Learn Steadi Atlanta
Why Learn With Dave?
"I have been lucky enough to have had teachers and mentors who helped me get from one stage to the next. Sometimes I was aware of this but more often I was clueless until much later. As a result I love the idea of giving back, and working with up and coming operators is my favorite way to do that."
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Dave Chameides is a working A Camera/Steadicam operator with 35 plus years experience. He has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, an SOC Operator of the Year Award for his work on Ozark, and was nominated for the same award for his work on St. Vincent. He has well over 100 credits and is the first to admit that all of this is essentially meaningless in the long run. Dave is a storyteller at heart, always has been, and is a firm believer that the first step to becoming a great operator is to learn the techniques of operating and that the next step, the most important step, is to completely forget those techniques and return to storytelling.
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Dave started out as a Steadicam operator in the early 90s and got his big break on the hit tv show ER in 1996 at the age of 25. He operated on the 4th season live episode and directed an episode in season 5. From there he went on to The West Wing, known for its walk and talks and long dialogue sequences. He continues to work in both film and television to this day.
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In 2022 he created The OP, a website and podcast devoted to giving back to the operator community and has started teaching as he feels a need to pay it forward. To learn more about his personal philosophy, check out The Musings, a blog he writes for The Op about operating and the business as a whole. He has taught his operating seminar The Art of Visual Storytelling in film schools all over the world and teaches Steadicam classes with the Steadicam Operators Association and Tiffen as well as his own private lessons.