"The Shining" and the Steadicam: an interview with inventor Garrett Brown
BACK STORY
This video feature about inventor Garrett Brown, whose development of the Steadicam forever changed television and filmmaking, accompanied a textual narrative published in October of 2020 as part of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Journeys of Innovation series.
For the past two-and-a-half-years the USPTO has sought to inspire and encourage innovation by sharing relatable stories that chronicle the journeys of inventors and entrepreneurs. We shed light on where they got their start, the challenges they faced, and what it took to bring their ideas to fruition and their brands to life.
We weave patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and common themes inventors and entrepreneurs share with us into storytelling that emphasizes the importance of intellectual property (IP) and the critical role it plays in innovation, making the subject matter accessible to a wide audience.
Above are some of the stories on the USPTO's Journeys of Innovation landing page.
PRE PRODUCTION
During pre-production, before traveling to Brown's workshop to record an interview with him, we recognized that there was an opportunity to create a short video feature tying the subject of the Journey of Innovation story with our then-upcoming 10th annual Creepy IP social media series.
Each October, we highlight “creepy” patents and trademarks reminiscent of Halloween as a fun and timely way to educate the public about the importance of IP and how it impacts everyday lives. Brown's experience as a camera operator on Stanley Kubrick's film "The Shining" was a natural fit.
Seeing the opportunity to combine a number of communications goals, we added some questions to the tail end of our more general interview with Brown about his life and career focused on his involvement in the making of Kubrick's "creepy" film, and how that experience helped cement the significance of his invention in the world of film and television.
The resulting production is a narrative based on the interview at Brown’s workshop. It takes advantage of historical images and a demo reel he provided, footage from “The Shining,” and a documentary by Kubrick’s daughter Vivian about the making of the film. Together, these pieces allowed for some creative editing with natural sound breaks and a bit of cinematic pacing in our finished product.
Tweets from the #CreepyIP campaign. It was a natural fit to cross-pollinate with our social media specialist to help highlight our then-upcoming 10th anniversary of Creepy IP and also create interest for the video.
OBJECTIVES
In this production, we aimed to demystify innovation through Brown’s relatable journey as an inventor and filmmaker, highlighting the importance and impact of his IP, inspiring the next generation of inventors and entrepreneurs, and encouraging a more inclusive and balanced innovation landscape.
The industry-transforming success of Brown’s Steadicam and its impact on a notable production like “The Shining” exemplify the Creepy IP campaign’s goal: to encourage an interest in IP in a broad audience by focusing on a widely-appealing topic. In addition to promoting awareness of Creepy IP, we also were able to drive traffic to Brown’s Journeys of Innovation story and reach a larger audience.
AUDIENCE
Our target audience includes inventors, entrepreneurs, IP professionals, educators, students, the general public, and the USPTO workforce. This video is meant to connect with anyone who enjoys an interesting and relatable story regardless of their profession or existing knowledge of the subject and to provide them with an immersive experience.
MEASURING SUCCESS
Measurement of the stated objectives is challenging if focusing only on impressions and engagement. However, the Ridgewood Guild International Film Festival asked to include the short in the pre-roll of many of the films featured in their virtual event in 2021. Their mainstream audience reach is the kind we always seek to achieve. The impact of the video will continue to grow, as the content is evergreen, and the project will help to inspire the trajectory of video storytelling at the USPTO.
The production was filmed on location in August 2020, which was more challenging than usual and required additional safety precautions. The interview was captured on two cameras and the scene was lit with LED panels with diffusion to soften the light and modifiers to control spill into the surrounding environment. (Photo by Eric Atkisson/USPTO)
CREATIVE TECHNIQUES & PRODUCTION NOTES
The editing and post-production was done with Adobe Premiere Pro. The program allows for subtle edits and adjustments that enable the editor to output a finished video, including numerous audio and video layers, with relative ease.
Video productions often require a team of people, including producer, director, director of photography, audio engineer, lighting grip, second camera operator, interviewer, and editor.
This project was produced entirely in-house and had a very lean production team. Jay Premack and Eric Atkisson of the Office of the Chief Communications Officer traveled to the location in August of 2020. Eric acted as the interviewer. Jay produced, directed, lit, shot, and edited. He had about 90 minutes to set up, having never seen the location, which was a fairly compact space but well ventilated.
Adobe Premiere Pro was a critical tool in completing the post production which included many layers of audio and video channels in the final cut.
