Have you heard of Garrett Brown?
It's understandable if you haven't.
He is the man who invented the stedicam.
That's the piece of equipment that allows us to get smooth gliding shots while the camera moves through space.
Today it is integral to making just about every movie there is.
But that wasn't always the case.
For a long time movies relied on trolleys and dollies and cranes to get moving shots.
It was pretty much the only way.
But Garrett Brown was working crew on a little film called Rocky and they were looking for a way to capture shots of sweet training montages.
So maybe it was good fortune, or even desperation, that drove Garrett Brown to invent this piece of technology.
And thanks to that he changed the movie industry forever.
Skateboarders also owe him a great deal of thanks.
All in all Garret has about 50 patents to his name.
Not too shabby for someone you've never heard of.
This is also a good lesson in circumstance.
Making the most of your given situation.
It's possible they could have shot Rocky without the stedicam.
Using just the traditional techniques to make an adequate movie.
But Brown saw an opportunity.
And he did something that changed film forever.
It may have been luck that he was on the crew for Rocky.
And that he had a director who was up for this new technology.
And a studio that was willing to back something different.And the shot that called for this new shooting method.
But what was not luck was taking the initiative create a new piece to equipment.
To try something completely unknown.
Because Garret Brown knew that we make what happens to us happen.