ABSTRACT
Camera operator. It just doesn’t sound as slick, or as prestigious, as the term ‘cameraman’, does it? The term ‘cameraman’ conjures up the idea of the rather macho guy with a lightweight video camera slung over his shoulder as he runs, ducks and dives whilst shooting news footage of urban warfare in the Middle East. Or maybe it brings to mind the Hollywood movie cameraman sitting in regal pose behind a monster piece of equipment which might be on a huge crane, on a fast-moving truck following a cowboy on a horse, or on a vast sound stage, shooting a massive Cecil B. de Mille crowd scene or a complex Busby Berkeley dance sequence. That’s a cameraman. A camera operator? Well, that sounds like some sort of technician; just one of a crew.
