SOCIAL CLIMES : Paparazzi Go Video : With a Little High-Tech Help, Celebrity Stalking Becomes a More Moving Experience

The world can’t seem to get enough celebrity dirt and gossip, and no one knows that better than the paparazzi.

These photographers who hunt the famous and infamous provide the pictures that feed the insatiable appetites of American tabloids and European magazines. They shoot the stars arriving at glamorous premieres, or dog their subjects relentlessly when they refuse to give in to the flashbulbs.

But it may not be long before more of their work starts appearing in another medium--video. A few veteran paparazzi have begun toting small, lightweight super-8 or hi-8 video cameras, capturing in motion, in very high, near-broadcast quality, what they’re also getting in still photographs. They’re selling footage--or hoping to sell it--to news stations, infotainment shows or those sensational half-hour syndicated shows known as “tabloid TV.”

Philip Ramey, something of a legend for his habit of hanging out of helicopters shooting aerials of things like high-security celeb weddings, says he’s been using video for three years. Photographing stars has been his mainstay since 1978, and like a few of his workaholic peers he’s made quite a comfortable living at it.

How comfortable? A few select paparazzi rake in six- to seven-figure incomes, drive luxury cars and live in sizable homes. That’s how comfortable.

However lucrative shooting stills has become, Ramey isn’t entirely optimistic about the future of celebrity video footage, although he claims he’s sold tape of Frank Sinatra visiting an ailing Sammy Davis Jr., aerial shots of Michael Jackson’s back-yard amusement park and other footage to various TV shows.

While he sometimes hires a cameraman (others occasionally get friends or assistants to help), Ramey is often left alone to juggle a still and a video camera. And since the market is wider and more lucrative for still photographs than for video, stills almost always take precedence.

“It’s hard to do two things at once,” says Ramey, who earlier that day had bashed his face against the side of a helicopter during a bumpy takeoff. The right side has swollen to twice its normal size but with some pain he manages to wolf down dinner: a plate of feta cheese, olives, pickles and pita bread at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Hollywood. “Doing one of them is difficult,” he says, sliding food to the uninjured side of his mouth, “but doing two is impossible.”

Photographer Vinnie Zuffante started shooting video about three years ago. “When I’m taking photographs, the people are just standing there,” he says. “When they walk away is when they start doing funny things, but sometimes they’re too far away for me to shoot stills. If I’m going to waste my time standing there, I might as well shoot them (on video) as they’re walking away.”

The New York-based Zuffante, who says he’s shot video of Marlon Brando, Madonna and backstage scenes at the Academy Awards, adds that he’s sold some footage to local news shows and syndicated tabloid shows.

Celebrity photography has become an increasingly crowded field. According to one veteran L. A. photographer, 10 years ago 20 paparazzi might show up at a big film premiere; today there are 100 or so jostling for the same photos of the same stars. The pros complain that people with no more credentials than a couple of cameras strapped around their necks are taking up valuable space at mobbed celebrity scenes. With the explosion of cable, more television crews are showing up, too.

And, says an annoyed Zuffante: “A lot of publicists are treating still photographers worse. They care about video. With video you don’t need to stop the celebrities (and ask them to pose for pictures.) Publicists are scared to ask their own clients to stop and look at the camera.

“I know the (television) cameramen,” he adds, “and they all laugh when they see me pull out my camcorder. They carry around these big things. But they know the footage is going to be the same as what they’ve got. . . . I shoot for the fun of it. But I know one day there will be an outlet for this.”

Technology is definitely on the side of video. In recent years videocams have been scaled down to a fraction of the size and weight of their predecessors. The resolution is far better, too. Hi-8 cameras were used extensively during the Persian Gulf War by news crews because of the superior quality of the recording. And when a photographer is trying to keep a low profile, the small video cameras make him look like an amateur--or at least appear less conspicuous.

It’s even possible to produce a still from tape, although not all photographers are pleased with the quality.

But the use of video is so new and the market so untapped that tapes often go unsold. “The Sharon Gless wedding?” says Ramey. “You couldn’t give that footage away.”

While some claim to have sold some video to shows, confirmations are next to impossible to find. Producers say they have never seen tape from paparazzi, have seen it but never bought any, or say they may have bought video footage through a photo agency, but can’t precisely recall what they bought or from whom. Almost all, however, have bought still photographs.

The infotainment and tabloid shows are a fairly recent television phenomenon. Although these syndicated, magazine-format programs have been criticized for everything from sleazy exploitative reporting styles to lighter-than-air celebrity puff pieces, they’ve found an audience. Shows like “A Current Affair,” “Hard Copy,” “Inside Edition,” and even “Entertainment Tonight” and “Personalities” often mirror the tattletale stories found in the tabloid papers.

Still, producers aren’t banging on photographers’ doors demanding to see their videos.

“I think the fundamental difference between stills and video is that video has to tell a story,” says Anthea Disney, executive producer of “A Current Affair.” “Paparazzi grab shots of people. To make a story on television, it has to be more than that.”

Then there’s another aspect. Footage of a celebrity leaving a restaurant with a woman who is not his wife could be a hot scoop, but a television show may not want to build an entire segment around that indiscretion.

Plus, Disney adds, “you have to check everything to make sure it’s what it appears to be. We would certainly consider looking at footage from photographers, but it would depend on what they’ve got, whether it’s airable, and what the legal ramifications are.”

Peter Brandt is convinced there is a market for video of celebrities’ comings and goings. The celebrity photographer, who’s been at this for 16 years and regularly shoots for Star magazine and other tabs here and abroad, says that what his readers crave in print, they’ll also crave in video.

“People just want to know,” he says. “There’s a segment of people who want to know about their stars. They want to know if they’re cheating on their wives, or who’s dating whom. Some of the celebrities think that I hurt them, but I feel that they’ve signed an unwritten contract with the public. The public pays their salaries, and they want to know, and I’m just an instrument.”

Brandt started shooting with a Sony Handycam a few months ago, but says he hasn’t sold anything yet and hasn’t fully explored how to market video footage. Stills are his priority, and he can’t sell video until the publication that assigned the photos has run them.

He thinks the TV audience would be perfectly happy seeing random footage of stars in action, without being wrapped around a fleshed-out story. “If I was a producer I’d show all this stuff . . .,” he says. “People have the right to see everything and make their own decisions as to how it affects them.”

While TV show producers put the onus on photographers to come up with adequate footage, some photographers say TV hasn’t even begun to explore the possibilities of what they could bring to the video medium.

“If there was a TV show that decided to play ball and shoot the way the tabloid papers do,” says Ramey, “then you should see the demand go right through the roof. But I think shows like ‘Hard Copy’ haven’t even come close.

“I think you can do the pop celebrity puff and the weird fashions and you can go for the jugular. And I think when a show emulates that, then the market will go out of sight. And then you’ll see something you’ve never seen on TV.”