Little people behind big films

"I'm very insulated," he says. "I just tell them to talk to my boss. I say, 'I'll light this whole thing with two Bic lighters and a flashlight if he tells me to. But you can't tell me no.' "

As an integral member of Mr. Semler's team, Gilson is included on the short list of technicians who are taken along when films are shot overseas to cut costs.

Still, he's felt the bite of top-heavy film budgets. Like most film technicians in town, he says, he hasn't received a raise in three years, because the major film studios have toed the line on wage increases, including cost-of-living adjustments.

"The worst part is that in the past 15 years the business has shifted from being run by people who really knew how to make movies, to people who have no association with the business," he says. "They have no loyalty to the business. They're sheer money people. A lot of them care only about the bottom line."

There's nothing Matt Chubet loves as much as running flat out with a 70-pound camera rig strapped to his back – all while watching a tiny monitor that rides near his waist.

"I've gotta tell you, it's a gas," he says of his work as a steadicam operator. "There's nothing like it."

Unlike other camera operators, who work with stationary cameras or ones that move on dollies or tracks, steadicam operators carry special stabilized camera systems attached to their bodies. The system allows steadicam operators to move with actors, filming up close, or in over-the-shoulder shots.

"You bring in a steadicam to heighten the emotion," says Mr. Chubet, who has about $100,000 invested in his gear. "You move in a way that gets you inside the actor's head. If they're frightened, if they're being chased, if they're madly in love, if they're discovering something, these are the times when a steadicam can really show an actor's point of view."

One of Chubet's favorite examples of steadicam work is the chase scene through the maze in "The Shining," as well as the scenes shot over the young boy's shoulder as he rides a tricycle down the hallway in the same film.

Chubet's own work has included shooting for directors Spike Lee, Woody Allen, and Sydney Pollack. He also shot an exploding van scene in this summer's release, "Bad Company," (with Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins), only to discover when he saw the film in the theater that the scene had been severely cut. Roughly four seconds of his work, he says, made it to the screen.

A former film-school student and ex-marine, Chubet says he worked his way up through the ranks in the film business, starting as a production assistant in New York in 1989, then working as a grip (which involves rigging for lights and cameras), and eventually becoming a steadicam operator in the mid-1990s.

Steadicam operators usually earn higher than union-scale wages, which can mean $1,800 to $3,000 a day. Even so, says Chubet, the constant pressure from producers to keep costs down takes a toll. He and his colleagues worry whether they can afford homes or raise families. The financial insecurity, he says, is particularly stinging at a time when the movie industry is taking in record box-office receipts.

"With all that prosperity, was it passed on to the people who were in the trenches, sweating day by day, hour by hour, over a project? The answer is no," Chubet says.

"I can remember in 1990 a producer on a commercial said, If the problem involves money, it's not a problem," he says. "Nowadays, money is always a problem, whether you're working on an $80 million dollar feature, or a no-budget film."

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