Garrett Brown (born April 6, 1942 Long Branch-New Jersey) is an American inventor, best known as the creator of the STEADICAM®. Brown's invention allows camera operators to film while walking without the normal shaking and jostles of a handheld camera. The STEADICAM® was first used in the Hal Ashby film Bound for Glory (1976) and since used on such films, among many, as Rocky (1976), filming Rocky's running and training sequences, and The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick. Brown has also invented the skycam (for football games), divecam (following olympic divers) and mobycam (underwater camera following olympic swimmers). Garrett Brown was recipient of three Academy Awards: Academy Award of Merit (1978), Technical Achievement Award (1999) and Scientific and Engineering Award (2006). 

Leggi in italiano

How did you get into the film industry?

My career as a “folk singer” ended with a car crash (and the arrival of the Beatles!) and I realized I had no degree or skills that would impress any employer. So, of course, I went into advertising and ended up owning a small film company in Philadelphia.

How did you manage to revolutionize the history of cinema by inventing the STEADICAM®?

I think STEADICAM® has indeed been revolutionary, but my original desire was just to find a way to walk and run without shaking my handheld camera. It was a great puzzle that took two years to solve – after which we made what became a famous 35mm demo film, seen all around the world, with dozens of ‘impossible’ shots, but no clue as to how they were made.

Bound for Glory is a 1976 american biographical film directed by Hal Ashby. This film is the first in which you experienced the STEADICAM®: how have you been chosen to work on this film and what kind of STEADICAM® did you have used?

I used a copy of my prototype made by my new licensee – Cinema Products Corp. They introduced me to the late, great dop, Haskell Wexler, and he persuaded Ashby to try it with an ultra-bold, now common, crane ‘step-off’-and-walk shot. I was terrified to find myself 30 feet up standing on a ‘Titan’ crane, but a beer for lunch calmed me down and two days later, in dailies in Stockton CA, the shot got a standing ovation. A once-in-a-lifetime moment.

The STEADICAM® was also used for the famous Rocky scene, with the protagonist Stallone climbing the steps. What do you remember about that famous sequence?

Rocky was a tiny ‘B-picture’ (with one motorhome!) but we made amazing shots all around Philadelphia, and the producers decided to put up a bit more money and move the production to LA…and the rest is history. I remember the hair on my neck standing up when I read the first rave review by Arthur Knight! And soon after the screenings, the people lined up to see it and the best-picture and best-director Oscars. A thrilling ride.

In the same period you work in practice in addition to Bound for Glory and Rocky also on Exorcist II: The Heretic and Marathon Man: a dazzling career start?

Yes, astonishing for my 33 year old self!

How was your initial relationship with directors? How did they show themselves in the presence of your invention?

The STEADICAM® was taken up initially by the bold… timid souls waited a while. Haskell Wexler, John G. Avildsen, Conrad Hall knew immediately what to do with it, and putting this new instrument to work for them was purely joyful!

One of the films in which the use of the STEADICAM® reaches the highest peaks is The Shining by Stanley Kubrick: unforgettable the long sequence shots that chase Danny on a tricycle in the corridors of the Overlook Hotel or his desperate escape in the snow chased by a maniacal Jack Torrance inside the hedge maze. What was it like working on those magnificent sequences, alongside a genius like Stanley Kubrick? How much freedom did you have with Kubrick?

Stanley knew immediately what he wanted from STEADICAM®. The floors on his vast sets were impossible rough for conventional dollies. He even tried to use the suspension of a stripped 2CV Citroen chassis for his camera car, but as soon as I appeared in Borehamwood, it was clear that the supernaturally smooth shots in his mind could be obtained. Stanley designed every frame in the same way that a choreographer designs dance, but the details, the precision, the exact progression of frames was up to me. It was my master class. Even 50 takes of a given shot is not onerous when you have a 4-minute playback and a three-minute argument about the location of the ‘crosshairs’ between takes.

What do you remember of your work in the film Return of the Jedi (also known as Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi) directed by Richard Marquand, famous for the breathtaking chase on speeders flying through the trees of the planet of the Ewoks?

Spielberg had three possible ways of shooting the background “plates” for those shots: 1. construct a giant model of a redwood forest and shoot with a motion-control crane; 2. Lay several thousand feet of dolly tracks through the redwoods and cover with leaves – to be swept away just ahead of the camera; 3. try the STEADICAM® – rolling at 75 frames-per-second, walking a precise 1000 feet through the forest, with the great Dennis Muren controlling the “roll” axis for turns. We tested my version in the redwoods and concluded it could work (and save a ton of $!). And of course, it was thrilling to see the final shots with their superb, optically-inserted speeder bikes!

You have worked in Reds, Bulworth, Hannah and Her Sisters and Wolf, with the Italian Cinematographers Vittorio Storaro, Carlo Di Palma and Giuseppe Rotunno: what do you remember about them?

Vittorio has become a great friend, and he’s my favourite DP of all – his lighting is marvellous and he’s inspiringly enthusiastic. Warren might say «Sorry Vittorio, I want to shoot the reverse angle» and Vittorio would say to me «Watch this!… I love to light!» and then he would cheerfully strike his lights and start over again!.

Your son is cinematographer and director Jonathan Brown: both worked together as STEADICAM® operators on the film Bulworth, directed by and starring Warren Beatty. What did you teach your son? Did you persuade him to work in the cinema?

I taught Jonathan to operate STEADICAM®, but he soon “moved up” and became a superb DP and director… I personally never moved beyond operating and have never done either of those jobs, so his career is very impressive!

You have won three Academy Awards: Academy Award of Merit (1978), Technical Achievement Award (1999) and Scientific and Engineering Award (2006). In addition to the STEADICAM® you have also invented: mobycam, skycam, divecam, wimcam and flycam. What can you tell us about this particular talent as an inventor?

When we landed in the US and customs asked “profession” I used to say “cameraman” but lately I think I’m a better “inventor” than anything else. I’ve gotten into the habit of asking myself if something great is missing here and there, and it’s become my favourite job, even better than folk singing!

Among your many films, which sequence you made did you like the most?

My favorite job of all time was La Traviata from Paris, 2000 which was shot live, but movie-style, by Storaro, conducted by Zubin Mehta, rehearsed for months, and finally shot in one long day. I operated the final act – 23 uncut minutes in a tiny apartment with the “Violetta” and “Alfredo” as she movingly expires. A lifetime high!

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