American Cinematographer - July 1992 - 81

the-shoulder. Directors

on

the

show, understanding the time-sav¬
ing virtues of the system in the
short-turnaround world of televi¬

sion, would design shots with
Steadicam in mind.
While the mobility of
Steadicam is a godsend for Geller,
"a curse goes along with it," he

given the best seat in the house,
"but you're too busy squinting
through the viewfinder to appreci¬
ate it. You don't see the big fireball.
It's a big smudge on the screen;
you're too busy trying to keep ev¬
erything in the frame. You also
have a tendency to get too close into
the action, and the energy of the

grimly. "It sees everything.
It's harder to hide lights and reflec¬
tions. Some shots even covered 270

moment takes over. I've gone

degrees of set, which was a real
nightmare to light - not to men¬
tion that I was seeing my reflection
everywhere."

safety grip pulls a burning
headband off my head. But I just
kept going. It's a real high to get all
those endorphins cooking - espe¬

notes

And when Geller looks

through his video monitor rather
than his eyepiece, he can't always
see the fine details. "I can't see
tiny
reflections and points of light. If
there's a blue lighting ballast box
sitting on the set, I might not pick
up on it. I'll set the frame with the
Steadicam monitor, and eyeball it
on
a

the set to make

sure

there's not

grip box in the scene."
What
improvements

would Geller like to

see

in terms of

technology? "There are some de¬
sign flaws that they haven't gotten
rid of yet. There's an exposed nut
in the handle of the gimbel that has
a
tendency to rub your hand and
restrict its

own

movement," he

few upgrades on the
whole. "When they re-tool, it's a
notes. He

sees

major deal, because they make so
few systems."
When asked to identify the
keys to the art of Steadicam shoot¬
ing, Geller cites "brute force and a
delicate touch. You need brute

strength to muscle things around
and to run upstairs, stop on a dime,
then hold still for a minute of dia¬

logue - for 15 takes." An hour is
Geller's maximum for wearing the

system, which he usually removes
after each take "to let the blood back
into my

legs." He remembers
people who hurt themselves in the
early days. "You can be sweating
and your legs might hurt, but it's
what's on the screen that's impor¬
tant. The framing has to be consis¬
tent with the other

camera
opera¬
the picture flows."
For Geller, being a
Steadicam operator is like being

tors

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Dave Knox

Black Rain, Sea

of Love, Dirty Danc¬
ing, The Hard Way
Dave Knox left his native North
Carolina for New York in 1980 be¬
cause there was no film business in
his home state. "Now there's

plenty, but I live in New York," he
reflects wryly. While the North¬
western University film school
grad was working his way up from
stage manager to assisting to cam¬
era operator, he noticed an increas¬
ing use of Steadicam. "I was so im¬
pressed by the fresh, new look in

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One From The Heart, " he notes.
"The camera was used in a com¬

pletely unorthodox manner, and
brought you competely into the
scene.

It

was

another actor in the

movie."
Knox took

one

of Garrett

Brown's first

workshops, discov¬
ered he had an aptitude for
Steadicam shooting, and worked
his way up from "B" movies to
films like The Hard Way, Silence of the
Lambs and Dirty Dancing.
"The filmmakers often
look to you to design a sequence,"
he observes. "But it can also be a big

political issue when they've been
cooped up in a Holiday Inn for ten
weeks and you come in for a short
sequence and have to get along
with everyone there. You don't
want to step on any toes, but you've
got an obligation to deliver good
pictures." Knox tries to develop
relationships with cinematogra¬
phers and match what's already

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American Cinematographer - July 1992

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