Hollywood Help – Sean Bobbitt: How To Operate A Hand-Held Camera

Part of our new series of Behind The Scenes postings on all things Hollywood, we kick off today with a lengthy lecture on operating a hand-held camera by Cinematographer, Sean Bobbitt. Bobbitt worked with director Steve McQueen on 12 Years A Slave, which won Best Picture at the 86th Academy Awards. It offers a fascinating insight in to the practical activity of operating a camera – while most of us will never actually shoot a film, some of what Bobbitt says might come in handy for the handycam shooting of our kids’ birthdays and other personal events – and it’s just a damn good talk nonetheless.

Enjoy Mr Bobbitt’s work by hitting the video after the jump!!

Buuut, that’s not all folks! We’ve also decided to include a shorter video from Bobbitt, on the work he has done with McQueen down the years, and a more focused snippet on the decisions made in filming 12 Years A Slave. Enjoy!!

Who wrote this?

Rodney Twelftree

“Some people say I like films. Those people are wrong. I *love* films.” – Me. I said this.

Rodney has been writing about films for well over two decades, appreciates a good wine, the love of his wife and kids, and the affection of his dog and cats. He has a fondness of cheesy 90’s action and classic Hollywood, hates that physical media is disappearing, and wishes somebody would make a high-budget series of The Neverending Story.

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