Glidecam Girl Endures Bumps and Bruises

This is Lisa, my fabulous grip girl for the week. She's helped shadow me with a 500 foot BNC cable tethered to my camera, wrapping and unwrapping the kinky coil like a mad clockmaker winding a thousand coo-coo's on the hour. It's been a grueling 6 day work schedule, up by dawn, 12-hour days and to bed at dusk.

I've been hired as a Glidecam operator with an extension arm, camera and support brace that weighs is excess of 18 pounds and rests uneasily around the waist, back and chest. It's far lighter than a Hollywood Steadycam but still a monster to tote around and impossible to rip off when I find a sliver of time for the little girl's room.

The pilot program I'm shooting is well-written, comical, educational and filled with a cast of professional character actors from New York City. The production crew are no different; smart, witty and ambitious. Besides Irish born funny man Jimbo; Joe, Walt, Don, and Henry are a Syracuse native lot that have helped me feel welcome on their turf.

It's been fun but I'm counting down the days as well as the number of black and blue marks I've earned on this assignment. I think of the bumps and bruises as a 'badge of honor' for a job well done.