What's up with this free hand camera shake/movement on most of TV Shows
- Thread starter Deer Film
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Bern Caughey
Veteran
Style is cyclical, & in the photography world there's "nothing new under the Sun". Instead of innovating we iterate.
Handheld goes back much further than NYPD Blue. Notably the French New Wave embraced it, in part due to finances, but it's roots are older.
Handheld goes back much further than NYPD Blue. Notably the French New Wave embraced it, in part due to finances, but it's roots are older.
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Bern Caughey
Veteran
jghenderson
Well-known member
As others have mentioned, it serves two purpose:
1) It's faster to get coverage. You don't have to worry so much about framing, no tripod moving around, etc. That being said, should ease and speed really be the determining factor for the aesthetic of a project?
2) It tries to insert the realism that we associate with documentary footage. I think it can be effective, but I also realize that at it's core this is a gimmick. People do not actually see life in such a shaky way, it is instead a psychological holdover from watching documentary footage. I think it's safe to say that if all documentary footage was shot on steadycams, this shaky footage would not be a popular choice. I guess what i'm trying to get at, is that shaky cam is used mostly because of what it reminds us of, not because of any inherent aesthetic qualities it contains.
1) It's faster to get coverage. You don't have to worry so much about framing, no tripod moving around, etc. That being said, should ease and speed really be the determining factor for the aesthetic of a project?
2) It tries to insert the realism that we associate with documentary footage. I think it can be effective, but I also realize that at it's core this is a gimmick. People do not actually see life in such a shaky way, it is instead a psychological holdover from watching documentary footage. I think it's safe to say that if all documentary footage was shot on steadycams, this shaky footage would not be a popular choice. I guess what i'm trying to get at, is that shaky cam is used mostly because of what it reminds us of, not because of any inherent aesthetic qualities it contains.
I think the one important issue that hasn't been discussed enough in this thread is that the movies and tv shows that are using shaky cam generally stink. I have seen many tv shows where the camera shakes in an attempt to tension or excitement to the scene. Usually it doesn't work because the story isn't good and no amount of camera work is going to fix it.
I started studying film last year. Since then I've started noticing a lot things on screen that I didn't previously pay attention to. Examples are lighting, focus, focus shifting, camera movement. However when I watch a great movie I usually don't think about any of those things. A few months ago I watched Goodfellas on TV. This is a highly stylized movie full crazy camera work and crazier edits. However I quickly forgot about that stuff and was sucked into the story. A great movie will make you forget about shaky cameras even if you don't like them.
After all that I am going to state a strange phenomenon that I call "The Never Ending Dolly". On many shows especially on USA the camera will be moving in half circle when tow characters are standing and talking to each other. Often they will cut between two moving cameras. I don't get this. Nothing is revealed nothing is concealed and the background doesn't change because the actor generally stays in the same part of the frame.
I started studying film last year. Since then I've started noticing a lot things on screen that I didn't previously pay attention to. Examples are lighting, focus, focus shifting, camera movement. However when I watch a great movie I usually don't think about any of those things. A few months ago I watched Goodfellas on TV. This is a highly stylized movie full crazy camera work and crazier edits. However I quickly forgot about that stuff and was sucked into the story. A great movie will make you forget about shaky cameras even if you don't like them.
After all that I am going to state a strange phenomenon that I call "The Never Ending Dolly". On many shows especially on USA the camera will be moving in half circle when tow characters are standing and talking to each other. Often they will cut between two moving cameras. I don't get this. Nothing is revealed nothing is concealed and the background doesn't change because the actor generally stays in the same part of the frame.
Inprogress
Well-known member
I think deliberate handheld camera shake is a fad like snap zooms. In Unstoppable I counted 275 snap-zooms and many was at times I couldn't figure why it was there, and that doesn't include the 10 minutes watching before it became annoying and I wanted to count it, nor the couple I missed.
It has a legitimate place, deliberate hand held (and snap zooms) but like so many things, it becomes overused since a lot of shows and movies follow some successful recipe - hence we seeing all the copied movies and shows lately. By copied I mean following a successful movie that "burst onto the scene". It is new and so the recipe of cinematography and story telling is merely copied.
It will die down for the next thing.
P.S. Reminds me of a view videos I've seen on Vimeo lately where after watching it, I noticed no sliders where used. All panning and tilting on sticks. So refreshing after seeing so many videos throwing in a slide almost as if saying "yeah, we can do this too".
This is my view at least from South Africa.
It has a legitimate place, deliberate hand held (and snap zooms) but like so many things, it becomes overused since a lot of shows and movies follow some successful recipe - hence we seeing all the copied movies and shows lately. By copied I mean following a successful movie that "burst onto the scene". It is new and so the recipe of cinematography and story telling is merely copied.
It will die down for the next thing.
P.S. Reminds me of a view videos I've seen on Vimeo lately where after watching it, I noticed no sliders where used. All panning and tilting on sticks. So refreshing after seeing so many videos throwing in a slide almost as if saying "yeah, we can do this too".
This is my view at least from South Africa.