As a young film buff under the charm of Max Ophuls' fluid camerawork, Kubrick showed continued interest in camera movements and technique as his career went on. In The Shining, the filmmaker made remarkable use of the Steadicam (1).
Thanks to its great mobility, this image-stabilising system for a hand-held camera, developed by cameraman Garrett Brown in 1973, offers movements of exceptional fluidity. Freed from the heavy classic machinery, the cameraman can move on any kind of terrain, the camera attached to the body by a harness and connected to a toggle; a set of counterweights compensates for possible bumps. Experimented with in the cinema in 1976 (2) and rewarded with an Oscar in 1978, Brown's invention interested Kubrick, who requested him for the shooting of his film.
A perfected version of the camera enables the cameraman to film hugging the walls or creeping close to the ground, in liaison with the director by radio and a video-monitoring system. Kubrick could take full advantage of the Hotel Overlook sets, of which the rooms, reconstructed in the studio, are adjoining, the camera going from one to the next, passing through corridors and taking stairs. Thus, Danny's haunting wanderings on his tricycle through the hotel are filmed at the child's height, from a wheelchair (in low mode). For the sequence where Wendy discovers Jack's madness and attempts to escape from him, Brown worked standing (in high mode), following the characters in the stairway, then in the wheelchair when Wendy drags Jack, stretched out on the ground. The walk and final chase scene in the snow-covered labyrinth, where the cameraman runs after the father and child in turn, would have been impossible without the Steadicam.
The camera prowls through the hotel and labyrinth like a hanging spirit watching over the characters or, in Kubrick's words, like a "magic carpet" (3). The camera's mobility, fluidity and spectacular rapidity give these scenes all their impact. This first important use of the Steadicam and the new aesthetic ensuing from it would make The Shining the film-reference of this filming technique and contribute to its success.
(1) Contraction of "steady camera".
(2) For a 2-minute sequence-length shot in Bound for Glory (Hal Ashby) then, more briefly, in Marathon Man (John Schlesinger) and Rocky (John G. Avildsen).
(3) Rodney Hill, "The Shining", in The Stanley Kubrick Archives, Alison Castle (ed.), (Köln, London, [etc.], Taschen, 2005), p. 452.