Randall Robinson (born August 19, 1946, in Los Angeles, California) is an American cinematographer. He is a former president of the

Society of Operating Cameramen The Society Of Camera Operators was founded in 1979 under the name Society of Operating Cameramen. Its primary mission is to advance the art, craft and creative contribution of the camera operator in the motion picture and television industries. The ...

and the founding publisher and editor of the

Operating Cameraman Magazine The Society Of Camera Operators was founded in 1979 under the name Society of Operating Cameramen. Its primary mission is to advance the art, craft and creative contribution of the camera operator in the motion picture and television industries. The ...

. As a freelance cameraman he enjoyed a long successful career working for the major motion picture studios in Hollywood on feature films, television and commercials. Robinson was the first field-test camera assistant for inventor

Garrett Brown Garrett Brown (born April 6, 1942) is an American inventor, best known as the creator of the Steadicam. Brown's invention allows camera operators to film while walking without the normal shaking and jostles of a handheld camera. The Steadicam wa ...

and the Cinema Products design team developing the

Steadicam Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation. The Steadicam brand was acquired by Tiffen in 2000. It was designed to isolate the ...

on the feature film '' Bound for Glory'' (1976). His input lead the team to develop many improvements, such as balance plate and follow focus. While in preparation for the picture, Robinson worked with cinematographer

Haskell Wexler Haskell Wexler (February 6, 1922 – December 27, 2015) was an American filmmaker, cinematographer, and documentarian. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography twice, in 1966 for ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' and 1976 for ''Bou ...

on the design for the first BNC hard front lens mount and prototype Blimped zoom lens housing for the Arriflex 35BL camera. In July 1982 he was assigned as first assistant cameraman to the ill-fated helicopter filming '' Twilight Zone: The Movie''. Survivor in the fatal crash, became a key witness in the trial of director

John Landis John David Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for directing comedy films such as ''The Kentucky Fried Movie'' (1977), ''Animal House, National Lampoon's Animal House'' (1978), The Blues Brothers (f ...

. Randall was influential addressing safety issues on film sets, leading the Society of Operating Cameramen to issue 13 guidelines, which then presented to the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of Film director, film and Television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dir ...

were adopted and are now by-laws throughout the industry.

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Twilight Zone TragedyHelicopter accident report
American cinematographers 1946 births Film people from Los Angeles Living people {{US-cinematographer-stub