Steadicam Operator Walked Backwards 7 Miles a Day for 10 Days to Film the First 24-Hour Music Video

If you’ve ever wondered to yourself what life as a Steadicam operator is like, you might want to take a look at this video.

Deemed a ‘Walkumentary,’ this two and a half minute video shows you what Jon Beattie had to do during his incredibly grueling job as the Steadicam operator for 24 hours of Happy — the extended music video for Pharrell Williams’ hit song.

In the BTS video above, Beattie narrates the process of filming the unusual music video, tossing out some mind-blowing statistics about just how much walking and effort it took to get the job done.

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Specifically, he explains that filming took place over the course of ten days in Los Angeles; and each of those days consisted of approximately seven miles of walking. That comes out to roughly a quarter of a million steps total, almost all of which were taken backwards while carrying one-hundred pounds of gear.

Here’s a YouTube playlist with the music video that resulted (it’s broken up into 24 1-hour videos):

Give the video a watch… and if you’re still interested in being a steadicam operator afterwards, you better start hitting the gym.

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