Walking/Tracking Shot: Stanley Kubrick

Director Stanley Kubrick was the first director to use the ‘Steadicam’, a brand of camera stabilizing mount which isolates the shot from the operator’s movements, preventing the camera from shaking. This allows for a smooth shot, even when the camera operator is moving on an uneven surface. 

Before the ‘Steadicam’, the only form of tracking shots was to use a camera dolly, a wheeled mount that rolls on tracks or leveled boards. This was unpractical and a time consuming set up. The other option was for the camera operator to hold the camera manually. 

  

Having tried the manual way of filming, we came to the conclusion that the shake from the operator’s hands was too much for our film, making it look rather amateur, not the smooth shot we feel our video needs considering it is a music video which is supposed to work as a technique to sell something, in this case a song.  The ‘Steadicam’ combines stability, which means steady footage, with the fluid and flexibility of a hand held camera. 

This was used in Kubrick’s film, “The Shining”; most notably the scene where the young boy, Danny, is being tracked as he pedals at high speed through corridor after corridor on his blue plastic big wheel tricycle.

Kubrick used a wheelchair, to film the tracking shots, pushing this around to gain a smooth shot. The wheelchair also worked well as shot was then shown to be at about 18 inches- which was roughly the height of the small child meaning the shot would look like a child’s perspective as intended. The wheelchair had rubber wheels which absorbed the shock which also ensured there was no sound of the wheelchair which could impact the filming.

To achieve this shot a wheelchair can be used and we shall have to partake in some testing shots to try out this technique, seeing if it is viable for our film.

(Research by Hannah)