What is the OTHER guy doing in this outrageous shot?
 

Hey Gang,

I'm sure you have seen this crazy steadicam shot banging around the internets. By itself pretty impressive.

Here is my question:

What is the other guy doing? Pulling focus? If he is pulling focus why does he need to be so close? You would think he could pretty much follow at a distance...

WARNING: the music and the subject will make your eyes and ears bleed

Wild steadicam shot

Yes looks like he is pulling focus but more importantly most stedicam operators have a buddy who is there to catch the camera (and or operator) if it all goes wrong and that is why he needs to keep close!

I notice they had also a Segway wrangler chasing after the dumped Segway. The focus puller is more or less where you'd expect him to be.

I know somebody whose main work is pulling cable for steadicam operators. He has also been the focus puller when needed. I was surprised that a steadicam would have any cables hooked to it but I guess if you have a dedicated person making sure there is always slack it doesn't affect the steadiness of the shot.

I found the shot you posted about a year ago and showed it to him. He has seen a lot but he was impressed. BTW the clips I saw of this was first the shot then a second clip showed how he got it. I liked that better than trying to watch the split screen. If you are distracted by the behind the scenes view you really can't fully appreciate the shot.

That's insane. I couldn't do that trick without the Steadicam rig. Going from the Segway to the run I'd have demonstrated an epic failure. I have no idea how that camera op didn't take a massive face-plant.

-Garrett

It's much better without them, but for various reasons you do find them gathering if the production doesn't have funds for everything.

I've had Triax, BNC and battery cables hanging off at various times. However, you need one of the large rigs otherwise things would be too much for the small ones.

amazing steadicam work!!!

Stelios