Moving cameras,
since 1990.

The list kept growing: motorcycle racing, off-road Baja rallies, skydiving, windsurfing, jet skiing. All of it years before the X Games existed.

The rental business started around it, and the Jimmy Jib, followed by the Steadicam, came into live television in the US through Fluid Pictures.

Advertising was the hard part. There was no internet to speak of, so the offer did the work instead: if you weren't happy with the rental, you didn't pay for it. Every one got paid.

The company had been Eastwood Productions until then, and the rental side was already three years old.

It was the first Steadicam EFP modified with the Jimmy Jib's zoom and focus system, which took the focus puller out of the job. That one-person setup went on to work the Oscars, the Tony Awards, the Emmys and practically everything shot live.

The list: a custom zoom and focus handle, an on-board program monitor, an operator tally light system, an on-board prompter monitor, a custom ring light, custom Triax and BNC connectors, ultra-thin SMPTE fiber cable, a four-wheeled docking stand, a Moses pole, and even a quarter-size show rundown clipped to the side of the camera.

One operator could frame, pull their own focus, read the prompter and see their cue. That changed how directors used Steadicam on live shows.

It was the Towercam's first time on the Oscars, the Grammys, and the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, and it went straight to work on live shows like America's Got Talent, American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.

Later on, one of our Towercam rentals worked the Best Picture nominee The Help. The MAT Towercam system itself was recognized by the Academy's technical awards.

A robotic dolly carries the camera along rail or track while one of our operators drives it from the controls. It rides super smooth, and the operator works off-camera rather than beside the rig.

Furio still goes out today, alongside the rest of the railcam fleet.

The Agito runs three ways: on magnetic tape as MagTrax, on rail as Trax, or free-roaming with no track at all. It carries a stabilized head through talent and audience at speed.

On top goes a stabilized head: the ARRI SRH-360, which rolls 90 degrees each way, or the FoMa Antares, which rolls a full 360 degrees and has a tilt and roll ring that changes camera height on the fly. The towercams run six sizes, from the 47-inch Mini to the 16-foot Twin Peek.

From that first Stanton Jimmy Jib remote head to the ARRI and FoMa stabilized heads, it all goes out with highly skilled techs, operators, and crew who can do both.

And when a show wants a shot we can't buy the gear for, we build it in the shop. From 1987 on, Fluid Pictures has been a leader, innovator, designer and operator of moving camera systems, old and new.