American Cinematographer - February 1993 - 78

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fire escape stairs to a landing where
he meets Laura Dem. Kneece had
learned in Steadicam school that
the system didn't tilt well, but as he
looked up the steep stairway he
realized he'd have to tilt quickly. "I
knew when Kyle came out the door
at a brisk clip that I'd have to pan
fast and then tilt so I wouldn't lose
him. And I had to get down to the

landing before he met Laura, stay¬
ing behind him and getting a con¬
sistent shot. But I couldn't have

anybody there to safety me because
they'd be in the shot." The only
thing protecting Kneece from a
five-story fall was a small railing,
and the weight of his system
dragged him down so hard that he
had to bounce on his heels in order
to land on his mark. "It was one of
the most difficult shots I've ever

done, and the one that I'm most
proud of," he notes. The risk paid
off, however; Lynch subsequently

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used Kneece on Wild at Heart, the
Twin Peaks series and film, and sev¬
eral high-end commercials.

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Kneece tinkers with his

gear constantly, and he made one
notable improvement on his Mark
2 Steadicam. The original Model 2
had two poster tubes connecting
the top of the unit to the electronic
section. Kneece found that the tube
was too far to the rear of the

Steadicam,

so

he took the tubes off

and made one tube out of carbon
fiber. "The actual tube I used was
from an Indianapolis race car," he

proudly. He made the XY
adjustment to the top and bottom
of the post "so it allows the post to
be in a proper relationship to the
rest of the Steadicam." If the weight
on
top of the Steadicam and the
weight on the bottom aren't prop¬
erly balanced, the system becomes
unwieldy and won't pan as well.
"It'll want to tilt up and down,"
Kneece point out. "But if you adjust
XY on top and bottom of the sys¬
tem, you get weight in proper static
balance so the camera can stay level
on all four axes." The
"dynamic
balancing" that Kneece achieved
offers maximum improvement in
notes

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the

operation of the Model 2. "I
he in¬

didn't invent the concept,"
sists. "but I love it."

February 1993

What else would Kneece
like to see changed? "When I travel,
I

always end up carrying about 12
with me. It's hard, especially
if I'm going someplace far away
cases

like Africa. It would be nice if

ev¬

erything

was compacted. The
Steadicam is a great tool, but there
are an awful lot of cases to
carry
around."
Nicola Pecorini
The Sheltering Sky,

The Last Emperor,

The Doors
Nicola Pecorini calls his entry into
Steadicam work "a series of circum¬
stances." The Italian native began a
career in still
photography, but
found the work unsatisfying. Then

opportunity to work as a cam¬
operator for Swiss TV brought
Pecorini to Geneva. "Working in
television was my school," he ex¬
plains. "It was a big part of my edu¬
an

era

cation in film work."

On
in

an

American vacation

'81, Pecorino stopped in on a

Monterey Steadicam workshop
"out of pure curiosity," and was
intrigued enough to enroll in
Garrett Brown's course. "It was
love at first sight," he remembers

fondly. He was used to a handheld
camera

from his work with Swiss

TV, and the Steadicam opened a
whole

new

territory. "It

was

such

blessing," he recalls. "I could fi¬
nally do decent camera moves
without asking for a dolly." The
basic shooting unit in Pecorini's
years with Swiss TV didn't even
a

include dollies on location shoots:
"We just went out with a camera
operator and a soundman - not
even an assistant."
Pecorini was so fascinated

by the possibilities Steadicam of¬
fered that he bought a system and
spent time mastering the rig. "It
took about three years to really
master the

instrument," he admits,

"and it took about four years to
convince people in the Italian
movie

industry to use it on TV and
features." But looking back,
Pecorini admits that his timing was
excellent: today there are more than
80 Steadicam shooters in

he

was

the second

Italy, and
cinematogra-
American Cinematographer - February 1993

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