Sick to death of hand held cameras
Discussion
It's actually a rather old technique now. It was originally used by French documentary makers in the late 1950s and they referred to it as "camera veritée" (truthful camera). We associate jerky camera and hand held footage with news reporting and documentaries and therefore film makers sometimes use the technique to impart a sense of realism to their dramas. It can work but is is rather overdone in my opinion.
PurpleMoonlight said:
Am I alone?
God, no!f
king pet hate of mine! When used for effect to create sense of motion, that the viewer is part of the action, that's fine and can work really well. But seems to be used for trendy effect a lot where it's just not necessary. It's 'grunge' cinematography, in other words ste, explained away as creative or cutting edge.One (amongst thousands) of examples, is the film Children of Men. I quite like it as a film. The scenes running through the streets while all hell breaks lose, explosions, machine guns etc, the shaky camera works just fine. But another scene, when they are in the farm house, there's a scene where Clive Owen's character is eavesdropping on a conversation behind a wall, a slow, tense, quite long take, all shot hand held. All I can see is this slight movement on the edges of the frame as the cameraman tries to hold it, in vain, as still as possible.... drives me mad. It's so distracting to the telling of the story as I shout at the screen 'stick it on a f
king tripod!!! '.Another, there was recently a program on the BBC, IIRC about weather forecasting. A presenter and 'expert' sitting on a couch with city scene through the window behind having a discussion. The cameraman was walking backwards and forwards in an arc, throughout the show, so between talking to the expert, the presenter kept having to swivelling her head to keep tracking the camera. It was abysmally ridiculous and added nothing.
I much prefer films and TV where the actors and action tell the story, rather than having a cameraman with Parkinson's, as another distracting member of the cast, making me feel seasick!
It does work in some films though, where it's intended to portray a handy-cam, such as "Cloverfield" and "Blair Witch Project".
The zooming in and out also can work when it's not used to excess. Such as in "Battlestar Galactica" (the new one), they used that technique to good effect I thought, and they got the idea of doing that by watching WWII footage or aerial combat.
When it's used excessivly and add's absolutely nothing to the story or "experience" though, I agree it's very annoying.
The zooming in and out also can work when it's not used to excess. Such as in "Battlestar Galactica" (the new one), they used that technique to good effect I thought, and they got the idea of doing that by watching WWII footage or aerial combat.
When it's used excessivly and add's absolutely nothing to the story or "experience" though, I agree it's very annoying.
Agoogy said:
Dragon's Den...in, out, shake it all about, re-focus... I feel sick!...I'm out!
Cloverfield took it a bit far for me too....
Bourne films used it well.
but yes... very much a pet hate...
hadn't noticed it in Children of Men...hope I don't when I see it again!
Surely Cloverfield had to be handheld as the whole idea was that it was the footage being captured by the guy as he and his friends ran from the alien monnster and looked for their friends?Cloverfield took it a bit far for me too....
Bourne films used it well.
but yes... very much a pet hate...
hadn't noticed it in Children of Men...hope I don't when I see it again!
The Bourne Supremacy & Ultimatum are the very best in this style and are totally breathless movies for it, again because the whole films are chases, not just a single chase sequence.
Marvindodgers said:
Agoogy said:
Dragon's Den...in, out, shake it all about, re-focus... I feel sick!...I'm out!
Cloverfield took it a bit far for me too....
Bourne films used it well.
but yes... very much a pet hate...
hadn't noticed it in Children of Men...hope I don't when I see it again!
Surely Cloverfield had to be handheld as the whole idea was that it was the footage being captured by the guy as he and his friends ran from the alien monnster and looked for their friends?Cloverfield took it a bit far for me too....
Bourne films used it well.
but yes... very much a pet hate...
hadn't noticed it in Children of Men...hope I don't when I see it again!
The Bourne Supremacy & Ultimatum are the very best in this style and are totally breathless movies for it, again because the whole films are chases, not just a single chase sequence.
Framed with a red border, and a flashing light too, for 'record'.
Going off topic, but similar. Normal regular news interviews, that are 'set' or unnecessarily 'staged' in some way. EG, a boffin in a lab being interviewed about some sort of scientific testing or discovery, and they'll sit them on a stool in the foreground with their white coat on, but they'll turn the normal lab lights off, and will underlight a work surface in the background with a low level blue lamp, and illuminate the ceiling with a red lamp. WTF for? the lab doesn't look anything like that normally, it's just well lit with the usual flourescent tubes, and this is just a news interview, so why the moody poncey arty farty lighting? Or, even worse, they will point the camera at a mirror on the wall, and we see the interview being carried out in the reflection in the mirror. I wish these producers/directors would just fk off and die and just shoot the godammned interview, it's only the news!
Going off topic, but similar. Normal regular news interviews, that are 'set' or unnecessarily 'staged' in some way. EG, a boffin in a lab being interviewed about some sort of scientific testing or discovery, and they'll sit them on a stool in the foreground with their white coat on, but they'll turn the normal lab lights off, and will underlight a work surface in the background with a low level blue lamp, and illuminate the ceiling with a red lamp. WTF for? the lab doesn't look anything like that normally, it's just well lit with the usual flourescent tubes, and this is just a news interview, so why the moody poncey arty farty lighting? Or, even worse, they will point the camera at a mirror on the wall, and we see the interview being carried out in the reflection in the mirror. I wish these producers/directors would just f
k off and die and just shoot the godammned interview, it's only the news!Agoogy said:
Marvindodgers said:
Agoogy said:
Dragon's Den...in, out, shake it all about, re-focus... I feel sick!...I'm out!
Cloverfield took it a bit far for me too....
Bourne films used it well.
but yes... very much a pet hate...
hadn't noticed it in Children of Men...hope I don't when I see it again!
Surely Cloverfield had to be handheld as the whole idea was that it was the footage being captured by the guy as he and his friends ran from the alien monnster and looked for their friends?Cloverfield took it a bit far for me too....
Bourne films used it well.
but yes... very much a pet hate...
hadn't noticed it in Children of Men...hope I don't when I see it again!
The Bourne Supremacy & Ultimatum are the very best in this style and are totally breathless movies for it, again because the whole films are chases, not just a single chase sequence.
I also felt a bit nauseous watching Apollo 18.
Balmoral Green said:
Framed with a red border, and a flashing light too, for 'record'.
Good, but you forgot the soubriquets of 'Dogcam', 'Neighbourcam', ' Fridgecam' etc!Eric Mc said:
Looking off camera at a non existant interviewer is another recent (and annoying) technique that has crept in recently.
There may well be an interviewer there. Few normal people can talk to a lens and sound/look convincing; it's much easier to talk to a human and let the cameraman film it.But it does bring me on to other teeth-gnashers:
Silly black and white cutaways from a side angle.
Jump cuts or worse, 5 frames of static that go 'zzzt'.
The astonishing ability of many cameramen to get the background perfectly sharp but the interviewee out of focus. This happens consistently on Masterchef in the waiting-room area, which is made even more incomprehensible as the rest of the programme is filmed to high standards. Well except for 'Forkcam' of course, which is always zoomed in too much to track the action from plate to gob. Widen the shot you muppet!
Gassing Station | TV, Film, Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff