The Amazing Work Of Cameraman Eric Catelan

Renowned Cameraman Eric Catelan

I was on a film set recently and overheard someone say, “He’s just a cameraman.” Just a cameraman? Obviously, the person didn’t know anything about the process of filmmaking to have made such a thoughtless statement. He didn’t know the difference between a person who is aiming a cheap point and shoot camera at the zoo and a gifted artist who has spent years or decades gaining knowledge and experience operating hi-tech and extremely expensive camera equipment and capturing films and movie stars that are household names.

 

Eric Catelan is a prime example of the latter. This highly talented Frenchman has been a Steadicam operator since 1996 and is a Steadicam Master Instructor with Garrett Brown, who invented the Steadicam. Catelan has worked with countless famous directors such as Ron Howard, Norman Jewison, Luc Besson, Darren Aronofski and Romain Gavras, among many others. He has also worked alongside some of the big-name Directors of Photography like Harris Savides, Thiery Arbogast, Tetsuo Nagata, Bruno Delbonnel, Michael Seresin and Salvatore Totino, to name a few.

 

Eric Catelan has worked on too many movies, music videos, and commercials to name them all here but we can mention some of them. We’ve all heard of The Da Vinci Code, right? Well, Catelan was the Steadicam operator in France, where the movie was filmed. He also controlled the Steadicam on The Man in My Life, Satan, Mesrine: Killer Instinct, Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1, Secret Agents, 99 Francs, Sky Fighters, Renegade, The Statement, Loser Takes All, Leave Your Hands on My Hips, 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman, Once Upon an Angel, Samurai, Irreversible, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, The Nest, Winged Migration, My Wife is an Actress, Kiss of the Dragon, CQ, Yamakasi, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Nothing Else, Vertiges, Bandits, Adrift, The World is Yours, among many others. After relocating to the U.S. several years ago, he has continued to work with some of the biggest production companies in the industry, working on titles such as Star Trek: Picard, Perry Mason, and Beyonce’s Black is King as well as on commercials for industry giants like Budweiser and Pinterest.  He also worked on several films due for release this year, including The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and Keyhole Garden, which are both currently in post-production. Besides the Steadicam, Eric also operates every other kind of professional-grade camera that is used in the motion picture industry. 

 

As you can see by the very long list of credits, (and we only touched upon a few) Eric Catelan’s expertise and talent as a Steadicam operator is in high demand. His thorough knowledge of his craft have taken him around the world. He has met and worked with some of the most amazingly creative people on the planet. With the entertainment industry now going full throttle again, Eric Catelan is juggling back-to-pack projects, with no end in sight.