WEBVTT - Selects: How Steadicams Work 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.280 M Hey everybody, it's your silly pal Josh. And for 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:07.960 this week's select, I've chosen our episode on Steadycams. What 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.680 with it being the beginning of the summer blockbuster movie season, 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.319 I figured that the chances you want to know how 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.280 movies are made have gone through the roof, So I'm 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.760 here to satisfy your curiosity with, like I said, our 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:29.280 Steady Cams episode, Enjoy, Welcome to Stuff you should know, 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:38.000 a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:41.280 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryant. 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:45.960 Jerry's over there. Chuck's wearing a hat, so Steady should know. Yeah, 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:51.120 he's still still pretty sad. Yeah, are you really sure? 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.200 All right, Pete? You know what I'm getting the Josh's 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.720 referencing my last chance garage hat that I've talked way 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.200 too much about. Um, I'm getting the patch remade as 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:04.520 we speak. WHOA actually found one an eBay that had 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:08.840 been sold three months ago, and he's all a big conspiracy? 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.560 Is that right now? But I found a picture of 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:14.720 the patch that I sent to a patchmaker who like, 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.679 can digitally reproduced this thing? Nice man. Well, then I 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:21.080 got to find in the right hats coming back home. Well, 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:23.440 that's step one. That's a big step one. Yeah, I'm 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:25.320 getting a few patches and a few hats this time. 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:27.840 I think that's a good idea. You can name them 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:32.480 one through eight. That's right. Uh, let's see, Chuck, you 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:40.039 worked in the film industry previously. Yeah, so did you technically? Yeah? Um, 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:42.360 you did more than I did by far. You worked 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.480 in front of and behind the camera, that's right. Um, 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.760 did you ever work with a steady cam at all? Yeah? So, 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.520 like you've seen these things up close. I don't recall 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.440 Scott or anybody using one. We did not have one 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:58.680 on our show. Okay they're expensive, Okay, but I mean 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.960 there's some pretty good equipment, said it seemed like, but 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.320 there was no steadicam, right, Nope, Because I was trying 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.000 to recall and I could not, for the life of me, 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:11.040 remember a moment when there was an awesome like extendoh 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.799 arm camera with like all of the components exploded out 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:16.440 in the different parts of a poll. That didn't happen 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.239 because he would have walked in and said, what's that right, 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:21.280 and everyone would have laughed, and you would have been like, 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:26.119 what does everyone to make fun of me. Stuff dressing room. Uh, 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.480 now we never use one on our TV show for 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.200 Science Channel because, like I said, it's pricey to rent 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:33.560 um And this is a bit of a giveaway. But 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:39.639 a person steadicam operator comes with the package with all 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.280 the equipment, it's a lot of times their own and 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.400 uh it's you know, it's pricey to pay for that, 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.480 that lady or that dude. But the reason it is 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:55.720 prices because it's it has a really good effect and 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.720 the person who's doing it really knows what they're doing. 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.240 I I don't know, but just from researching this, it 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.800 seemed like they were probably the most skilled tradesperson on 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:08.880 the set at any given time when they were on 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.120 the set. Is that right, Well, I think it's just 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.200 a matter of what skill. Uh, it's just a different skill. 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.120 Are they like the highest echelon of camera operators? No, 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.880 it's just different. Okay, like a top nine niche Yeah, okay, 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.680 I got it. But but you don't just wade into 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.440 steadicam and and start getting work the next day. It 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.040 does take a lot of work to master. But like 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:33.360 a good Dolly grip, uh is just as skilled. It 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.480 just pushing that thing around. But that takes a very 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.920 non herky jerky well it's not in the herky jerky anyway, 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.760 but just to hit the marks right and I see, Yeah, 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:44.920 I mean all that stuff takes a great amount of skill. Well, 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.280 let's talk about this because steadicam. You know, when I 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.240 came of age, it was already invented. It wasn't It 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.240 was basically became commercially available a year I was born. 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.760 So I don't really know a world prior to Steady Camp. 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.760 I've never seen a movie that came up before six 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:04.280 funny and um, I'm just used to it, right, But 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.000 it's it's it's interesting to look back and see that 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.640 there there actually is a point in time where this 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:12.880 one dude who was actually kind of an outsider of 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:18.239 the movie business, um basically changed it permanently forever for sure. 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.440 His name was Garrett Brown. Is Garrett Brown. Yeah he's 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.560 still around right, Yeah, and he um he was working, 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.320 uh for well, he was working in TV commercials in 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:35.440 on Sesame Street in Philadelphia, and um, he got a 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:40.240 little frustrated, as camera people do, uh pre steadicam with 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:44.720 not being able to accomplish certain shots. Yeah, there's supposedly 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:49.000 there were thirty impossible shots that just based on the 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.640 the equipment at the of the day, you just couldn't 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:54.480 do right. Yeah. Well, and a lot of it had 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.360 to do with like rough terrain. Sure, Staircases were a 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.200 big one. And the reason the shots were impossible not 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.279 like you couldn't lug a camera around up and down 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.400 the stairs, but the movement that the camera recorded would 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:07.600 be so jarring that it would render the film like 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.200 that that it would be unusable. Yeah. And then this 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.159 was in the day before I mean there were shaky 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.600 cam shots and like Cassavettis and all these early indie 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.000 filmmakers did a lot of like avant garde handheld stuff, 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:24.400 but it was known as avant garde because it looked 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:26.760 different and people were used to kind of smoother looking 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:29.320 things in mainstream movies at the time. Yeah, it had 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:32.640 like a real frenetic energy to it, Yeah, which you 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.320 see all the time now. It's like a bona fide thing. 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.720 But it wasn't just like picking up the movements of 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.200 the camera. It was like telegraphing them as far as 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.720 the human brains concerned. Because we take it for granted, 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:48.600 but we have in our own brains, a pretty complex 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:53.200 system that involves the inner ear coordinating with the movement 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.719 of the retina so that it offsets the movement and 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:02.760 the motion in the jarring um impact of like just walking. Like, 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:04.880 if we didn't have that, we wouldn't be able to 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:07.719 focus on anything while we were moving around. Yeah, you wouldn't. 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:10.039 People wouldn't jog. They would get sick and vomit every 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.440 time they jog, exactly right. And you certainly wouldn't be 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.800 able to like read US magazine while you were jogging 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:16.520 or something like that. And the fact that you can 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.920 it really is uh, it really shows how incredibly complex 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.440 and well developed the system is. Right. Yes, that's what 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.920 the steadicam that Garrett brown Um created sought to recreate. 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:31.680 Any he did it, he nailed it, like on the 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.480 first time out. Basically, Yeah, because we we mentioned a 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.719 dolly that is Um, people that no film know this 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.760 stuff is like pretty rudimentary information. But a lot of 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:42.839 people don't know what a dolly is, and they see 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.080 the word dolly grip in the movie, they just think 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.680 it sounds funny. Um, But the dolly is how you 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:49.800 typically would get a smooth shot. It's just a big, 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:55.600 super super heavy sled with wheels that the camera sits 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.360 on and the camera operator sits on. And it's either 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:00.960 on a very smooth floor on a piece of track 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.359 like a little railroad car, and it pushes along and 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:06.760 that's how you get those nice smooth shots. Right. So 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:08.839 that's a dolly. The problem with the dolly is is 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:12.480 you can't really lay that track over um, a rocky 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.600 terrain if you're filming on Mars or something like that. No, 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:17.960 and like you said, you can't push it up and 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:21.360 downstairs just had its limitations, right, it did. So Garrett 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.160 Brown said, I'm sick of these limitations. I'm so tired 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:28.080 of being limited by dollies, stupid dollies. I'm gonna invent 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:32.760 something better. And so he tinkered around um with his 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.960 what was called the Brown Stabilizer at first, which he 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:41.440 later renamed the Steadicam and to show off UM like 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:43.720 at first he he was just using him in commercials, 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.840 and he was like, this is way bigger than just commercials. 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.280 I'm gonna make a sizzle reel. And he made a 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:54.160 sizzle reel of the thirty impossible shots that you just 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:56.440 couldn't do before, and he did it with the steadicam, 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.280 but he didn't show how it was done. Yeah, and 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.800 you can. He was able to save ten of those shots, 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.000 uh and digitize them, and a couple of years ago 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.160 he finally released online ten of those so you can 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.280 actually go see this original reel. His wife and his 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:16.080 best friend like just doing stuff, while just doing stuff, 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.360 like you know, like one of them was swimming. You 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:22.520 can't run alongside somebody's swimming, apparently was an impossible shot. 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:24.600 I'm not quite sure why. Well, you just couldn't run 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:27.920 alongside someone doing anything. Oh okay, that's what it was, 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.760 even with a dolly. Uh, well, no, you could have. 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:33.720 You could have laid dolly track down the length of 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:35.800 a swimming pool shirt, right, That's why I didn't understand 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:38.640 that one was an impossible shot. Um. And to show off, 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:44.319 he goes question he goes around a slide just to 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.360 kind of show maybe maybe that was the impossibility of it. 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:49.200 But then his buddy gets out of the pool and 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.880 like walking like he's he pivots around him and I'm 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.000 sure he When he put this reel together and he 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:58.000 sent it out, the directors are like, uh, this is 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.040 magic sorcery. Well it was mind blowing, and some people 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.720 say it was the first UH viral video because it 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:09.120 was shared around Hollywood. Literally in a matter of days. 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.200 Everybody in Hollywood was saying, what in the world, Like 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:16.319 you said, what is this sorcery this Garrett Brown has 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.000 bestowed upon us? Yeah, it's It was a bit of 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.280 a mic drop as far as that reel goes, and 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:25.960 Stanley Kubrick being Stanley Kubrick sent a message to Garrett 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.400 Brown that said, if you are really concerned about protecting 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.480 its design before you fully patent it, I suggest you 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:34.840 delete the two occasions on the reel where the shadow 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.880 on the ground gives the skilled counter intelligence photo interpreter 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:40.760 a fairly clear representation of a man holding a pole 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:42.959 with one hand, was something or other at the bottom 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.760 of the pole which appears to be slowly moving. All 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.079 of that is Stanley kubrick Ian for, hey, there's a 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:53.439 shadow and in one of your shots of the steadicam op, 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.959 which was pretty cool of him to do, because I'm 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.040 sure there were plenty of people in Hollywood who would 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:00.840 have been like, Okay, think I kind of get the 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.319 idea of what this was, because there was no suggestion 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.839 whatsoever of what what Garrett Brown had used to get 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.720 these shots except in those shadows. So he went eat 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:14.640 and went and immediately cut those those I think fourteen 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.040 seconds out of his reel and then released the second 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:19.640 edition and it looked pretty good. I mean it's it's 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:23.120 rough compared to today's standard. Sure, but in the time 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:27.679 it was it was like unbelievable. It changed everything. Um. 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:31.240 And one of the shots that he got was his 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.640 wife Ellen. He said, dear, why don't you put on 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.600 your most seventies bell bottoms you can find? And I'm 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.520 going to run up behind you as you run up 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:44.120 the steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and maybe 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:45.839 when you get to the top, you can raise your 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:50.160 hands in triumph and I will spin around you. And 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:54.120 then if that shot sounds familiar. Uh. It actually attracted 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.520 a guy, a director named Um John What is the 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:01.400 evil Son? Yeah, John Um, who said I like this, 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:03.480 I'm going to use it in this little film I'm 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:07.199 directing called Rocky. Yeah. And I didn't get whether or 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:11.400 not this was the case. But did they Um? Did 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:15.400 they locate Rocky in Philadelphia because of those steps? No? 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.240 Because he said, how did you do that? And? Um, 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.160 where are those steps. I don't think so, man, because 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.160 I wondered that too, Like, uh, like, did he not 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:26.640 have a scene written where Rocky just runs up those steps? 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.280 I mean Stallone wrote it. Um, I think they just 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:36.040 have to ask him. Hey, Sly, I was wondering if 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:40.000 that was pretty good, I answered in that little moment, 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:44.200 someone will have to interpret that. Great movie though, Man, 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:48.800 I rewatched that. Yeah, like this year, from beginning to end, 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.520 just phenomenal movie. I'm trying to get Emily to watch it. 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.280 She never seen the original. No, it's its own thing 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.840 for sure. Like it's not, it's not really it's a 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.000 story for the most part. It's a love story and like, um, 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:06.680 the triumph of the little Guy story for sure, Yeah, 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.559 featuring boxing, Right, that's exactly right. But two and three 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:15.000 and on onward, it's like a totally different thing. Yeah, 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:16.960 but those are good too. Yeah, they said, let's take 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.040 your story, take out the heart, and insert cocaine instead 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.880 insert Mr T. I don't get the cocaine reference. Well, 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:28.880 it's just the eighties in Hollywood got hands on, you 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:32.880 know what I mean. Uh, yeah, that's a good question, though, 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.800 I wonder about that. If he surely they didn't remake 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.679 it for Philadelphia just for that well. But the point 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:44.400 is is Garrett Brown created on this sizzle reel the 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.720 one of the most iconic shots in filmmaking history for sure, 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:50.600 and he sent that real out and within that year, 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:56.040 I believe six three major motion pictures hired him to 0:12:56.160 --> 0:13:00.000 operate his steadicamp for it. Um, there was Rocky, there 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.439 was um what was the one about what you Gut 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.040 Thrie Bound for Glory? Yeah, I think that one came 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.960 out first, So that was the first actual like uh 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:12.480 and that one, uh, the steady came up was Garrett Brown, 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:14.160 I think for all these because he was the only 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:15.600 guy that knew how. He got a lot of work 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:17.760 early on. Yeah, and I think I think the paton 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.800 was still pending until ninety seven, so I'm sure the 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:22.920 thing out of the side everybody closed your eyes while 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.560 I shoot this. But on Bound for Glory, he was 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:30.319 on a crane even that lowered down, stepped off the crane, 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.960 so people have seen crane shots, but then for the 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:35.839 crane to go down, down, down, and then all of 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:38.000 a sudden start following this guy, everyone was like, what 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:39.760 in the world, right? There would have been a cut 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.079 after the crane stopped and then before you know, they 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:44.800 would have cut and he would have gotten a position 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.280 and then started up again. This is one smooth shot. 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.400 One smooth shot. Yeah, and then the other one was 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.400 Marathon Man. So right out of the blue, this guy 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.120 who was a commercial director and made short films for 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:59.400 Sesame Street changed filmmaking like single handedly. Yeah, and one 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:04.160 an Academy award, uh for technical achievement. I got that 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:09.240 patent in seventy seven. And um, well that's it. That's 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:12.280 the history of the steadicam. That's it. Everybody, good night, 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.400 But we're gonna should we take a break and tell 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:34.120 everyone how this thing works. Let's do it man, alright, Chuck, 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:36.280 So the Steady Camp. Do you remember when we did 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.680 our episode on breathalyzers. Oh boy, that was a long 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.000 time ago, and we found out that the breathalyzer is 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.720 one of the most complicated machines. Yeah, on the planet. 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:48.400 I kind of hated that one, like there were there 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:52.040 were crystals involved somehow. I hated that one too, dark 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:55.920 crystals or um. This is a bit like that, like 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.920 if you really dive into city camps, like this article 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:03.240 on how stuff works does it's it's it's labyrinthine talk 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.360 about the dark crystal. Yeah, we're talking labyrinth instead. Yeah, 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.680 but we're gonna simplify it because, uh, you don't need 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:11.800 to break this thing apart and look at every component 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.920 like this article does. I mean, it really gets involved. 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:16.880 What you should do is look at a picture of 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:20.360 someone operating one and just because when you look at it, 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.000 you go, it all makes a lot more sense, right, 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:26.080 And there's really just three main parts to the whole thing. 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.160 There's a vest, there's an arm that's attached to the vest, 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.200 and then the other end of the arm is attached 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.200 to what's called the sled, which is what the camera 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:37.360 and um it's components are mounted on. Right, Yeah, and 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.120 that arm it um, I mean, just pick your picture 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:45.000 yourself wearing a uh like a baby beyorn baby carrier, 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:48.400 except for instead of the baby at your stern um, 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.920 there's a mechanical arm coming out like a spring arm lamp. Yeah, 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:55.520 like accordion arm or spring arm lamp. Right, and it's 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.360 virtually the same thing. Well, yeah, and you guess who 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:02.040 made one of these by himself before they started making 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:06.280 them for at home people. Who? Casey who? My brother 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:08.320 of course? Oh did he really. Yeah. Yeah. My brother 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.040 made one of these in like the early nineties out 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.200 of door hinges and rubber bands and springs. Does he 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.920 still have it? Is it in the Smithsonian? I don't know. 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:21.200 It's in the scottsn Ian, which is where all mentioned 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:23.720 with all his pinball machines. Yeah, but he made one. 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:25.840 He basically did the same thing. He he looked at 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:28.680 it and looked at these uh swing arm lamps and 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.680 accordion arm lamps, and it's like, well, it's the same thing. 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:33.600 I'll just make a version of that. It is, and 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:35.880 it worked pretty good. It's virtually the same thing. Yeah. 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:38.480 So the whole point of a steady camp is that 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:42.240 it basically simulates or the arm at least simulates a 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:46.000 human arm right to where it can move around very easily. Yeah. Um. 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.120 And it redistributes the weight of the camera, which can 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.080 be up to like seventy pounds I imagine probably more. Yeah, 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.440 the whole unit is pretty heavy and it's not easy 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.600 to operate, but a wary out it holds it effortlessly, 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:00.280 and it holds it in place. This arm does and 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:03.240 it does it by using springs, and you can adjust 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:05.639 the tension of the springs by using a cable and 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:09.199 pulley system so that it offsets the balance of the 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.800 camera and holds it in space in front of the 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:16.000 camera operator basically so that they can move it effortlessly 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:18.840 up down to the side. Um, you can put the 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:22.000 camera on top of the sled so that you get 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:23.879 high shots. You can switch it so it goes on 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:26.240 the bottom so you can get low angle shots. Yeah, 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:28.520 the traditional it's called high mode and low mode, and 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.520 high mode is uh, it doesn't mean it's high. It 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.159 just means it's on the top of the unit. And 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:36.080 then low mode is when it's on the bottom. So 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:39.359 if you wanted to film a mouse running across the floor, 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:40.920 you would put it in low mode. Right, if you 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:42.760 want to film human you put it in high mode. 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.840 And the camera itself is broken out into pieces, which 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.119 is kind of an ingenious trick that I guess Garrett 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:53.880 Brown came up with himself. I think he did. Um. 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.840 And this is the this is the third part. The 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.679 camera sled. Right. Yes, the sled is what holds all 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:03.439 the right and it's basically a pole with a little 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.400 bit at the top called the stage, and that's where 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.199 the camera goes or it could be at the bottom 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.360 wherever the camera is. The camera's mounted to the stage. 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:16.240 Then you get the pole itself and then the I 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:20.320 guess the arm is connected to the pole by a 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:24.000 a gibble gimbal, A gimble, that's right. And it's like 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.359 an old technology. It's basically something that uses basically a 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:33.280 gyroscopic action to um take the movement of whatever is 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.680 seeking to move, whatever you want to hold still, and 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.600 getting rid of it. Like everything around it moves except 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:40.439 for the thing that you want to hold still. It's 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.160 pretty neat, it's super neat. And that's just the one 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:46.359 arm that's connected to the pole. So you can see 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:49.000 how complicated this thing is. That this guy sat back 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.840 and I think in a hotel room somewhere you put 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:54.919 it together, Garrett Brown, the first one. There's just the 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:59.200 ingenuity it took to to put this together. It's pretty 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.240 pretty in depth as far as inventions go. Yeah, and 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:04.840 there's a little science to it. There's there's something called 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.480 moment of inertia. It's basically how much that camera is 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.480 resistant to rotation. So if you want the camera to 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.440 be still, you want to increase that resistance to the rotation. 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:17.800 And this is determined by a couple of different things, uh, 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.480 how much mass there is to the object, and how 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.160 far that mass is from the uh from its own 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.240 axis of rotation. So by spreading the camera out, he 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:28.520 basically took the little you know, cameras come with a 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:30.639 monitor now so you can see what's going on in 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.359 a big heavy battery. He took the monitor off of 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:35.520 the camera. He took the battery off of the camera 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.760 and redistributed that up and down the pole. So what 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:43.560 he ended up doing was spreading out that mass, which 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:47.240 takes away the center of gravity from the camera itself. Yeah, 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:49.440 Because like with a regular camera where all the components 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:51.760 are in one single unit, that center of gravity is 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.359 inside the camera, so it's easy to rotate. But since 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:59.120 he exploded it out into its various components, he made 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.840 that center of gravity land somewhere on the pole, right, 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:05.520 and the gimbal attaches to the pole just above the 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.639 center of gravity, so that the camera operator holds the 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.040 pole and manipulates the camera at the center of gravity, 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:15.879 which makes it very easy to balance keep. Yeah, and 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:17.960 they do a good job in this article. If you'd like, 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:20.800 just take a broomstick and you find that center of 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:23.199 gravity with your finger. You can hold it with with 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:24.879 your finger and lift it up and down right, and 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:27.360 it's it's just it's balanced on your finger because you're 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:30.919 hitting that center of balance. That's right. It's the same principle. Um. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.720 And in fact, if you took, uh, if you took 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:36.840 that same broomstick and cut it off and you just 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:41.040 had three ft of broomstick and just took your SLR 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.280 camera and screwed that broomstick into the bottom of your 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.800 camera instead of a tripod, that would function. You could 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.360 walk around with that and it would be steadier than 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:52.800 if you just had it in your hand. I could 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:55.080 see that because of the change of the center of 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:57.040 change of the center of gravity. And if you put 0:20:57.080 --> 0:20:58.919 a little counterweight at the bottom, it would make it 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.960 even more steady. And that's the whole concept of the 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.960 steadicam sled. Then attached that to an arm, that that 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:09.760 accordion arm and you're cooking with gas. Yeah, because you 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:11.520 were saying like, if you walk around with just the 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:14.960 pole holding or the broomstick, cut off broomstick and you're 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:19.239 holding it um just with your hand, it's steady. The 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:21.680 point of the arm is it's taking your hand out 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:24.960 of the equation and replacing it with something that can 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.720 isolate movement even more so that your movement of you 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:32.040 walking just gets lost within the arm before it ever 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.639 gets to the camera and could shake it. Yeah, like 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:36.560 if you did it with a broomstick. Your arm is 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:38.840 the same thing as a stead camera, right, except it's 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:43.280 better if the steadicam arms is better than your human arm, right, yes, exactly. 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:47.320