href=\"http:\/\/www.steadicamforum.com\/index.php?showtopic=21010\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">30 Impossible Shots<\/a><\/em>, was a 2 minute reel that demonstrated a shooting style previously unseen &#8211; a single camera operator getting exceptionally smooth shots with a trackless device. After viewing <em>30 Impossible Shots<\/em>, some of the leading Hollywood directors wanted this technology (and Brown) for their own film projects&#8230;and the Steadicam was born. Brown was soon booked for Rocky, The Shining and many others.<\/p>\n<p>Today the <strong>Steadicam<\/strong> is\u00a0ubiquitous in both big budget Hollywood films and on indie film projects. It has paved the way for more modern renditions of the handheld stabilizer (including the recent success of the Movi).<\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Hollywood Reporter Steadicam\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/steadicam-inventor-reveals-impossible-shots-725346\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">A recent Hollywood Reporter post<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>gives fascinating insight into the creation (and subsequent success) of the Steadicam, including Brown&#8217;s now famous <em>30 Impossible Shots. <\/em>Get a look at the demo film that sparked the explosion of the Steadicam:<\/p>\n<p><object id=\"flashObj\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"https:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"flashVars\" value=\"videoId=3728940297001&amp;playerID=1257205077001&amp;playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAAC3bNtw~,c0hgCOyLwy4Lde_FJ6Ombu5W_uQUkX83&amp;domain=embed&amp;dynamicStreaming=true\" \/><param name=\"base\" value=\"https:\/\/admin.brightcove.com\" \/><param name=\"seamlesstabbing\" value=\"false\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"swLiveConnect\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"https:\/\/c.brightcove.com\/services\/viewer\/federated_f9?isVid=1&amp;isUI=1\" \/><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"videoId=3728940297001&amp;playerID=1257205077001&amp;playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAAC3bNtw~,c0hgCOyLwy4Lde_FJ6Ombu5W_uQUkX83&amp;domain=embed&amp;dynamicStreaming=true\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"swliveconnect\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"pluginspage\" value=\"https:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/shockwave\/download\/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p><em>Thanks to <a title=\"The Hollywood Reporter\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/steadicam-inventor-reveals-impossible-shots-725346\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">The Hollywood Reporter<\/a> for sharing!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For more info on Steadicam see our previous posts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"A Quick Guide to Steadicams\" href=\"http:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/a-quick-guide-to-steadicams\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\"><strong>A Quick Guide to Steadicams<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong><a title=\"The Art of the Steadicam\" href=\"http:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/the-art-of-steadicam-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">The Art of the Steadicam\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the 1970&#8217;s, cinematographer Garrett Brown was tired of the bulky dolly equipment needed to get a smooth, moving shot. Out of this frustration, came an invention \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[79,583],"tags":[1093,536,3222,5380,1668,472],"class_list":["post-class-post-44542","post-class-post","post-class-type-post","post-class-status-publish","post-class-format-standard","post-class-has-post-thumbnail","post-class-hentry","post-class-category-inspiration","post-class-category-video-production-2","post-class-tag-cinematography","post-class-tag-filmmaking","post-class-tag-garrett-brown","post-class-tag-inspiration","post-class-tag-steadicam","post-class-tag-video-production"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.5 (Yoast SEO v21.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Impossible Shots: The Invention of the Steadicam - The Beat: A Blog by PremiumBeat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the 1970&#039;s, cinematographer Garrett Brown was tired of the bulky dolly equipment needed to get a smooth, moving shot. 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