“The Steadicam is a combination of several large pieces of equipment, worn on the operator’s body that support the camera. The design of the equipment allows for the operator to walk and move about, without translating his or her footsteps or other vibrations into the lens, and subsequently the shot.” —Steadishots.org

A jitter-free alternative to expensive and laborious tracking platforms, the Steadicam “revolutionizes the ways films are shot” (Stanley Kubrick). The apparatus’ XYZ axis of motion is an easily rotated flotation device for the director’s vision. It is reliant upon the camera operator’s athletic grace and sense of composition. It is a visual language.

Our thanks to Afton Grant, a Steadicam owner and operator from New York, who’s excellent Steadishots website was an invaluable resource in the creation of Single Take Titles, Part 3, and who’s commentary highlights each film here.

When Art of the Title watches a fluid steadicam composition what takes place is a kind of sustenance.

Filmed at Rua Teodoro Sampaio, famous in São Paulo (Brazil) for its concentration of shops selling musical instruments, the opening sequence to Anna Muylaert’s film Durval Discos is organic in its ease as DP Jacob Solitrenick treats us to the relaxed pathology of the street.

At once you figure the arrangement and mute any notion of it, allowing the credits to simply come when they come. We are somehow reminded of a certain conversation Robert Duvall had with Sean Penn in Colors. Duvall Discos!