This Is How They Made Cameras Move Back In 1993

Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

As a child of the 90’s I can testify that there was nothing bigger than Jean-Claude Van Damme. Back when he had all his hair. But in the early 90’s it was harder to shoot Van Damme, to get a good camera move, you’d have to physically move the camera, either by foot, on a crane, or on a frigging flying sofa. It was a lot harder than navigating a camera-mounted drone. Not to mention more expensive.

Paul Raimondi was a movie maker back in the 90’s and one of his demo reels – The Moving Camera – shows how you can make a camera move to get the shot. Some of the simpler ways were steady cams and ‘helmet cams’ but there are also huge cranes, motorcycle mounts and one sofa tied to a cable. At approximately 1:03 we also see what the 90’s used as a drone.

Here are some of the contraptions used ‘back in the days’

camera-moves-01 camera-moves-02 camera-moves-03 camera-moves-04 camera-moves-05 camera-moves-06 camera-moves-07 camera-moves-08

Of course Jean-Claude Van Damme did not stop using moving camera in the 2010’s

[Moving Camera via reddit]


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Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

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4 responses to “This Is How They Made Cameras Move Back In 1993”

  1. Michael Meissner Avatar

    Though there is the ‘goof’ I’ve seen where Peter O’Toole in the Stuntman (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081568/trivia) is in one of those chairs. Evidently it was a magic chair like a flying carpet, in that Eli Cross (Peter O’Toole) and others ride in a boom Crane Basket and Eli Cross talks about movie illusion, they entered the basket at the beach in La Jolla CA, and exit the basket 15 miles away at the Hotel del Coronado.

  2. Stuate Fish Avatar

    Great clip there except the mullet.

  3. Kay O. Sweaver Avatar
    Kay O. Sweaver

    Drones and electric gimbals are cool, but those machines are AWESOME.