The American Steadicam operator, director of photography, and co-founder of the Steadicam Guild, Dan Kneece, passed away on August 7th, 2021. In memory of his state-of-the-art work and cooperations with many legendary directors, including David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, and Wes Craven, to name a few, here is our tribute to Dan – one of the greatest camera and Steadicam operators of all times. In 2019, I had the chance to shoot and interview SteadXP’s founder Adrien Farrugia to talk about their unique post-production stabilization system. During pre-production, we planned on having Dan Kneece on set with us, and it was very interesting to see the technology for Steadicam usages and the future of cinematography. A couple of weeks later, I met a tall, bearded, impressive-looking guy in France, who shot some of the feature films I watched growing up. We met up to talk about SteadXP and his work as a cinematographer. After spending time with him, I realized what a truly kind and passionate Steadicam and camera operator he was, who dedicated his entire life to this craft. Early years Dan Kneece was born on September 13th, 1956, in South Carolina. At 13 years old, his mother bought a Super-8 camera, and Dan started shooting motion pictures. With passion in his veins, he graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Master’s degree in Media Arts in 1979. The same year, while finishing his degree, Dan started his professional career shooting news at WIS-TV in Columbia, SC. But...
Published By: CineD - Saturday, 28 August, 2021