PAUL KENWORTHY WITH TYPE-B SNORKEL ON BLADE RUNNER / COURTESY OF BOB NETTMAN
KENWORHTY AND DAVID NOWELL WITH TYPE-B SNORKEL (1974) / COURTESY OF BOB NETTMAN
“THE CLOSE-UPS AND DETAILS OF THE MODELS [ON BLADE RUNNER] WERE BEAUTIFULLY CAPTURED WITH THE KENWORTHY SNORKEL. IT WAS A BREAKTHROUGH IN CLOSE-UP CINEMATOGRAPHY.” aerial DP Hans Bjerno explains how the early Wescams were large, heavy, 48-inch balls, “which hung off helicopters with Mitchell cameras and 400-foot loads and 10-to-1 lenses.” The maze shot in Joseph Mankiewicz’s Sleuth (shot by Oswald Morris) and the final sequence of Antonioni’s Professione: Reporter (also known as The Passenger, 1975) were iconic early Wescam moments. Bjerno says it was the first remote stabilized head. “The Wescam removed the vibration and rock and roll of the helicopter,” he describes, “so unlike handheld or Tyler mounts, you could use very long lenses. It was also the first system where you could be in the helicopter with the doors closed – and operate remotely.” Bjerno was also an early user of another first from the 1980’s – the Russian arm, designed in the Ukraine. “It was the first
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gyro-stabilized camera mount,” he continues. “It started in car commercials and moved into the feature world. We used Shotmakers and grip-controlled arms on trucks for car shots on and off road for years. The Russian arm made 360-degree stabilized remote operating possible. With the crane and camera operators able to sit in the car with the director, it made for easily coordinated action shooting.” The Kenworthy-Nettmann Snorkel Camera system also changed how cinematographers and directors designed shots. Originally created in the 1960’s for architectural photography, it arrived in the movie industry about ten years later. A failed attempt by Paul Latardy had Paul Kenworthy searching for help. He brought what he had to Bob Nettmann, who solved the noise problem and delivered a system that was ready for feature production.
“The first film to use what was called the Type B Snorkel system was Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner,” Nettmann recalls. “Jordan Cronenweth [ASC] wanted to get the camera in and around the futuristic buildings on the land and cityscape model used in the film. The close-ups and details of the models were beautifully captured with the Kenworthy Snorkel. It was a breakthrough in close-up cinematography.” Another big impact on camera movement in the 1980’s was the freestanding two-tothree-axis remote-control camera positioner, known in some quarters as the “hot head” – the first Nettmann Cam-Remote that could rotate the camera through 360-degree moves. Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC, who used it on Frances Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club (1984), says he always wanted to have a floating mobile camera. “We looked at