Garrett Brown

Who is Garrett Brown?

Garrett Brown is an American cinematographer, best known as the inventor of the Steadicam. Brown's invention allows cameramen to film while walking without the normal shaking and jostles of a handheld camera. The Steadicam was first used in the Hal Ashby film Bound for Glory, receiving an Academy Award, and since used on such films as Rocky, filming Rocky's running and training sequences, and Return of the Jedi, where Brown walked through a Redwood forest with the Steadicam shooting film at 1 frame per second to achieve the illusion of high speed motion during the speeder-bike chase.

The sequence in Rocky that took the audience up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum for the triumphant moment at the top was first filmed during tests for the original Steadicam system. When shown the footage, director John Avildsen thought it would fit well into the training sequence. In the subsequent decades, tens of thousands of visitors to Philadelphia have taken the time to visit that locale and run up the steps, alone or in groups, to enjoy that unique view and share in the energy and triumphant feeling evoked in that sequence.