The Steadicam: An evolution in film language, p.t 2

Ryerson film student Andrew Lounsbury penned this essay in the spring of 2008 for an advanced film theory course. In it, he uses various theories of camera movement to illustrate and expand on the claim that the steadicam has been a significant advancement in the evolution of film language. Please find selected paragraphs from this work in two parts.

Van Sant argues, “in life a story [like those told by the cinema] usually consists just of the highlights, but in your experience the rest of the day actually happens, and that has a profound impact on your experience” (qtd. in Thomson 65). In Elephant, Van Sant introduces us to a trio of girls, in one of the most elaborate and profound shots of the film, which contains only one cut (38:58).

At first, the camera movement in this scene may seem to be frivolous and unmotivated but upon closer inspection, we can see that it is far more complex than it first appears. Here, Van Sant encompasses Rahtz’s process and Johnson’s wandering camera, while adding his own style to the scene, using the camera as a narrating device. Van Sant could have cut the scene together from several shots, but made the choice (consistent throughout the entire film) to use the process as a dramatic tool. Vans Sant’s wandering camera is used for a different purpose than Kubrick and Scorsese’s, as Van Sant is not trying to suggest the presence of another entity. What he is doing is foreshadowing, in both a subtle and explicit fashion.

In the article, Seeing with the Camera, Irving Pichel discusses how directors express their vision and personal style with the power of the camera. In order for this to occur, writes Pichel, we must first think of the camera as a projection of the narrator’s viewpoint, rather than the spectator’s. “In this use of the camera a complete personality is created who, though not appearing before the audience’s eyes, is yet real and definite and as highly personalized as the real storyteller…who employs it” (Pichel 141). It is in this way that a director can achieve a type of personal and visual style that is acutely expressive.

Unlike Bazin, who claimed that it was less a technical evolution than the infusion of new blood and new subject matter, I believe that the language developed post-steadicam was of a technical nature. That is not to say that its invention instilled an expressiveness within the minds of directors, for that is simply not the case. What it did was provide the technical means for directors who had long envisioned the ability to move through space in a dolly-handheld hybrid fashion. As Geuens suggests, the power of the steadicam has effectively allowed directors to push their imaginations to the limit, resulting in a new film language that fuses Bazinian realism with complete camera expressiveness and style. Van Sant states, “since 1915, when people started to use editing to tell a story, we’ve had the convention of the reaction shot…but life is a continuous thing with a rhythm of its own, and when you cut to adjust that rhythm to suit the dramatic impact you create a new, false rhythm. Whereas if you’re shooting with one camera, you have to create a rhythm in the scene” (qtd. in Said 17). Could there be a better exemplification of Bazin’s theory? And moreover, can anyone deny that what Kubrick, Scorsese and Van Sant have accomplished with the steadicam is anything less than pure cinematic art?

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Bazin, André. “The Evolution of the Language of Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism. Ed. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. 6th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2004. 41-53.

Geuens, Jean-Pierre. “Visuality and Power: The Work of the Steadicam.” Film Quarterly Winter 1993-94: 8-17.

Pichell, Irving. “Seeing with the Camera.” Hollywood Quarterly (1947): 138-145. JSTOR. Ryerson Library. 30 January 2008. .

Rahtz, Robert. “The Travelling Camera.” Hollywood Quarterly (1947): 297-299. JSTOR. Ryerson Library. 29 January 2008. .

Said, S. F. “Shock Corridors.” Sight & Sound 14.2 (2004): 16-18. Wilson Web. 20 March 2008 .

Thomson, Patricia. “Walking the Halls of Fate.” American Cinematographer. October 2003: 60-71.