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.
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.