Stuff You Should Know - SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: How Steadicams Work

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

There have been many inventions that have advanced filmmaking, but maybe none as important as the steadicam. Invented in the mid-70s, it literally changed the way movie making happened, and made the impossible possible. Learn about the fascinating history behind this amazing technology today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi everybody, Chuck here with another intro for our summer movie playlist. Right now you're about to listen to how Steadicam works. This one goes all the way back to June 2016, but this was a pretty good one everybody because the Steadicam is one of movies, great inventions quite honestly, first used in some of the early movies like Rocky and The Shining. We're going to talk about how it was made, how it works,

and how it works best. So check it out right now. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Jerry's over there. Chuck's wearing a hat

So it's seven should know yeah Still so pretty sad Yeah, are you really sure? Oh? All right, Pete. You know what I'm getting the Josh is referencing my last chance garage hat that I've talked way too much about I'm getting the patch remade as we speak Whoa actually found one on eBay that had been sold three months ago. It's all a big conspiracy.

Is that right? No, not really. But I found a picture of the patch that I sent to a patch maker who can digitally reproduce this thing. Nice, man. But then I gotta find the right hat. It's coming back home.

Well, that's step one, that's a big step big step one yeah I'm getting a few patches and a few hats this time I think that's a good idea yeah you can name them one through eight that's right let's see Chuck you worked in the film industry previously yeah so did you technically yeah you did more than I did by far. You worked in front of and behind the camera. That's right. Did you ever work with a Steadicam at all? Yeah. So, like, you've seen these things up close.

Yep. I don't recall Scott or anybody using one. We did not have one on our show. Okay. They're expensive. Okay. But, I mean, there was some pretty good equipment on set, it seemed like, to me. Sure. But there was no St was some pretty good equipment on set, it seemed like to me. Sure.

But there was no Steadicam, right? Nope. Because I was trying to recall, and I could not for the life of me remember a moment when there was an awesome, like, extendo arm camera with like, all of the components exploded out into different parts of a pole.

That didn't happen, because he would've walked in and said, what's that? Right. And everyone would've laughed, and you would've been like, why does everyone make fun of me just because they don't know all this stuff? I'll be in my dressing room.

No, we never use one on our TV show for Science Channel because like I said, it's pricey to rent, and this is a bit of a giveaway, but a person, Steadicam operator, comes with the package, with all the equipment, it's a lot of times their own. And it's pricey to pay for that lady or that dude. But the reason it is pricey is because it has a really good effect.

And the person who's doing it really knows what they're doing. I don't know, but just from researching this, it seemed like they were probably the most skilled trades person on the set at any given time when they were on the set. Is that right? Well, I think it's just a matter of what skill.

It's just a different skill. Are they like the highest echelon of camera operators? No, it's just different. Okay. Like a top notch. They're niche. Yeah. Okay, I got it then.

But you don't just wade into Steadicam and start getting work the next day. It does take a lot of work to master. But like a good dolly grip is just as skilled at just pushing that thing around. But that takes a very. Non-herky-jerky. Well, it's not gonna be herky-jerky anyway,

but just to hit the marks right. Oh, I see. Yeah, I mean all that stuff takes a great amount of skill. Well, it's not gonna be Herky Jerky anyway, but just to hit the marks right. Oh, I see. Yeah, I mean all that stuff takes a great amount of skill. Well, let's talk about this, because Steadycam, when I came of age, was already invented. It basically became commercially available the year I was born. So I don't really know a world prior to Steadycam.

I've never seen a movie that came out before 1976. Funny. And I'm just used to it, right? Yeah. But it's interesting to look back and see that there actually is a point in time where this one dude who was actually kind of an outsider of the movie business basically changed it

permanently forever. For sure. Yeah. His name was Garrett Brown. Is Garrett is Garrett Brown yeah he's still around right yeah and he he was working for well he was working in TV commercials and on Sesame Street in Philadelphia yeah and he got a little frustrated as camera people do pre-steady cam with not being able to accomplish certain shots. Yeah, supposedly there were 30 impossible shots

that just based on the equipment of the day, you just couldn't do, right? Yeah. And a lot of it had to do with rough terrain. Sure. Staircases were a big one. Yeah. And the reason these shots were impossible,

it's not like you couldn't lug a camera around up and down the stairs, but the movement that the camera recorded would be so jarring that it would render the film like, that it would be unusable. Yeah, and this was in a day before, I mean there were shaky cam shots, and like Cassavetes and all these early indie filmmakers

did a lot of like avant-garde handheld stuff, but it was known as avant-garde. Because it looked different, and people were used to kind of smoother looking things in mainstream movies at the time. Yeah, it had like a real frenetic energy to it. Yeah, which you see all the time now. It's like a bonafide thing.

But, and it wasn't just like picking up the movements of the camera, it was like telegraphing them as far as the human brain's concerned. It was like telegraphing them as far as the human brain's concerned. Because we take it for granted, but we have in our own brains a pretty complex system that involves the inner ear coordinating with the movement of the retina

so that it offsets the movement and the motion and the jarring impact of just walking. If we didn't have that, we wouldn't be able to focus on anything while we were moving around. Yeah, people wouldn't jog. They would get sick and vomit every time they jogged. Exactly right. And you certainly wouldn't be able to read Us Magazine

while you were jogging or something like that. The fact that you can, it really shows how incredibly complex and well-developed this system is, right? That's what the Steadicam that Garrett Brown created sought to recreate, and he did it. He nailed it on the first time out, basically. Yeah, because we mentioned Adali. That is, people that know film know this stuff

as pretty rudimentary information, but a lot of people don't know what a dolly is, and they see the word dolly grip in a movie, they just think it sounds funny. But the dolly is how you typically would get a smooth shot. It's just a big, super, super heavy sled with wheels that the camera sits on, and the camera operator sits on, and it's either on a very smooth floor,

or it's on a piece of track like a little railroad car, and it pushes along and that's how you get those nice smooth shots. Right, so that's a dolly. The problem with the dolly is you can't really lay that track over a rocky terrain if you're filming on Mars or something like that. No, and like you said, you can't push it up and downstairs.

It just had its limitations. Right, it did. So, Garrett Brown said, I'm sick of these limitations. I'm so tired of being limited by dollies, stupid dollies. I'm gonna invent something better. And so he tinkered around with his, what was called the Brown Stabilizer at first.

Which he later renamed to the Steadicam. And to show off, like at first he was just using them in commercials and he was like, this is way bigger than just commercials. I'm gonna make a sizzle reel. And he made a sizzle reel of the 30 impossible shots that you just couldn't do before and he did it with the Steadicam,

but he didn't show how it was done. Yeah, and he was able to save 10 of those shots and digitize them, and a couple of years ago, he finally released online 10 of those. So you can actually go see this original reel. Yeah, it's pretty cool. His wife and his best friend just doing stuff. Just doing stuff.

You know, one of them was swimming. You can't run alongside somebody swimming, apparently, was an impossible shot. I'm not quite sure why. Well, you just couldn't run alongside someone doing anything. Oh, okay, that's what it was? Yeah. Even with a dolly?

Well, no, you could have laid dolly track down the length of a swimming pool, sure. Right, that's why I didn't understand that one was an impossible shot. But to show off, he goes around around a slide just to kind of show. Maybe that was the impossibility of it. But then his buddy gets out of the pool and like he pivots around him and I'm sure when he put this reel together and he sent it out the directors are like this is magic sorcery?

Well it was mind blowing and some people say it was the first viral video because it was shared around Hollywood literally in a matter of days. Everybody in Hollywood was saying what in the world, like you said, what is this sorcery this Garrett Brown has bestowed upon us? Yeah, it was a bit of a mic drop as far as the real goes. And Stanley Kubrick, being Stanley Kubrick,

sent a message to Garrett Brown that said, if you are really concerned about protecting its design before you fully patent it, I suggest you delete the two occasions on the reel where the shadow on the ground gives the skilled counter-intelligence photo interpreter a fairly clear representation of a man holding a pole with one hand, with something or other at the bottom of the pole

which appears to be slowly moving. All of that is Stanley Kubrickian for, hey, there's a shadow in one of your shots. Of the Steadicam Op. Yeah, which is pretty cool of him to do. Sure. Because I'm sure there were plenty of people in Hollywood who would have been like,

okay, I think I kind of get the idea of what this was, because there was no suggestion whatsoever of what Garrett Brown had used to get these shots, except in those shadows, so he went eek, and immediately cut those, I think, 14 seconds out of his reel, and then released the second edition. And it looked pretty good, I mean, it's rough compared to today's standard.

Sure, but I mean- But for the time, it was unbelievable. Right it looked pretty good. I mean, it's rough compared to today's standard. Sure, but I mean like- But for the time, it was like unbelievable. Right, it changed everything. Oh yeah. And one of the shots that he got was his wife, Ellen. He said, dear, why don't you put on your most 70s bell bottoms you can find. And I'm going to run up behind you as you run up the steps

to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. And maybe when you get to the top you can raise your hands in triumph and I will spin around you and if that shot sounds familiar it actually attracted a guy a director named John what is it Avildsen? Yeah John G. Avildsen. Who said, I like this, I'm going to use it in this little film I'm directing called Rocky. Yeah. And I didn't get whether or not this was the case, but did they locate Rocky in Philadelphia

because of those steps? No. Because he said, how did you do that and where are those steps? I don't think so, man, because I wondered that too. Did he not have a scene written where Rocky just runs up those steps? Right.

I mean, Stallone wrote it. Right. I think they added it. We'll just have to ask him. Okay. Hey, Sly. I was wondering if you could do it. That was pretty good.

I answered in that little moment. Someone will have to interpret that. Great movie though, man. I rewatched that. Rocky? Yeah, like this year from beginning to end. Just phenomenal movie. Yeah.

I'm trying to get Emily to watch it. Has she never seen the original? No. It's its own thing for sure. Like it's not much like the sequels. It's not a boxing movie, really. It's a love story for the most part. It's a love story in like the Triumph of the Little Guy

story for sure, yeah. Featuring boxing. Right. That's exactly right. But two and three and onward, it's like a totally different thing. Yeah, but those are good too. Yeah, they said, let's take your story, take out the heart,

and insert cocaine instead. Insert Mr. T. I don't get the cocaine reference. Well, it's just the 80s and Hollywood got their hands on it. Oh, okay, sure. You know what I mean? I gotcha. Yeah, that's a good question though.

I wonder about that. If he, surely they didn't remake it for Philadelphia just for that. Well, but the point is, is Garrett Brown created on this sizzle reel one of the most iconic shots in filmmaking history. For sure. And he sent that reel out,

and within that year, I believe, 19... We are telling our scientists today, we have disdain for your expertise, and then you have China as an exception, saying actually we're gonna invest a trillion dollars in new science. And then you have China as an exception saying, actually, we're going to invest a trillion dollars in new science. Yeah, you heard that right. While the US is cutting billions from science

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dead set on lying to your boss that they can take your job. I'm also going to be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about all the other ways the rich and powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, wherever you happen to get your podcasts. 76, three major motion pictures hired him to operate his Steadicam for it. There was Rocky, there was, what was the one about Woody Guthrie?

Bound for Glory. I think that one came out first, so that was the first actual, and that one, the steady came up, was Garrett Brown I think for all these. Because he was the only guy that knew how, he got a lot of work early on as the operator. I think the patent was still pending until 1977, so I'm sure he didn't let that thing out of his sight.

Everybody close your eyes while I shoot this. But on Bound for Glory, he was on a crane even that lowered down, stepped off the crane. So people had seen crane shots, but then for the crane to go down, down, down, and then all of a sudden start following this guy, everyone was like, what in the world? Right, there would have been a cut

after the crane stopped and then before, they would have cut and he would have gotten in position and then started up again. This is one smooth shot. One smooth shot. Yeah, and then the other one was Marathon Man. So just right out of the blue, this guy who is a commercial director

and made short films for Sesame Street changed filmmaking single-handedly. Yeah, and won an Academy Award in 1978 for technical achievement. Got that patent in 77. And well, that's it. That's the history of the Steadicam. That's it everybody. Good night. But we're gonna, should we take a break and tell everyone how this thing works? Let's do it man. Starfish Show

All right, Chuck, so the study camp do you remember when we did our episode on breathalyzers? Oh boy, that was a long time ago. And we found out that the breathalyzer is one of the most complicated machines Yeah on the planet. I kind of hated that one. Like there were crystals involved somehow. I hated that one too. Dark crystals. There were. This is a bit like that. Like if you really dive into Steadicams

like this article on how stuff works does, it's labyrinthine. Talk about the dark crystal. We're talking labyrinth instead. Yeah, but we're gonna simplify it because you don't need to break this thing apart and look at every component like this article does. I mean, it really gets involved.

What you should do is look at a picture of someone operating one. Yeah. And just, because when you look at it, you go, it all makes a lot more sense. Right, and there's really just three main parts to the whole thing. There's a vest, there's an arm that's attached to the vest, and then the other end of the arm is attached

to what's called the sled, which is what the camera and its components are mounted on, right? Yeah, and that arm, I mean, just picture yourself wearing a, like a BabyBjorn baby carrier, except for instead of the baby at your sternum, there's a mechanical arm coming out. Like a spring arm lamp? Yeah, like a accordion arm or a spring arm lamp.

Right, and it's virtually the same thing. Well yeah, and guess who made one of these? Who? By himself, before they started making them for at home people. Who, Casey? No. Who? My brother, of course. Oh, did he really, yeah? Yeah, my brother made one of these in like the early 90s. Who, Casey? No. Who? My brother, of course.

Oh, did he really, yeah. Yeah, my brother made one of these in like the early 90s. Did he really? Out of door hinges and rubber bands and springs. Does he still have it? Is it in the Smithsonian? I don't know, it's in the Scottsonian. Nice.

Which is where all his early inventions. With all his pinball machines? Yeah, but he made one, he basically did the same thing. He looked at it and looked at these swing arm lamps and accordion arm lamps and it's like, well it's the same thing, I'll just make a version of that. And it worked pretty good. It's virtually the same thing.

So the whole point of a Steadicam is that it basically simulates, or the arm at least, simulates a human arm, to where it can move around very easily. And it redistributes the weight of the camera, which can be up to like 70 pounds, I imagine probably more. Yeah, the whole unit is pretty heavy and it's not easy to operate.

It'll wear you out. It holds it effortlessly and it holds it in place, this arm does, and it does it by using springs, and you can adjust the tension of the springs by using a cable and pulley system, so that it offsets the tension of the springs by using a cable and pulley system. Yes. So that it offsets the balance of the camera and holds it in space in front of the camera operator,

basically so that they can move it effortlessly up, down to the side. You can put the camera on top of the sled so that you get high shots. You can switch it so it goes on the bottom so you can get low angle shots. Yeah, the traditional, it's called high mode and low mode and high mode is, it doesn't mean it's high,

it just means it's on the top of the unit. And then low mode is when it's on the bottom, so if you wanted to film a mouse running across the floor, you would put it in low mode. If you wanted to film a human, you'd put it in high mode. Yeah, and the camera itself is broken out into pieces which is kind of an ingenious trick that I guess Garrett Brown came up with himself.

I think he did. And this is the third part, the camera sled, right? Yes, the sled is what holds all the equipment. Right, and it's basically a pole with a little bit at the top called the stage. Yeah. And that's where the camera goes, or it could be at the bottom, wherever the camera is. The camera's mounted to the stage.

Then you get the pole itself, and then I guess the arm is connected to the pole by a gible? A gimbal. A gimbal, that's right. And that's like an old technology. It's basically something that uses basically a gyroscopic action to take the movement

of whatever is seeking to move whatever you want to hold still and getting rid of it. Like everything around it moves except for the thing that you want to hold still. Yeah, it's pretty neat. It's super neat, and that's just the one arm that's connected to the pole. So you can see how complicated this thing is.

This guy sat back and I think in a hotel room somewhere he put it together, Garrett Brown the first one. Just the ingenuity it took to put this together, it's pretty in depth as far as inventions go. Yeah, and there's a little science to it. There's something called moment of inertia. It's basically how much that camera is resistant to rotation.

So if you want the camera to be still, you want to increase that resistance to the rotation. And this is determined by a couple of different things. How much mass there is to the object, and how far that mass is from its own axis of rotation. So by spreading the camera out, he basically took the little, you know, cameras come with a monitor now

so you can see what's going on. Right. And a big heavy battery. He took the monitor off of the camera, he took the battery off of the camera, and redistributed that up and down the pole. So what he ended up doing was spreading out that mass, which takes away the center of gravity

from the camera itself. Yeah, because like with a regular camera where all the components are in one single unit, which takes away the center of gravity from the camera itself. Yeah, because like with a regular camera where all the components are in one single unit, that center of gravity is inside the camera. So it's easy to rotate, but since he exploded it out into its various components, he made that center of gravity land somewhere on the pole. Right. And the gimbal attaches to the pole just above the center of gravity so that the camera operator holds the pole

and manipulates the camera at the center of gravity, which makes it very easy to balance, keep balance. Yeah, and they do a good job in this article. If you just take a broomstick and you find that center of gravity with your finger, you can hold it with your finger and lift it up and down. Right, and it's balanced on your finger because you're hitting that center of balance.

That's right, it's the same principle. And in fact, if you took that same broomstick and cut it off and you just had three feet of broomstick and just took your SLR camera and screwed that broomstick into the bottom of your camera instead of a tripod, that would function, you could walk around with that and it would be steadier than if you just had it in your hand.

Oh I could see that because of the change of the center of gravity. Change of the center of gravity and if you put a little counterweight at the bottom it would make it even more steady and that's the whole concept of the Steadicam sled. Then attach that to an arm, that accordion arm, and you're cooking with gas. Yeah, because you were saying, like, if you walk around with just the pole holding, or the broomstick, cut off broomstick, and you're holding it just with your hand, it's steady.

The point of the arm is it's taking your hand out of the equation and replacing it with something that can isolate movement even more, so that your movement of you walking just gets lost within the arm before it ever gets to the camera and could shake it. Yeah, like if you did it with a broomstick, your arm is the same thing as a Steadicam arm. Right.

Except it's better. The Steadicam arm is. Is better than your human arm. Right. Yes. Exactly. Pretty neat stuff. It is neat stuff.

And I think that's it for the science, man. We made it through it. Yeah, I mean, it's all gotta be very precisely balanced. You don't just throw the stuff on the pole willy-nilly. No, and they point out that the balance of the camera can actually change during filming, just from the film moving from one end of the camera to the other as it records, right?

Well, yeah, in the old days when they used film, for sure. Nowadays it's just that digital card. Yeah, I'm sure Quentin Tarantino's camera operators have to deal with this. Yeah, and if you've ever been on a job with a Steadicam, there are a lot of, there's a lot of breaks where, I mean, you can adjust them on the fly more now, but I remember there just being a lot of breaks

where the Steadicam op would say, hold on, I need five minutes, and they go over and they have a little stand that they put it on to take, because it takes the weight off to a certain degree, but it's still a lot of weight to be carrying on a vest on your chest. Yeah, and running and moving, doing all sorts of stuff. Yeah, it's a tough gig.

There's a pretty amazing video, did you watch it, of that Eurovision shot? No. There's a guy from, I think, Belarus singing, and they showed him, I didn't see that. He's like, they showed the shot, and then they showed what,

somebody filming the shot being done, and the guy with the Steadicam wearing the vest rides down the aisle on a Segway. Is that what he's on? Yeah, hops off, runs up this ramp, and then starts circling around the guy who's singing. And it's a pretty amazing thing. It's a great shot, but then when you see how it's done,

you're like, wow, that guy deserved a standing ovation. It would have been more impressive had it not, like the subject matter, been more interesting and the video quality been better. It would have been more impressive had it not, like the subject matter been more interesting and the video quality been better. It was pretty, pretty bad. Like if it was a Scorsese movie, you'd be like, wow. Sure. But it was this kind of corny,

it looked like American Idol or something. It was, but it was American Idol, if you took American Idol at its peak and then spread it out over Eurasia, and it was popular over that large of a population, that's what Eurovision is. That's right. So you wanna talk about some of the shots

when we come back after a break? Please. Okay. ["Skyfishers Theme Song"] We are telling our scientists today we have disdain for your expertise and then you have China as an exception saying actually we're going to invest a trillion dollars in new science. Yeah, you heard that right. While the U.S. is cutting billions from science and public health, China is making historic investments. That means here in the U.S., fewer breakthroughs,

slower medical advances, and a serious risk of falling behind globally. I don't think anything about that is efficient. I think that it is actually profoundly inefficient. As she would know, Chelsea Clinton is using her expertise in public health to break down what these cuts really mean and why protecting science isn't just smart policy, it's a necessity. This week on Dope Labs, we're putting it all under the microscope with Chelsea Clinton,

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FNAs starting Tuesday, July 1st on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. OpenAI is a financial abomination, a thing that should not be, an aberration, a symbol of rot at the heart of Silicon Valley. And I'm going to tell you why on my show Better Offline, the rudest show in the tech industry, where we're breaking down why open AI along with other AI companies are dead set on lying to your boss that they can take your job. I'm also going to be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about all the other ways the rich and powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better Offline

on the iHot radio app, Apple podcasts, wherever you happen to get your podcasts. Let's go to the next. Alright so Chuck, in addition to that Rocky shot and that Eurovision shot, there are some other very famous shots, classic shots of all time. That had to do with Steadicam, that couldn't have been done without Steadicam. Well the Shining is the first one that pops into most people's minds because, like we said, Kubrick was a big fan of this invention and immediately started talks with Garrett

Brown on how to help him out with this movie, The Shining, that he was making. And apparently they kind of battled one another quite a bit on the set of The Shining and Garrett Brown later admitted he said a lot of that was probably, what do you call it, like inventors, pride or something, kind of getting in the way of this brilliant auteur. So Kubrick already had his own ideas on how to best use this thing that this other guy invented. And The Shining's classic example, those tricycle shots,

the famous maze chase at the end, very iconic in motion picture history yeah and I mean the the how did they do you know how they did that that shot behind Danny on his little big wheel they probably just went into low mode and like walked behind him or ran down the hall after him that's really impressive yeah The Shining's a big one. Sure. Rocky's a big one. Goodfellas is another classic example too.

Classic. Where Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco are going into the Copacabana, but they go through the back. Yeah. And they're followed throughout the back stairs into the kitchen, and then they finally come out into their table.

And it's like one uninterrupted five minute shot or something. It's amazing. And I think when you see this, you might see it and not be a discerning film viewer and just say, well, I didn't notice anything, which is probably good. Or you might be a fan of the Steadicam and just say, man, that was amazing.

Then you have to step back and look at lighting and realize how incredibly hard it is to light a shot like that that takes place over, I don't know, how many hundreds of feet. What, without seeing the lights in the shot? Well, that, or just consistent lighting and having it look good. I mean, that's just usually you light for like a room or something or a hallway. Right, yeah, yeah. But to light all those different rooms and hallways

and just incredibly, I can't imagine how long it took to set that shot up. You know? They were like, wait, what do you wanna do? Yeah. It'll be great, don't worry about it. Stick with me. Stay with me.

You know he's making another gangster movie. No, I didn't know that. Yeah, and it may be like the, some folks are saying it's like, you know, his last big gangster movie. No, I didn't know that. Yeah, and it may be like the, some folks are saying it's like, you know, his last big gangster movie. Yeah. But it's got De Niro again. Okay.

He hadn't worked with him in a long time. Okay. Pacino. Nice. And Joe Pesci is coming out of retirement. I didn't even know he was retired. I just thought he wasn't doing stuff anymore. No, man, he retired.

Didn't know that. Yeah, so he's got the three heavyweights and supposedly Harvey Keitel of course. You gotta throw him in there. Sure. But I'm just like giddy thinking about this. Yeah, I'm glad he is because his last one was The Departed, right?

No, he's made movies since then like Wolf of Wall Street. His last gangster movie. Yeah, which I thought was great. I know you didn't love it. I just didn't. I thought it was awesome. I thought everything but what Jack Nicholson did was pretty good. Yeah know you didn't love it. I just didn't. I thought it was awesome. I thought everything but what Jack Nicholson did was pretty good.

Yeah? You didn't like his performance? No, I really didn't. Well. Sorry, Jack. He'll forgive that. All right. Because you like him as an actor, right?

Yeah. Oh, okay. What else? Yeah, as good as it gets. Come on. Ha ha ha. Return of the Jedi, 1983. The famous speeder bike chase scene.

On indoor. Yeah, California's Redwood National Park doubled as indoor. And that was Garrett Brown walking and they sped it up. Yeah, but, and you're just like, wow, who cares? The reason why it's such an iconic Steadicam shot is because he walked very slowly, and when you speed film up, the tiny movements involved, their telegraph,

they just become much more exaggerated. So without a Steadicam, when they sped the film up, again, it would have been just so blurry and just jarring, it would have been unusable. The fact that you can see the trees and stuff, and even at that high speed, it's all Steadicam. Yeah, and people, I think it's just so easy to take it for granted now in movies

when you see these shots, but to pioneer these things and this equipment was remarkable. And nowadays, you can, there are all manner of at home steady cam. You don't have to do like my brother and build one out of spare parts and door hinges. You can buy one. For not too much.

You can spend $100 on a decent enough little home steady cam. This article says that the steady cam curve, which was made for GoPros, was like 100 bucks. Yeah, well those are teeny tiny. And there's one for the iPhone called, what's it called? The smoothie. That one is like, it's like I think even less than 100 bucks.

And it's just like a handheld camera stabilizer that works pretty well from what I can gather. Yeah, we should have had Casey, our video producer Casey, he's in France right now though. Yeah. Living the high life. Right, eating baguettes. We should have had Casey in here

just giving thumbs up or thumbs down to each one of these brands that we mentioned. Yeah. And I would trust that as like the gospel truth. Right. But Casey's not here, so we're just gonna say read online reviews. I also saw that there's like a lot of gimbal-based

drone steady cams that are just not that expensive. Well drones, they're changing the game again. Because then you can do a shot where you follow someone by the swimming pool and then fly up into outer space with them if you want. In one continuous motion. Yeah, like the quisp monster. The what?

The quisp monster, you remember the alien from Quisp cereal? Do remember Quisp. Remember the weird alien? Sort of, I didn't eat quisp. Wasn't that a Captain Crunch knockoff or was it different? It was different because they were saucer shaped rather than square waffle cut. Gotcha.

Same thing though, yeah. Same thing. It was good. It didn't cut the tongue like Captain Crunch did. Oh yeah, the roof of the mouth. I'll suffer through that still. And then of course, Steadicam is a name brand. Right, like Seeing Eye Dog.

Yeah, it's made, who makes it? Tiffin? Tiffin now? That's what, yeah, I think Tiffin does. They have a pretty good site. Like if you are at all interested in this, like they've got a great site and they have all of their Steadycam models

with a real in-depth overview of them. Yeah. Pretty, I think it's got all their manuals and everything just right there for you to read. Yeah, there's other companies making them. There's one called Glidecam. And Verazum. Yeah, but you know, Steadicam's still probably the giant.

It's like dollies, there's only two dolly makers. Or there may be more now, but it's like Chapman and Fisher. And each, you know, every dolly grip has a reference. Those are the dolly makers? Yeah, Chapman dollies or Fisher dollies. Kinda like Jameson or Bushmills. Yeah. Budweiser or Coors?

Neither. And then Garrett Brown, as if the Steadicam wasn't enough as far as revolutionizing filming goes, he later on invented something called the Skycam. Yeah. Which, like, if you watch any kind of sporting event now, it's especially useful for football and football. Where there's just cables above the field,

and there's cameras hanging down that are just doing overhead shots following the action. Like it's nothing. Garrett Brown invented that too. I got one more little thing for you. There are two positions, not high mode, low mode, positions are like how you're operating the camera,

but if you are pointing forward as the operator and your camera is pointing forward, you're just walking, it's called missionary. No. And then if you are, if the operator is forward and the camera is backward, they call that Don Juan. It's called missionary. No. And then if you are, if the operator is forward and the camera is backward, they call that Don Juan.

So leave it to film set goons to think of sexual names for camera positions. Don Juan? Yeah, I never heard of that one. I hadn't either. Well, if you want to know more about Steadicams, including a really, really fine-grain involved look at the physics of how the Steadicam arm works,

you should go type Steadicam into the search bar at howstuffworks.com. Since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail. I'm going to call this encouragement from a Christian listener. Hey guys, I was listening to the Easter encouragement for my Christian listener. Hey guys, I was listening to the Easter show and was compelled to write in. As a Christian, I've always appreciated how you make a solid effort to not rail on the church too hard.

I found it humorous and simultaneously sad when you felt you had to tiptoe around the pagan traditions that have been integrated with the resurrection. I find it disheartening to think that other believers can't find anything better to do than wait to be offended by something then jump all over you for it. But based on your years of experience and careful treatment of the subject, it must be the case a lot of the time. Personally, I just want to say I can't think of anything you've ever said to offend me. I think you've done a stand-up job with sensitive subjects like satanic panic in particular.

It's also nice just to hear you talk about things directly related to my beliefs without sneering like many others will. That's nice, Dane, in Minnesota. Yeah, for real, Dane. If you want to get in touch with us like Dane did and be a super cool person, you can tweet to us at SYSKpodcast. You can also follow the behind the scenes action

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