Garrett Brown was born in Long Branch, New Jersey. After he graduated from Haverford High School, he matriculated at Tufts University. At Tufts, Brown met Al Dana, and they formed the folk duo Brown & Dana. Together they recorded several songs, including the classic folk duo, “It Was a Very Good Year,” which later became popular when recorded by Frank Sinatra. Brown obtained a cult following for his radio ads featuring witty repartee with Anne Winn, especially for Molson Golden beer.
Before Brown invented the Steadicam, a director had a number of choices for moving or tracking shots. The camera could be mounted on a dolly or a crane, both of which were used to create the elaborate Touch of Evil (1958) opening sequence. Alternatively, the camera operator could shoot hand-held, which would produce footage suitable for documentaries, news, reportage, live action, unrehearsed footage, or cinema verité.
The Steadicam System includes a harness, called the Steadicam vest, which the operator wears. The vest is connected to an iso-elastic arm, which is linked to a multi-axis, ultra-low friction gimbal. Attached to the gimbal is the Steadicam “sled,” which supports the camera at one end and the counterbalancing weights of the monitor and batteries at the other. The monitor acts as a substitute for the camera’s viewfinder, which is unusable due to the camera’s range of motion relative to the operator. The Steadicam design ensures that it remains upright by maintaining the bottom as slightly heavier than the top, pivoting around the gimbal. The configuration allows the operator to control the center of gravity of the rig, regardless of its weight, through precise gimbal movements. The skill of the operator is in maintaining the desired framing and composition by slight adjustments to the gimbal’s position. The combined weight of the camera and counterbalance means that the arm has a high inertial mass, which is not easily moved by small body movements from the operator. When correctly balanced, operators can remove their hands from the Steadicam and the camera stays in place, only adjusting the gimbal to move the camera.
For low-angle shots, the Steadicam sled can be inverted vertically, putting the camera on the bottom, and the monitor and batteries on the top (“low mode”).
The Steadicam enabled smooth and steady tracking shots with lighter-weight camera system. Brown built the first prototype, called the “Brown Stabilizer.” He created a ten-minute demo reel of the new cinematography techniques enabled by the Steadicam, and the reel was shown to numerous directors, including Stanley Kubrick and John G. Avildsen. The Steadicam was licensed to, and manufactured by, Cinema Products Corporation, which later diversified the brand into a consumer line of Steadicams for light weight DV cameras.
The Steadicam was first used in the Woody Guthrie biopic Bound for Glory (1976). Cinematographer Haskell Wexler had Brown begin a shot on a fully elevated platform crane that jibbed down, and at ground level, Brown stepped off and walked the camera through the set. Wexler would go on to win the Oscar for Cinematography for Bound for Glory at the 49th Academy Awards ceremony.
Steadicams were then used extensively for chase scenes in Marathon Man (1976), released two months before Bound for Glory.
In Rocky, the Steadicam became an integral part of the Philadelphia street jogging/training sequences and the run up the flight of stairs. A Steadicam is visible ringside during many fight scenes in Rocky, and during some wide shots of the final fight. Rocky was also released before Bound for Glory. Brown was the Steadicam operator on all three films.
In The Shining (1980), Stanley Kubrick requested that the camera shoot from barely above the floor, which required the invention of “low mode,” in which the top of the camera is mounted to the bottom of an inverted post. Low mode substantially increased the creative angles of the system, which previously could not go much lower than the operator’s waist height.
For Return of the Jedi, a Steadicam rig was used with two gyroscopes for extra stabilization. To film the background plates for the landspeeder bike chases on Endor, Brown walked through a redwood forest, with the camera running at a speed of less than one frame per second. When projected at 24 frames per second, he created the illusion of flying through the air at perilous speeds.
Brown’s Steadicam work can be seen in over 70 movies. He has invented multiple camera supports, focusing mostly on camera stabilization:
– Equipois: Mechanical arm for heavy equipment;
– FlyCam: Closed loop, stabilizing tracking camera system;
– DiveCam: First dropping vertical camera system;
– GoCam: Ultra-light high speed camera tracking system;
– MobyCam: First submarine tracking camera system;
– SkyCam: First suspended flying camera system (used in football game broadcasts);
– Steadicam Merlin: Next generation hand held system;
– Steadicam Tango: New accessory for floor-to-ceiling boom range;
– SuperFlyCam: Ultralight stabilized 35mm wire-borne flying camera; and
– Zeen: Elevating walker chair.
Brown is the father of TV director Jonathan Brown, and father and son worked together as Steadicam operators on Bulworth.
Brown has been honored with many awards throughout his career, including:
– 1978, Academy Award of Merit for the invention and development of the Steadicam
– 1992, Technical Achievement Award, for Steadicam, by the Society of Camera Operators
– 2013, National Inventors Hall of Fame admission, for “Equipment for Use with Hand Held Motion Picture Cameras” U.S. Patent No. 4,017,168;
– 2014, Nikola Tesla Satellite Award, for visionary achievement in filmmaking technology.
