It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Take care of your body.

This was sent in as an answer to the question about stretching and taking care of yourself but we felt it was so important it should be its own post.

I have been an operator for over 30 years, and was a steadicam operator for 24 of those years.  I have had my fair share of hard days and shoots, but no more or less than anyone else.

I had my first real injury in 2011 – a herniated disc in L4/L5 – a very common steadicam injury I later discovered.  The back pain and related sciatica affected my daily life, but I was on a couple of features back-to-back and soldiered on without telling anyone.  The injury came about gradually, and each day/week/month became progressively more uncomfortable.  I eventually had some downtime, and went to see a specialist.  I was given an epidural shot, and within 24 hours I was miraculously back to feeling 100%.  Pain free, I went back to work.

Four years later in 2015 I had a repeat of the same injury.  I was out of town on a job when the symptoms started to gradually appear.  It was worse this time - getting out of bed was a nightmare, as was getting into and out of my car, tying my shoes, or riding the dolly.  Operating my steadicam was somehow manageable, so I continued on, despite the pain – not telling anyone.

During this time, I received a phone call to do steadicam on a 3D movie with a DP I’d worked with for years.  The camera package was heavier than anything I’d heard anyone ever lifting, but I wanted to do it.  I told the DP on the show I was doing that I’d need to leave early and that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  My next call was to my doctor.  I had a narrow window between leaving my current job and starting camera testing for the next one, and I needed to schedule an epidural.  My doctor agreed to schedule an MRI without examining me and the downtime was tight, but doable to get an epidural and be up and running at 100% before the next job started.

Except that the epidural didn’t work.  I had to call the DP I’d worked with for 10 years and tell him I was out, and in doing so, lost my place, and never worked with him again.  The second epidural a month later also didn’t work, and I ended up being out of commission and in pain for 8 months – turning down job after job.  During that time, I tried everything in both eastern and western medicine, but nothing worked.  I eventually went to another doctor who gave me a third epidural that was successful and I was back at work within a week. 

Eight years later (and two months ago), I started to feel a familiar tell-tale tinge of pain in my leg.  I left for a vacation in Europe, and by the time we were ready to come home, I couldn’t sit down.  My sciatic pain was off the chart, and it was obviously a repeat of my 2011 and 2015 injury.  This time, I couldn’t sit, and lying down was extremely painful – walking and standing weren’t horrible, but you can’t stand 24 hours a day.  I wasn’t able to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time, and my quality of life was very low.  It was impossible to get comfortable. 

As I type this, I’ve had one epidural shot that took the edge off, and am scheduled to have another in 10 days that I’m confident will do the job.  After the first shot, I am finally able to go about my day like a (mostly) normal person, but I’m not where I want to be quite yet.  The only fortunate thing for me is that the timing of this episode occurred during the WGA/SAG strike, so I didn’t miss any work, and can take the time I need to properly heal.

The point of this is writeup is this: know that your career is a marathon, not a sprint.  You will likely be doing this for a long time – prepare accordingly.  You will have many easy days on set, and you will have your share of physically challenging days, and you don’t always know when those will occur.  It is important to train your body so that it is ready for not only the hard days, but the cumulative effect that years of being in uncomfortable positions as an operator can and will have on your body.

Most people in the camera department are guarded about their health, especially when having a hard time.  We are taught to keep things to ourselves – worrying both that the DP will not understand and give the job to someone younger and stronger, and/or that showing up at less than 100% might mean that we encounter a shot that we aren’t able to physically do.  The best way to avoid either scenario, is to start early and develop good habits that will aid you as you move through your career.