# Hated camera techniques in movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2015, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-camera-techniques-in-movies/714413 "2015-03-07T04:57:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-camera-techniques-in-movies/714413/41 "2015-03-09T01:35:29Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > _Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom_ contains an excellent example of this kind of subtlety. There’s a shot of Indiana and his pals emerging from a mine tunnel and finding themselves on a sheer cliff face. It’s just a set combined with a matte painting of the cliff, but Spielberg added a slight rocking motion to give the impression that the shot was filmed from a helicopter. Another great example. Spielberg usually got it right, my example from _Last Crusade_ notwithstanding. I believe the over-done shaky-cam is a poorly realized attempt to introduce some imperfection and action to a scene to suggest a real event happening in real time, one that the cameraman is having difficulty capturing due to the excitement of it all. The rebooted Battlestar Galactica did this lots with the FX scenes, but got carried away with it and had shaky-cam footage employed in more sedate scenes that would have been easy to photograph. It’s a fine line for sure. Philip Kaufman’s 1983 film _The Right Stuff_ has some great shots, including miniature airplanes filmed through a canopy of a real airplane on the miniature stage, complete with a deliberately captured reflection of the pilot’s helmet in the chase plane. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the film, but check it out in the Chuck Yeager sound barrier segment when he’s dropped from the B-29. It’s so true that the fight scenes are overly edited in many modern films and leave me confused as to the geometry of the scene and what is really happening. As I said before, I quickly get bored with all the action and wander away. You captured it perfectly with your comment “Is Batman in this scene?”. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-camera-techniques-in-movies/714413/42 "2015-03-09T01:36:28Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > Cool. In film school, I attended a class on “filming dance,” where the two main examples were Fred Astaire - the camera keeps its distance, simply records the dancer, with his or her full body shown - and [this scene from _All That Jazz_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UN68ujZdTE), with pretty quick editing, constantly shifting camera angles, etc. Two very different styles. Me, I like 'em both. Even though there are a lot of cuts in that scene, they aren’t the rapid, visually disruptive cuts that you see in recent dance movies. The cuts move smoothly from one (incredibly perfect sexy) body to the next, with each dancer getting to complete his/her combination. The opening scene of that movie with everyone auditioning is one of the greatest movie scenes of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-camera-techniques-in-movies/714413/43 "2015-03-09T01:58:34Z")
> [@Marlonius](#): > > I believe the over-done shaky-cam is a poorly realized attempt to introduce some imperfection and action to a scene to suggest a real event happening in real time, one that the cameraman is having difficulty capturing due to the excitement of it all. And _good_ shaky-cam scenes are _expertly realized_ attempts to “introduce some imperfection and action to a scene to suggest a real event happening in real time.” Quite often, it isn’t as much about giving the impression of the camera operator “having difficulty capturing [the scene] due to the excitement of it all,” but about trying to show the scene as the character experiences it. Jason Bourne is confused, dizzy, swinging wildly, fighting for his life? Fine - then the _camera_ should act all confused and dizzy, swinging wildly as if fighting for its life. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Even though there are a lot of cuts in that scene, they aren’t the rapid, visually disruptive cuts that you see in recent dance movies. The cuts move smoothly from one (incredibly perfect sexy) body to the next, with each dancer getting to complete his/her combination. OK. I don’t really follow newer dance movies, but I think I once saw _Ballroom Dancing_ with my mom and vaguely remember hating it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-camera-techniques-in-movies/714413/44 "2015-03-09T02:01:01Z")
> [@Chicago\_Faucet](#): > > I really hate it when a movie switches scenes from a darker scene to a very bright scene instantly. It tears me out of the movie because I physically wince. What’s really annoying is that most of the time it isn’t even necessary to the movie. It shows a juvenility in editing. Can you think of any examples? ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-camera-techniques-in-movies/714413/45 "2015-03-09T03:36:12Z")
Shaky-cam. Why bother filming something in focus when you can have shaky brief duration camera shots and rapid jump cuts to make it impossible to know what’s going on? If I know a film was done with that technique I won’t even bother watching it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Evil\_Prince\_Zorte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@The\_Evil\_Prince\_Zorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Evil_Prince_Zorte)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-camera-techniques-in-movies/714413/46 "2015-03-09T06:21:32Z")
It’s not exactly a camera thing, but I tend to be annoyed by characters that have the superpower of editing. Often vampires have this, Angel could run fast, leap tall buildings and edit himself out of scenes. Another character would be talking to him, turn away to look at something in closeup, then when they turn back 2 seconds later he is gone. No door slam or curtain flapping in the wind, just silently apparated out of there. It is especially irritating when the character doing it isn’t even supposed to have superpowers. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-camera-techniques-in-movies/714413/47 "2015-03-11T20:12:17Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > The thread about shaky-cam reminded of another technique that needs to die. You get a scene where two people are talking (usually standing) and the camera goes around and around in circles around them (and around, and around, and around. . . . repeat about 50 times). > > That is one of the most utterly pointless things ever devised. > > Those directors are incredibly lucky that stupidity is not a crime. The first time I remember noticing this was in 1990’s **Pacific Heights** , which is a great movie, but has several of those “spin around the actors” shots. I reckon the director was going for a “everything’s spinning out of the character’s control” sort of feeling, but the number of those shots was just distracting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-camera-techniques-in-movies/714413.md?page=2)