New Tiffen Steadicam M-1 looms large in Japan

TOHO Studios, the Tokyo production house responsible for the original Godzilla and its current remake, as well as Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa, has purchased the new Tiffen Steadicam M-1 camera stabiliser for its current and future feature projects.

Senior cameraman Kosuke Yamada had been looking at the M-1 since its launch, and brought a rig to Japan after he completed the six-day SOA (Steadicam Operators Association) Classic workshop in the US with Jerry Holway and Steadicam’s inventor Garrett Brown. Yamada’s experience as a cinematographer includes a 13-year stint as camera assistant at TOHO Studios, leading to four years in the top job as lead cinematographer.

“When I used the M-1 for the first time, I felt a firm sense of stability that I had never felt before. No matter how much lighter cameras become, the quality of the image largely depends on their stability in use,” said Yamada. “The M-1 can accommodate various shooting styles and equipment, and I think this is perhaps the biggest strength of it. But also very important is the ease with which you can achieve dynamic balance and smoothness of the gimbal.”

All Tiffen M-1 systems work with the Fawcett Exovest. The supportive exoskeleton design of Exovest frees the chest from constraint by providing support on the hip and shoulder. The industry’s benchmark ISO-Elastic G70X arm completes the package, making M-1 the most advanced stabiliser in feature production.