Behind the Lens

3.9A Steady Hand: A Look at Camera Stabilizers

I clearly remember the first time I saw Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining on television (I was only eight when it was released theatrically): I was 14 years old and had been making my own “movies” for years. Watching the horrifying film, I was completely blown away by the camera operation. How on earth did that camera follow little Danny Torrance’s Big Wheel so smoothly throughout the Overlook? My own experience with makeshift camera dollies of all kinds had taught me how difficult it was to move a camera smoothly without track. Obviously Kubrick and cinematographer John Alcott were not using dolly track as the camera was following directly behind the big wheel and you could see the floor all the way ...