Hand-held camera
Encyclopedia
Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a filmmaking
and video production
technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a tripod
or other base. Hand-held cameras are used because they are conveniently sized for travel and because they allow greater freedom of motion during filming. Newsreel
camera operators frequently gathered images using a hand-held camera. Virtually all modern video camera
s are small enough for hand-held use, but many professional video camera
s are designed specifically for hand-held use such as for electronic news-gathering (ENG), and electronic field production
(EFP).
Hand-held camera shots often result in an image that is perceptibly shakier than that of a tripod-mounted camera. Purposeful use of this technique is called shaky camera
and can be heightened by the camera operator during filming, or artificially simulated in post-production. To prevent shaky shots, a number of image stabilization
technologies have been used on hand-held cameras including optical, digital and mechanical methods. The latter is exemplified by the Steadicam
which uses a gyroscope
to make smoother shots.
era movie camera
s that could be carried by the cameraman were bulky and not very practical to simultaneously support, aim, and crank by hand, yet they were sometimes used in that way by pioneering filmmakers. In the 1890s, brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière
developed the fairly compact Cinematograph which could be mounted on a tripod or carried by the cameraman, and it also served as the film projector. In 1908 with a hand-held Lumière camera, Wilbur Wright was filmed flying his aircraft on the outskirts of Paris. Thomas Edison
developed a portable film camera in 1896. Polish inventor Kazimierz Prószyński
first demonstrated a hand-held film camera in 1898 but it was not reliable.
From 1909 to 1911, directors Francesco Bertolini and Adolfo Padavan, with assistant director Giuseppe de Liguoro, shot scenes for L'Inferno, based on Dante
's The Divine Comedy
. The film was first shown in 1911 and it included hand-held camera shots as well as innovative camera angle
s and special film effects. In 1914, Thomas H. Ince
's The Italian, directed by Reginald Barker, included two hand-held shots, at least one of which represented the viewpoint of a character. The camera swerved suddenly to match what was happening to the character in the story.
The compact hand-cranked Parvo camera was first made in Paris by André Debrie in 1908. Though expensive, it slowly built in popularity from about 1915. By the mid-1920s it was, in sheer numbers, the most-used film camera of any kind.
The problem of hand-cranking and supporting the camera, and simultaneously aiming and focusing it, was difficult to solve. A variety of automatic cranking systems were developed to free one of the cameraman's hands. Various cameras were invented which replaced the hand crank with an electric motor, or with a mainspring
and gears, or with gears driven by compressed air. The Aeroscope
was a compressed air camera designed by Prószyński, one that proved reliable and popular. Hundreds of Aeroscopes were used during World War I
by British war journalists. Sales continued into the 1920s.
In January 1925, Abel Gance
began shooting Napoléon using a wide variety of innovative techniques, including strapping a camera to a man's chest, a snow sled, a horse's saddle, a pendulum swing, and wrapping a large sponge around a hand-held camera so that it could be punched by actors during a fight scene. For the Debrie Parvo camera strapped to the horse's saddle, Gance's technical director, engineer Simon Feldman, devised a reversed steam engine for cranking it, powered by two compressed air tanks. Wearing a costume to fit the scene, cameraman Jules Kruger rode another horse to tend the mechanism between shots. Rather than including one or two hand-held scenes for an unusual effect amid an otherwise static film, Gance strove to make his entire film appear as dynamic as possible. It premiered in early 1927.
In the 1920s, more cameras such as the Newman-Sinclair, Eyemo
, and De Vry were beginning to be created with hand-held ergonomics
in mind. The Bolex
camera was introduced using half-width stock. These smaller cameras satisfied the demand from both the growing newsreel
and documentary fields, as well as the emerging amateur market. They were specifically designed to hold shorter lengths of film—usually 100 foot—and were driven by hand-wound mainspring clockwork
s which could last continuously through most or even all of a film roll on one winding. These cameras saw limited use in professional filmmaking. Further examples of limited hand-held work in the late 1920s include J. Stuart Blackton
's The Passionate Quest (1926), Sidney Franklin
's Quality Street
(1927), and Cecil B. DeMille
's The King of Kings (1927).
had an immediate dampening effect on the use of hand-held shots because the film camera motors were too loud to be able to record synchronized sound on set, and thus early sound films were forced to install the camera within a soundproof booth. By 1929, camera manufacturers and studios had devised shells, called blimps, to encase the camera and dampen the mechanical noise sufficiently to allow the cameras to be free of the booths. However, this came at a cost: the blimped, motorized cameras were considerably heavier. When the soon-to-be ubiquitous Mitchell Camera
BNC (Blimped Newsreel Camera) emerged in 1934, it weighed in at 135 lb; this clearly precluded any hand-held usage. The aesthetic style of films from this period thus reflected their available technology, and hand-held shots were for the most part avoided.
Hand-held shots required use of the smaller hand-wound spring-work cameras, which were too loud to be practical for any shots requiring synchronized (sync) sound, and held less footage than studio cameras. The spring-wound cameras were also not accurate enough speed-wise to guarantee perfect sync speed, which led to many of them having motors installed (the additional sound being negligible). Thus, these cameras could not be used for much in the way of dialogue.
They were joined by the revolutionary new Arriflex 35
camera, introduced in 1937, which was the first reflex camera
for motion pictures. This camera also facilitated hand-held usage by integrating its motor into a handle below the camera body, allowing easy hand-held support, and weighing a mere 12 lb. Most of these cameras saw steady usage during World War II
by both sides for documentary purposes, and the Eyemos and Arriflexes in particular were mass manufactured for the Allied and Axis militaries, respectively. This allowed these cameras to be exposed to a much greater number of individuals than would have normally familiarized themselves with them; many wartime cameramen would eventually bring them back into the film industry where they are used to this day. With the Allied capture of Arriflexes, along with the release of the new Arriflex II in 1946, many curious non-German cameramen finally had access to the advanced camera. Eclair
followed this up with the Cameflex the following year. It was a lightweight (13 lb) camera specifically designed for hand-held shots and could be switched between shooting 35 mm and 16 mm. In 1952, Arri
subsequently released the Arriflex 16ST, the first reflex camera designed specifically for 16 mm.
Despite these technological developments, the aesthetic consequences of these smaller cameras weren't fully realized until the late 1950s and early 1960s. Hand-held Camera was first used in 1958, on the documentary film Les Raquetteurs
, shot on 35 mm by Michel Brault
. When Jean Rouch
met Brault and saw his work, he asks him to come to France, and show his technique. An excerpt of the film is available here http://www.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/vPlayer.php?id=759.
For some context on this film, relationship of documentary sound and image, and Brault's cinema, see Direct Cinema
.
This trend, led by Michel Brault
, was followed by Raoul Coutard's work in the French New Wave
and the cinéma vérité
, "fly-on-the-wall" documentary film
aesthetic. In the case of the latter, Richard Leacock
and D.A. Pennebaker actually had to force the 16 mm technology forward themselves through a number of extensive camera and audio recording equipment modifications in order to achieve longer-take, sync sound, observational films, beginning with Primary
(1960).
In the realm of 16 mm cameras, Michel Coutant at Éclair
was working with Brault and Rouch's input to create prototypes that eventually led to the self-blimped Eclair 16 (also known as the Eclair NPR or Eclair Coutant ), the first successful lightweight sync-sound movie camera. History of the collaboration of Brault with Éclair is told here (in French) http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/article.php3?id_article=162#nh15. The design included a camera magazine
which not only was back-mounted specifically to distribute a more balanced camera weight across the shoulder for hand-holding, but also included a built-in pressure plate and sprocket drive, which allowed cameras to be reloaded in seconds — a crucial feature for vérité documentaries.
Rouch's 1961 Chronicle of a Summer was shot by Coutard and Brault on a prototype that led to the Eclair 16. Arri
took many years to catch up, debuting the popular Arriflex 16BL in 1965, but not including quick-change magazines until the Arriflex 16SR
ten years later. In the meantime, Eclair had also a much smaller and ergonomic hand-held 16mm camera, the Eclair ACL (1971), an improvement also spurred by Rouch's drive for equipment that matched his vision of cinema.
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
and video production
Video production
Video production is videography, the process of capturing moving images on electronic media even streaming media. The term includes methods of production and post-production...
technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a tripod
Tripod (photography)
In photography, a tripod is used to stabilize and elevate a camera, or to support flashes or other photographic equipment. All photographic tripods have three legs and a mounting head to couple with a camera...
or other base. Hand-held cameras are used because they are conveniently sized for travel and because they allow greater freedom of motion during filming. Newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
camera operators frequently gathered images using a hand-held camera. Virtually all modern video camera
Video camera
A video camera is a camera used for electronic motion picture acquisition, initially developed by the television industry but now common in other applications as well. The earliest video cameras were those of John Logie Baird, based on the electromechanical Nipkow disk and used by the BBC in...
s are small enough for hand-held use, but many professional video camera
Professional video camera
A professional video camera is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images...
s are designed specifically for hand-held use such as for electronic news-gathering (ENG), and electronic field production
Electronic field production
Electronic field production is a television industry term referring to a video production which takes place in the field, outside of a formal television studio, in a practical location or special venue...
(EFP).
Hand-held camera shots often result in an image that is perceptibly shakier than that of a tripod-mounted camera. Purposeful use of this technique is called shaky camera
Shaky camera
Shaky camera, shaky cam, hand-held camera or free camera is a cinematographic technique where stable-image techniques are purposely dispensed with. The camera is held in the hand, or given the appearance of being hand-held, and in many cases shots are limited to what one photographer could have...
and can be heightened by the camera operator during filming, or artificially simulated in post-production. To prevent shaky shots, a number of image stabilization
Image stabilization
Image stabilization is a family of techniques used to reduce blurring associated with the motion of a camera during exposure. Specifically, it compensates for pan and tilt of a camera or other imaging device. It is used in image-stabilized binoculars, still and video cameras, and astronomical...
technologies have been used on hand-held cameras including optical, digital and mechanical methods. The latter is exemplified by the Steadicam
Steadicam
A Steadicam is a stabilizing mount for a motion picture camera that mechanically isolates it from the operator's movement, allowing a smooth shot even when moving quickly over an uneven surface...
which uses a gyroscope
Gyroscope
A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. In essence, a mechanical gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation...
to make smoother shots.
Silent film
The first silent filmSilent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
era movie camera
Movie camera
The movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film which was very popular for private use in the last century until its successor, the video camera, replaced it...
s that could be carried by the cameraman were bulky and not very practical to simultaneously support, aim, and crank by hand, yet they were sometimes used in that way by pioneering filmmakers. In the 1890s, brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière
Auguste and Louis Lumière
The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean , were among the earliest filmmakers in history...
developed the fairly compact Cinematograph which could be mounted on a tripod or carried by the cameraman, and it also served as the film projector. In 1908 with a hand-held Lumière camera, Wilbur Wright was filmed flying his aircraft on the outskirts of Paris. Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
developed a portable film camera in 1896. Polish inventor Kazimierz Prószyński
Kazimierz Prószynski
Kazimierz Prószyński was a Polish inventor active in the field of cinema. He patented his first film camera, called Pleograph , before the Lumière brothers, and later went on to improve the cinema projector for the Gaumont company, as well as invent the widely used hand-held Aeroscope...
first demonstrated a hand-held film camera in 1898 but it was not reliable.
From 1909 to 1911, directors Francesco Bertolini and Adolfo Padavan, with assistant director Giuseppe de Liguoro, shot scenes for L'Inferno, based on Dante
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
's The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature...
. The film was first shown in 1911 and it included hand-held camera shots as well as innovative camera angle
Camera angle
The camera angle marks the specific location at which a camera is placed to take a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles. This will give different experience and sometimes emotion. the different camera angles will have different effects on the viewer and how they perceive the scene...
s and special film effects. In 1914, Thomas H. Ince
Thomas H. Ince
Thomas Harper Ince was an American silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer of more than 100 films and pioneering studio mogul. Known as the "Father of the Western", he invented many mechanisms of professional movie production, introducing early Hollywood to the "assembly line"...
's The Italian, directed by Reginald Barker, included two hand-held shots, at least one of which represented the viewpoint of a character. The camera swerved suddenly to match what was happening to the character in the story.
The compact hand-cranked Parvo camera was first made in Paris by André Debrie in 1908. Though expensive, it slowly built in popularity from about 1915. By the mid-1920s it was, in sheer numbers, the most-used film camera of any kind.
The problem of hand-cranking and supporting the camera, and simultaneously aiming and focusing it, was difficult to solve. A variety of automatic cranking systems were developed to free one of the cameraman's hands. Various cameras were invented which replaced the hand crank with an electric motor, or with a mainspring
Mainspring
A mainspring is a spiral torsion spring of metal ribbon that is the power source in mechanical watches and some clocks. Winding the timepiece, by turning a knob or key, stores energy in the mainspring by twisting the spiral tighter. The force of the mainspring then turns the clock's wheels as it...
and gears, or with gears driven by compressed air. The Aeroscope
Aeroscope
Aeroscope was a type of compressed air camera for making films, constructed by Kazimierz Prószyński in 1909 and built in England since 1911, at first by Newman & Sinclair, and from 1912 by Cherry Kearton Limited....
was a compressed air camera designed by Prószyński, one that proved reliable and popular. Hundreds of Aeroscopes were used during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
by British war journalists. Sales continued into the 1920s.
In January 1925, Abel Gance
Abel Gance
Abel Gance was a French film director and producer, writer and actor. He is best known for three major silent films: J'accuse , La Roue , and the monumental Napoléon .-Early life:...
began shooting Napoléon using a wide variety of innovative techniques, including strapping a camera to a man's chest, a snow sled, a horse's saddle, a pendulum swing, and wrapping a large sponge around a hand-held camera so that it could be punched by actors during a fight scene. For the Debrie Parvo camera strapped to the horse's saddle, Gance's technical director, engineer Simon Feldman, devised a reversed steam engine for cranking it, powered by two compressed air tanks. Wearing a costume to fit the scene, cameraman Jules Kruger rode another horse to tend the mechanism between shots. Rather than including one or two hand-held scenes for an unusual effect amid an otherwise static film, Gance strove to make his entire film appear as dynamic as possible. It premiered in early 1927.
In the 1920s, more cameras such as the Newman-Sinclair, Eyemo
Eyemo
The Eyemo is a 35 mm motion-picture film camera which was manufactured by the Bell & Howell Co. of Chicago.-Background:Designed and first manufactured in 1925, it was for many years the most compact 35 mm motion-picture film camera of the hundred foot capacity...
, and De Vry were beginning to be created with hand-held ergonomics
Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements, and its cognitive abilities.The International Ergonomics Association defines ergonomics as follows:...
in mind. The Bolex
Bolex
Bolex is a Swiss company that manufactures motion picture cameras and lenses, the most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. The Bolex company was initially founded by Jacques Bogopolsky in 1927. Bolex is derived from his name. He had previously designed cameras for...
camera was introduced using half-width stock. These smaller cameras satisfied the demand from both the growing newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
and documentary fields, as well as the emerging amateur market. They were specifically designed to hold shorter lengths of film—usually 100 foot—and were driven by hand-wound mainspring clockwork
Clockwork
A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a mechanical device utilizing a complex series of gears....
s which could last continuously through most or even all of a film roll on one winding. These cameras saw limited use in professional filmmaking. Further examples of limited hand-held work in the late 1920s include J. Stuart Blackton
J. Stuart Blackton
James Stuart Blackton , usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an Anglo-American film producer of the Silent Era, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation...
's The Passionate Quest (1926), Sidney Franklin
Sidney Franklin
Sidney Franklin may refer to:* Sidney Franklin , American bullfighter* Sidney Franklin , American film director and producer...
's Quality Street
Quality Street (1927 film)
Quality Street is a 1927 MGM silent film based on the 1901 play by James M. Barrie which starred Barrie favorite Maude Adams. The film starred Marion Davies and Conrad Nagel and was directed by Sidney Franklin...
(1927), and Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
's The King of Kings (1927).
Sound film
The emergence of the sound filmSound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
had an immediate dampening effect on the use of hand-held shots because the film camera motors were too loud to be able to record synchronized sound on set, and thus early sound films were forced to install the camera within a soundproof booth. By 1929, camera manufacturers and studios had devised shells, called blimps, to encase the camera and dampen the mechanical noise sufficiently to allow the cameras to be free of the booths. However, this came at a cost: the blimped, motorized cameras were considerably heavier. When the soon-to-be ubiquitous Mitchell Camera
Mitchell Camera
Mitchell Camera Corporation was founded in 1919 by Henry Boger and George Alfred Mitchell. Their first camera was designed and patented by John E. Leonard in 1917, from 1920 on known as the Mitchell Standard...
BNC (Blimped Newsreel Camera) emerged in 1934, it weighed in at 135 lb; this clearly precluded any hand-held usage. The aesthetic style of films from this period thus reflected their available technology, and hand-held shots were for the most part avoided.
Hand-held shots required use of the smaller hand-wound spring-work cameras, which were too loud to be practical for any shots requiring synchronized (sync) sound, and held less footage than studio cameras. The spring-wound cameras were also not accurate enough speed-wise to guarantee perfect sync speed, which led to many of them having motors installed (the additional sound being negligible). Thus, these cameras could not be used for much in the way of dialogue.
They were joined by the revolutionary new Arriflex 35
Arriflex 35
Arriflex 35 was the first reflex 35mm motion picture camera. Built around the spinning mirror reflex shutter designed by Erich Kästner, Chief Engineer for Arnold & Richter Cine Technik , Arri Group. It allows the operator to have a viewfinder image equal to the recorded picture...
camera, introduced in 1937, which was the first reflex camera
Reflex camera
Reflex camera may refer to:*Single-lens reflex camera**Digital single-lens reflex cameras*Twin-lens reflex camera...
for motion pictures. This camera also facilitated hand-held usage by integrating its motor into a handle below the camera body, allowing easy hand-held support, and weighing a mere 12 lb. Most of these cameras saw steady usage during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
by both sides for documentary purposes, and the Eyemos and Arriflexes in particular were mass manufactured for the Allied and Axis militaries, respectively. This allowed these cameras to be exposed to a much greater number of individuals than would have normally familiarized themselves with them; many wartime cameramen would eventually bring them back into the film industry where they are used to this day. With the Allied capture of Arriflexes, along with the release of the new Arriflex II in 1946, many curious non-German cameramen finally had access to the advanced camera. Eclair
Eclair (camera)
Éclair was a film production, film laboratory and movie camera manufacturing company established in Épinay-sur-Seine, France by Charles Jourjon in 1907....
followed this up with the Cameflex the following year. It was a lightweight (13 lb) camera specifically designed for hand-held shots and could be switched between shooting 35 mm and 16 mm. In 1952, Arri
Arri
-History:Arri was founded in Munich, Germany as Arnold & Richter Cine Technik in 1917, named after founders August Arnold and Robert Richter. They produce professional motion picture equipment, digital and film cameras and cinematic lighting equipment...
subsequently released the Arriflex 16ST, the first reflex camera designed specifically for 16 mm.
New Wave revival
Les raquetteurs
Les raquetteurs is a 1958 Direct Cinema documentary film co-directed by Michel Brault and Gilles Groulx. The film explores life in rural Quebec, at a convention of snowshoers in Sherbrooke, Quebec in February of 1958...
, shot on 35 mm by Michel Brault
Michel Brault
Michel Brault, OQ is a Quebec cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He is a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the National Film Board of Canada in the 1960s...
. When Jean Rouch
Jean Rouch
Jean Rouch was a French filmmaker and anthropologist.He is considered to be one of the founders of the cinéma vérité in France, which shared the aesthetics of the direct cinema spearheaded by Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert and David Maysles...
met Brault and saw his work, he asks him to come to France, and show his technique. An excerpt of the film is available here http://www.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/vPlayer.php?id=759.
For some context on this film, relationship of documentary sound and image, and Brault's cinema, see Direct Cinema
Direct Cinema
Direct Cinema is a documentary genre that originated between 1958 and 1962 in North America, principally in the Canadian province of Quebec and the United States...
.
This trend, led by Michel Brault
Michel Brault
Michel Brault, OQ is a Quebec cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He is a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the National Film Board of Canada in the 1960s...
, was followed by Raoul Coutard's work in the French New Wave
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
and the cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...
, "fly-on-the-wall" documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
aesthetic. In the case of the latter, Richard Leacock
Richard Leacock
Richard Leacock was a British-born documentary film director and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité.-Early life and career:...
and D.A. Pennebaker actually had to force the 16 mm technology forward themselves through a number of extensive camera and audio recording equipment modifications in order to achieve longer-take, sync sound, observational films, beginning with Primary
Primary (film)
Primary is a 1960 Direct Cinema documentary film about the 1960 Wisconsin Primary election between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey for the United States Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States....
(1960).
In the realm of 16 mm cameras, Michel Coutant at Éclair
Éclair
An éclair is a pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with icing.The dough, which is the same as that used for profiterole, is piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside...
was working with Brault and Rouch's input to create prototypes that eventually led to the self-blimped Eclair 16 (also known as the Eclair NPR or Eclair Coutant ), the first successful lightweight sync-sound movie camera. History of the collaboration of Brault with Éclair is told here (in French) http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/article.php3?id_article=162#nh15. The design included a camera magazine
Camera magazine
A camera magazine is a light-tight chamber or pair of chambers designed to hold and move motion picture film stock before and after it has been exposed in the camera...
which not only was back-mounted specifically to distribute a more balanced camera weight across the shoulder for hand-holding, but also included a built-in pressure plate and sprocket drive, which allowed cameras to be reloaded in seconds — a crucial feature for vérité documentaries.
Rouch's 1961 Chronicle of a Summer was shot by Coutard and Brault on a prototype that led to the Eclair 16. Arri
Arri
-History:Arri was founded in Munich, Germany as Arnold & Richter Cine Technik in 1917, named after founders August Arnold and Robert Richter. They produce professional motion picture equipment, digital and film cameras and cinematic lighting equipment...
took many years to catch up, debuting the popular Arriflex 16BL in 1965, but not including quick-change magazines until the Arriflex 16SR
Arriflex 16SR
Arriflex 16SR is a movie camera product line created by Arri, introduced in 1975. This 16SR camera series is designed for 16 mm filmmaking in Standard 16 format...
ten years later. In the meantime, Eclair had also a much smaller and ergonomic hand-held 16mm camera, the Eclair ACL (1971), an improvement also spurred by Rouch's drive for equipment that matched his vision of cinema.
Filmmakers known for hand-held camera style
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during the early part of his career - Paul GreengrassPaul GreengrassPaul Greengrass is an English film director, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of real-life events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras.-Life and career:...
- Catherine HardwickeCatherine HardwickeCatherine Hardwicke is an American production designer, film writer and film director. Her works include the independent film Thirteen, which she co-wrote with Nikki Reed, the film's co-star, the Biblically-themed The Nativity Story, the vampire film Twilight, and the werewolf film Red Riding Hood...
- Werner HerzogWerner HerzogWerner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner...
- Alejandro González IñárrituAlejandro González IñárrituAlejandro González Iñárritu is a Mexican film director.González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and by the DGA of America for Best Director. He is also the first and only Mexican born director to have won the Prix de la mise en scene...
- Stanley KubrickStanley KubrickStanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
, including early use of the SteadicamSteadicamA Steadicam is a stabilizing mount for a motion picture camera that mechanically isolates it from the operator's movement, allowing a smooth shot even when moving quickly over an uneven surface...
. - Albert and David Maysles
- Jonas MekasJonas MekasJonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals across Europe and America.-Biography:...
- D.A. Pennebaker
- Jacques RivetteJacques RivetteJacques Rivette is a French film director. His most well known films include Celine and Julie Go Boating, La Belle Noiseuse and the cult film Out 1....
- Jean RouchJean RouchJean Rouch was a French filmmaker and anthropologist.He is considered to be one of the founders of the cinéma vérité in France, which shared the aesthetics of the direct cinema spearheaded by Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert and David Maysles...
- Steven SpielbergSteven SpielbergSteven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
- Lars von TrierLars von TrierLars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches, and have frequently received strongly divided critical opinion....
- Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
- Wong Kar-waiWong Kar-waiWong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
- David YatesDavid YatesDavid Yates is an English filmmaker who rose to mainstream prominence directing the final four films in the Harry Potter film series. He helmed the series' fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth installments, all of which became an instant blockbuster success and made him the most commercially...
- Rob ZombieRob ZombieRob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...