3 Techniques For Shooting With A Handheld Camera

INTRODUCTION

Audience’s have different perceptions about the emotional effect that shooting with a handheld camera has. The shakey looseness of this motion may, for some, bring the images a bit closer to reality, give footage a sense of naturalism, elevate the emotion into a heightened state, or evoke a fly on the wall subjective point of view. 

Let’s go over three different techniques on how filmmakers can get this motion, then go over some tips that may help you to shoot better handheld footage. 

1 - SHOULDER MOUNTED CAMERA

The first technique for shooting handheld is pretty basic and self explanatory - you put the camera up on your shoulder and operate it through how you move your body.

This technique has a few things going for it. For one, you don’t need any additional gear beyond the camera, so it can be both a cost saver and a quick way of working with minimal setup time which avoids needing to set up and level a tripod, lay tracks for a dolly or balance a gimbal. 

For another, it means operators can be reactive to the movement of characters, which frees them up to move around the space without worrying about precise blocking. This gives them room to improvise and adapt to how the character is moving and grab unexpected moments as they happen without being tethered to a position on a tripod - which is why this technique is often used in freeform documentary shooting.

Because, unlike the other handheld shooting methods which we’ll get to, it doesn’t suspend the camera from a cable, it works well for shots where the operator and camera need to walk around. 

Operating from the shoulder and using your knees kind of like shock absorbers gets rid of some of the ‘bounce’ which you might get from the up down motions of taking footsteps.

Mátyás Erdély’s phenomenal shoulder mounted handheld technique on Son of Saul is a great example of this. Throughout the movie he tracks the character with an authentic and reactive handheld looseness, which eliminates most of the up and down bounce from his footsteps. 

However, this shoulder mounted method doesn’t come without a few disadvantages.

2 - EASYRIG

Digital cinema cameras are very heavy chunks of metal, and film cameras with loaded magazines are even heavier. When framing a stationary shot handheld in an uncomfortable position, the longer the shot is held, the more the operator's body will tire and a tremor or shake from the tired muscles will also start to shake the image.

This brings us to our second way of shooting handheld - with an Easyrig.

This tool was initially designed by a cameraman as a way for operators to alleviate back and shoulder pain from carrying heavy cameras around all day. However, it’s since evolved into a general purpose tool for shooting handheld with a cinema camera.

An easyrig is worn like a vest or backpack - with a solid support spine which runs up the back, loops over the head and contains an adjustable cable that can be hooked onto the camera’s top handle or clamped into an eyebolt.

The tension in the cable then holds up and supports the weight of the camera. It’s a great tool that minimises the strain on the operator’s body and allows them to more easily hold shots for extended periods of time without camera shake.

The cable can be extended almost to the ground to shoot from a low angle, or raised up to the top of the spine to shoot a high angle. This makes the Easyrig a great tool for shooting handheld at more extreme angles, whereas shooting from the shoulder limits how low the camera can be positioned. 

Although cameras can be gripped by the handle without an Easyrig to get low angles, the heavy weight of cinema cameras combined with an awkward extended centre of gravity (rather than having the weight of the camera sit on the solid base of the shoulder) means that there’ll quickly be an unusable amount of camera shake.

The Easyrig suspends and supports this weight and makes shooting these angles easy.

One downside to using an Easyrig comes about if you want to walk around with the camera. Because the weight of the camera sits on a taut cable rather than the shock absorbers that are the knees, it will quite easily create an up and down bouncing motion - feeling each footstep that is taken by the operator.  

Easyrigs are much better for framing and holding static handheld shots than they are for doing handheld shots where the operator moves around.

3 - BUNGEE RIG

The final alternative method - which allows a subtle handheld looseness, the weight to be taken away from holding the heavy camera, and the ability to move the camera’s position without feeling each footstep can be achieved with a bungee rig.

This uses the same idea of the Easyrig - using a cable to suspend and support the weight of the camera - but rather than mounting this cable to a backpack, grips can create a host of different DIY rigs to mount this cable to.

These bungee cables can be hard locked to mounting points on a set, such as here, where Greig Fraser’s grip team attached three suction mounts to the glass window of the cockpit then strung a bungee cord between these points which the camera could be hooked onto.

This makes it easy to operate the camera with a handheld motion, shoot from a low angle and avoid bringing a large overhanging Easyrig arm into the tight space of the set.

Or, if this bungee rig needs to be mobile, another common solution is rigging it onto a dolly, which can easily be pushed around into the correct position for each shot, or used if DPs want the camera to track and move around while keeping a handheld looseness to the motion rather than perfectly smooth dolly movement.

Here’s one variation of this rig Hélène Louvart used where her grips mounted poles to a dolly in a sort of industrial Easyrig setup, from which a cable could be mounted to support the camera. 

Here’s another rig using the same idea, but executing it with a combo stand rigged to a dolly which supports a backweighted boom arm which the cable is hooked onto.

This is a great solution for shooting in any location with a flat floor and enough space to push a dolly around on. However, if the location is a rough terrain exterior where the dolly wheels won’t go or a space that’s too small to fit a dolly inside, then operators will usually have to rely on one of the other two handheld methods we mentioned before.    

HANDHELD TIPS

An important factor when it comes to handheld is the degree of shake that filmmakers are after. This ranges from shots having a very subtle, organic handheld motion all the way to a vigorous, chaotic shaky cam style.

The two cable suspension techniques we discussed are better for minimising the amount of camera shake, whereas shooting straight from the shoulder, or even roughly operating the camera from a grip on the top handle allows operators to increase the intensity of the vibrations.

Another method to take out some of the shake or bounce from your footsteps when doing a handheld tracking shot is to shoot on a rig called a rickshaw - a platform with a mounted seat and two wheels - which can be smoothly pulled and steered by grips while the operator sits with a handheld shoulder mounted camera.  

Another factor that influences shake is lens selection. More often than not cinematographers will favour wide angle lenses when shooting handheld - all the way from 8mm wide angle fisheye focal lengths to around 35mm or 40mm on the long end.

This is because the wider focal length you select, and the wider the field of view on the camera, the less camera shake will be felt in the image. Wide lenses smooth out movement, while shooting handheld with telephoto lenses increases the sensitivity of how much shake will be felt.

A modern solution for operators who are keen on limiting the effect of shake on images when shooting handheld is through the introduction of IBIS or in-body image stabilisation.

This is where image stabilisation is introduced inside the body of the camera by moving the sensor around, kind of like a gimbal does, to compensate for camera bumps.

Although this used to be reserved more for prosumer mirrorless or stills cameras, this tech has now started filtering into higher end cinema cameras like the Sony Burano. 

Some prosumer cameras also offer lenses with stabilisation which will minimise camera shake on the lens’ side.

There are different types of Easyrigs which are separated by their different weight capacities that they can carry. The most popular Easyrig for use with cinema cameras is the Vario5 - which has a maximum tolerance of 25kg - enough to support most film or digital handheld camera builds.

You can use a tool on the back of the vest to adjust the amount of tension you want the cable to have - depending on the weight of the camera and the operator’s preference of having the cable be more slack or more rigid.  

The Easyrig can be operated with handles on the camera. A common setup is using a short left handle facing forwards and a short right handle facing backwards - giving operators a solid grip on either side nice and close to the camera. 

Another style is to grip the camera on the back of its battery - which isn’t always the best method as I’ve seen batteries lose their contact with the backplate and shut down if handled too robustly in this way. 

Shoulder mounted handheld operators will also usually use handles - however mounted to the front 15 or 19mm rods. The closer these are to the camera the better, so as to create a tight connection point, tucking the elbows into the body. The further out the elbows are the looser the camera will move, while creating contact points between camera and shoulder and elbows and stomach will create a solid base where shakes, bumps and bouncing is minimised.

Another, more old school method of operating on the shoulder is to grab the camera directly by the mattebox and use that as a contact point rather than handles.

When building handheld cameras, assistants will add a shoulder pad and try to balance it so that the centre of gravity sits squarely on the shoulders without being too front or back heavy.

Once a blocking has been established, it’s useful to walk through the action before without a camera, creating a sort of muscle memory which will help your body test out and remember the movements you’ll need to make.

And, if the take involves landing in one position and holding that for an extended period it’s useful to try to find a comfortable landing position, where the body is braced, maybe even against a surface, not in a position where you are overextended or crouched uncomfortably.

For any kind of operated handheld shot, grips will always position themselves behind the operator, carefully following in their steps, with a hand placed on their waist. This is a safety measure that, in the event of the operator losing balance they will be there to prevent them and the camera from falling.

Their hand may also steer the operator, especially when moving backwards, and re-route them to avoid hitting any obstacles.