Larry McConkey is a legend in Steadicam circles, I can't tell you how many times his name was mentioned, refereed to, and examples shown of his work during the week long Steadicam certification workshop I went to in Pennsylvania. The pros make it look easy but I'm here to tell ya it's anything but! A great experience to be sure and having the chance to hang out with and learn from it's inventor Garrett Brown was an honor. Totally grateful that I went and it's a skill I'm glad to have (an admittedly limited skill I should add) but there's no way I would want to do it full time!

- Ray
Underground Planet

Im going to have to watch the movie now and look for this shot.It’s the ending of the movie. The last scene before the credits.

Great view. Boom operator doing a fine job too.

Paul.

It's refreshing to see that production quality still has a place in film making. I'm fed up with movies that use a shaky camera to simulate action, and add realism. This is nothing more than a crutch to excuse lousy special effects and dull story lines. And yet this sort of crappy style of filming has spread into other venues such as Television (i.e. Battlestar Galactica)

The worst offender of this is the "Bourne Identity" series of movies. They actually used a Shaky Cam to film two people sitting and talking over dinner in a restaurant. I'm surprised they didn't shake the credit roll.

Up the Steadicam, down the Shaky-cam.

Having no steady cam background, I found two things interesting in this clip:
1. They way they opened the wall up so he could slip in behind the actors when he turned around. Hollywood's dirty little secrets...you mean it's not a real house? Even the windows are green screen views added later.
2. How out of breath the operator was after the take. You never think about the physical demands of lugging that thing around all the while doing your best not to breathe too hard or walk normally. I'm guessing he's in a semi bent knee shuffle? Try just standing with your legs bent at the knees for a while, it's not without some effort.

How out of breath the operator was after the take.

Here's what I got from a pro audio forum I subscribe to .

I want to give massive props to the steadicam operator. They obviously held their breathing back throughout the take to save production sound. At the end you can hear them gasping to recover. Totally pro. Big picture thinking to make the film better.

Mike

My favorite steadicam shot is
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Regards,
Jerry