Image of camera operator Kate Eccarius wearing a steadicam rig

The Camera Operator: AC Mag column

This column, “Crew Profile: The Camera Operator.”, written by Angela Cerasi of Peachy Keen Colour, was featured in the September 2024 issue of Australian Cinematographer Society’sAC Magazine” (issue 102).

 

After establishing a career for herself in the UK, Kate Eccarius sat down with  Angela Cerasi to give a fresh perspective on being a camera and steadicam operator for scripted drama. Now living between Sydney and Melbourne, her recent credits include the AACTA-award winning series The Newsreader, and The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. 

 

For Eccarius, being a camera operator isn’t just about the interpretation of the script or a  scene, the practicalities of choosing the right tools for the job or executing the shot. It is  about the collaboration with the cinematographer, director and actors to create  beautiful storytelling, with compositional considerations and choreography. 

 

There is great responsibility in the role. “You are the face of the crew,” Eccarius explains.  The camera operator needs to be able to read the scene and have a sensitivity toward the mood that’s required on-set. How the operator conducts themself ripples through to  the rest of the crew. 

 

Originally from Melbourne, Eccarius started a Film & TV degree at Swinburne University  to give her a general overview and a foot into the industry. Thanks in part to a casual job as a technician at Panavision Melbourne, she was invited on set to be a trainee and secured jobs as a clapper loader even before completing her degree. The evolution from film to digital cinema cameras happened and the role of the 2nd AC was being re defined. So when Eccarrius moved to London around this time and worked at the rental house Filmscape, she also stepped up and volunteered as a focus puller on short films  and music videos.

 

In her view, working in a large industry like the UK meant that crew were welcoming and  supportive of her progressing through the ranks. There was so much work to go around  that the scarcity mindset didn’t really exist. Eccarius was a focus puller for 8 years in  London. Following an ACO x Women Behind The Camera Mentorship program, she stepped up to camera operating. During that program she was mentored by Sean Savage ACO SOC, Greg Smith SOC, Danny Bishop ACO SOC, James Friend ASC BSC and Oliver Loncraine. It was Loncraine who helped her realise her “desire to go from observing the scene as a focus puller to being a character within it as an operator”. He encouraged her to try steadicam, pointing her toward a private lesson with Lens & Steadicam specialists, Optical Support. 

 

Eccarius recalls her preconceptions that steadicam was just a role for strong men. The  moment she first put on the rig though, she was hooked. It is heavy, but you just need to  be fit because the weight is distributed evenly around the body’s core. Aware of sounding naff, she confesses it was like “becoming one with the rig”. You can be so responsive and reactive, “It feels like you’re dancing with the character”. Serendipitously she would later be operating on a dance film in Wales, ‘Fly the Flag’. Eccarius noted,  “Steadicam was the perfect choice to capture the emotion of the dancer’s movements, allowing me to explore angles, movements (and the speed at which they were executed) freely so I could become a part of the choreography.” 

 

It was not long before she invested in her own gear – a complete GPI Pro kit.  The design was intelligent with precision engineering but what was most important was how it felt. Some feel more hydraulic, some more elastic. “THE GPI Pro kit was the closest I found to feeling like an extension of myself.”  An expensive initial outlay, the vest was bought directly from GPI Pro as it could be custom fitted, the Cine Live Sled and Titan arm was purchased second-hand. Just  like any other role in the camera department, building your kit is ongoing as there are many accessories to chip away at. But once you buy the big three; vest, arm and sled, you’re set. The ability to operate steadicam is an asset, it’s another tool in the camera operator’s toolkit. 

 

Camera operating was a steep learning curve initially, but one which Eccarius was  passionate about. She gained experience by operating on shorts and low-budget films.  She used social media to directly contact operators she admired to ask questions and when given the opportunity, rewatched footage to study and take notes on her framing and camera movement.   Eccarius started to get opportunities to operate on long form. She confides, “It’s always a bit intimidating, day playing on long form.  You don’t know the crew, the cast, half the time the script, but you’re thrown into the thick of it anyway.  No matter how prepared you may be when you arrive on set, there’s no way around being the outsider in a tightly formed family that’s been created in the weeks of filming prior.  As a day planner, you have to walk on set, know your stuff (technically and creatively) and be flexible with the camera build, the crew and the colloquialisms or short hand between the team.  It’s a talent unto itself”.

 

Aware that female camera operators are extremely rare in the current Australian industry (the 2022 A Wider Lens report reported that of all feature films and TV drama shot in Australia between 2011–2019, there were no female steadicam operators), Eccarius is not phased. She is keen to make the role more accessible to others and pay the generosity that she received forward. 

 

Now a highly sought after camera operator, Eccarius recently wrapped work on the series, ‘All Her Fault’ with director Minkie Spiro (who she worked with on ‘3 Body Problem’), DOP Sergio Dalgado BSC and A-Cam/Steadicam operator Marty Smith SOC in Melbourne.  

 

She believes that as long as you are good at what you do, hard-working and passionate,  anyone can advance to this role. With this whip-smart, generous and lionhearted role model at the top, I’d say she could be right. 

 

Enjoy this article? If so let me know at angela@peachykeencolour.com.au or DM me at @angela_cerasi.   You can check out another of Angela’s crew profile columns for the AC magazine, on Focus Puller Phong Truong, here.