All About Richard W Grundy

Hello, my name is Richard Grundy, and if you've stumbled upon my page then we likely have at least one thing in common, a passion for the strange and wonderful machine known as the Steadicam. If you've operated before, you understand how its unlike anything else. Instead of operating a camera, you become the camera. Every movement, flinch and breath affects its flow and the way it moves. When you get strapped in, you truly become one with the machine.

I've been lucky to operate this crazy device professionally for over 9 years and during that time I've racked up a tremendous amount of operating hours... and I mean A LOT of hours. For the last 4 years, I've been shooting 3 hours of live breaking news for CBC News Now with Ian Hanomansing on CBC News Network every week night. Previous to that, I was DoP/Steadicam at Greedy Productions shooting 2 daily half hour shows EP Daily and Reviews On The Run. I did this all while shooting commercials, documentaries, award shows and sportscasts in between. It’s been quite an adventure and I'm incredibly grateful to do what I do. It’s pretty amazing to wear a giant robot suit and run around getting cool shots for a living, plus, people always call me names like cyborg or Robocop, and that never gets old ;)

Anyways, all of this is cool and all but why do you care if you don't know who I am?

Well Then, Here's A Little History;

I was born and raised in Thunder Bay Ontario where I first got my taste of making videos in high school. It was so much fun to get your friends together, brainstorm silly ideas, grab some costumes and produce what you thought was an amazing video. The sense of camaraderie was something special and the laughs would be endless. This made me think; people do this for a living?

During high school, I volunteered as an actor at Confederation College to try to get involved in their Film and Broadcast Television departments. I ended up getting a few small parts here and there and it was a blast, but my attention started focussing more on the behind the scenes process. Rolling out the green screen, riding sky lifts to set up lights, giant studio cameras with prompters and tally lights... this was cool.

I spent an equal amount of time working for both film and TV departments and I quickly learned that film sets are slooooow. 4 hours of setup for a 30 second shot? Are you kidding me!? That’s brutal! Television seemed to be way more appealing. It was fast paced with a quick turnover, so I knew it was the path for me. I enrolled into Confederation Colleges Broadcast Television program and to my surprise, it was very comprehensive. We had access to a lot of cool facilities, editing suites and toys. This is where I had my very first fling with a stabilizer system. It was a prehistoric Glidecam and it was in pretty rough shape, but it gave me that first initial taste. A bunch of my fellow students would set it up and play with it and see if we had any actual skills. It became clear right away that I had more of a natural talent for it than the other kids, so I practiced and practiced and practiced.

Sure enough, our schooling flew by and graduation came out of nowhere. Thunder Bay wasn't exactly the best city for trying to pursue a television career so it was time to make some hard decisions. If I wanted to succeed in the industry, especially with niche skills like the steadicam, it was a necessity to relocate. Internships were hard to come by so with my schools help, we searched for companies that were simply accepting people. We has a loose connection to the company, Greedy Productions who were accepting interns. I happened to know Greedy Productions because I grew up watching their show The Electric Playground. So in an attempt to pursue an actual career, I decided to bite the bullet, pack all my belongings and take my hopes and dreams to Vancouver British Colombia.

It Was Time To Get Serious,

When I first started at Greedy, I was thrilled to simply be in real production facilities. It was amazing! What was more amazing was that they recently purchased a full Steadicam Flyer system and didn't have anyone on staff to operate it! This was almost too good to be true! I strapped in, and after I got over my nerves, I was given my first Steadicam opportunity working on Greedy’s tech help show, The Lab With Leo Laporte for G4 Canada.  This was such a fun show to get to learn on, and was great for racking up operator hours. After just a few months, I was promoted to DoP/Steadicam for the company and began operating full time on Greedy’s other shows The Electric Playground and Reviews On The Run. 

Over my time at Greedy,  I got involved in many other aspects of production. I was also working extensively on behind the scenes documentaries for the Greedy Documentary department for a variety of game studios including Disney, Sony, Marvel, Konami, Bethesda and Capcom. All of these projects involved their own sets of unique Steadicam challenges such as, shooting with random cameras, shooting in foreign countries, setting up tracked shots on green screen, capturing sailors on the high seas on a tall ship, shooting in cramped conventions and shooting big names in the industry. I was meeting and working with some of my biggest childhood heroes, all in the name of making great quality videos, it couldn't get much better for me. I was having the time of my life!!

Steady As She Goes, 

I continued to put countless hours into developing my confidence and vision with the Steadicam because it was pretty evident that these rigs were becoming a huge part of my life. I decided to invest in a full Steadicam Flyer LE system which was truly my first pro rig. I wanted to put this thing through the paces; so I tried to pick up as many gigs with it as possible; I started shooting short films, music videos, live performances, tutorial videos and the odd gig for CBC News. Things were getting busy and the shoots were becoming more and more fun and challenging. I started freelancing for CBC Vancouver on their live hockey playoff post-game show Seeking Stanley. It was my first real taste of operating live with a large, national audience. At first it was both terrifying and exhilarating, but it quickly became an unstoppable thrill. Knowing that I had thousands of people looking through my lens at the same time as me really brought the best out of me. 

The Next Chapter,  

It was just over my 5 year anniversary at Greedy Productions when an opportunity came up to help CBC Vancouver to help launch a news show. It was to be called 'News Now with Ian Hanomansing' and they were hoping to produce a stylish live newscast for 3 hours every weeknight. They had this idea where Ian and I would walk around the newsroom to provide a unique look to his stand ups, to walk up to other hosts workstations, and to have dynamic interview settings. I couldn't say no to the opportunity but it meant that I would have to quit Greedy. It was extremely hard to say goodbye to Greedy because we were a great team, worked together well and had many great experiences, but this felt like it was the next natural step in my career. It was time to try something new.....

The CBC and I worked together to purchase all the appropriate gear to make this show actually work. We wanted to do this the right way and the reality of the situation was that we needed a ton of equipment. After all was said and done, my setup was sitting at 75 pounds; needless to say, I got my exercise.

The day finally came, we launched, and it was an absolute thrill. Developing the shape and look of a brand new show was an extremely rewarding process for me. This was as fun as it gets!

That's Why I'm Here, 

Having been involved with all these projects and with just the sheer amount of hours alone,  I've gained a unique perspective with the device and feel like its time to share my thoughts with other operators new and old. The coolest part is that its an art form that everyone develops their own individual style, so to this day, I always learn something new when watching another operator perform.

If you're reading this, then I'm assuming your a Steadicam enthusiast, so please note that I'm simply going to use this website as a vehicle to deliver words of advice and provide little tips I've learned along the way. Always feel free to jump into the conversation, whether you have a question, feedback,  or completely disagree with me, it all helps us grow into stronger operators!

Thanks for hearing me out. Hope you enjoy. 

Sincerely, 

Richard W. Grundy