Jean-Marie Lavallee, a Frenchman who won two awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for creating the Louma Crane, the first remote-controlled camera system used in the film industry, has died. He was 76 years old.
Lavallee died on July 15 in Paris, his company Loumasystems said.
Born on March 9, 1946, in Bourg-Saint-Léonard, Normandy, France, Lavalleau graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Louis Lumière Film School in Paris in 1968 before entering the National Service.
He met Alain Masseron in the French Navy’s film department and they created never-before-seen panoramic shots inside a submarine while filming, placing a camera on the end of a wooden pole and walking around the cramped ship.
The inventors took their equipment to the Paris camera rental house SamAlga Cinema, where chief engineer Albert Vigier introduced them to David Samuelson of Samuelson Film Service in London. With two teams of engineers and the idea of pairing the device with a video assistance system that Joe Danton was working on at Samuelson, the first remote film head was born.
The Louma Crane has been used in movies, including Steven Spielberg. 1941 (1979), in which Lavallee served as technical advisor to cinematographer William A. with Fracker.
The name of his invention was derived from the surnames Lavalle and Masseron. He and David Samuelson received an Oscar for Science and Engineering in 1981 and then an Oscar in 2005.
Lavallee was also responsible for bringing the Spydercam system to France when he designed the stadium’s ceiling lights and the tires to which the cables attach.
Survivors include her sisters, nieces and nephews.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
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