# Is technology to de-shakey-cam a movie possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 27, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495 "2010-12-27T05:31:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/1 "2010-12-27T05:31:54Z")
Some of my favourite movies have been all but ruined by shakey-cam in the last couple of years - is it possible to invent some technology to do some process on a movie full of shaky-cam to steady up the picture so it doesn’t irritate the holy hell out of me? (Watching the dvd of “Hancock” is what prompted this thread.) ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/2 "2010-12-27T05:47:18Z")
[Steadicam.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steadicam) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/3 "2010-12-27T05:54:27Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > [Steadicam.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steadicam) The OP is looking for a post-production solution. The movie has already been made and he wants to get rid of the shakiness. ISTM, part of this will involve either cropping down the picture or having blank parts showing up around the edges as an artifact of getting rid of the shake. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/4 "2010-12-27T06:06:32Z")
Yes, but the problem is that it is a very time consuming, manual process. Someone has to identify features in the scene and place markers on them to shift the picture up and down, left and right, to lock the feature into place. The problem is that in most cases there is other movement in the scene of either the camera or the objects. It’s an art. Also, the only way to accomplish this involves cropping part of the picture off, because if you shift the picture up to counteract the camera having moved down in the frame, you’re going to have the bottom of the image move up in the frame. I assure you, a bouncing black line at the bottom is more annoying than any amount of camera shake. Look at [this demo](http://www.salientstills.com/demo/index.html) to get an idea what is involved. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/5 "2010-12-27T18:19:07Z")
The studio that released The Blair Witch Project had to do just that. Yes, what you saw was the non-shaky version. The actors that they had carrying the cameras like amateurs did that job way too well. It cost around five or six hundred thousand if I remember correctly. And somehow Paul Greengrass and Tony Scott still get work. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/6 "2010-12-27T18:25:01Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > The studio that released The Blair Witch Project had to do just that. Yes, what you saw was the non-shaky version. The actors that they had carrying the cameras like amateurs did that job way too well. It cost around five or six hundred thousand if I remember correctly. Are you sure about that? I thought the movie only cost something like $20,000 to make. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/7 "2010-12-27T18:25:49Z")
[A stabilized version of the famous Bigfoot film](http://www.bigfootencounters.com/files/mk_davis_pgf.gif). It shows well how it’s done. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/8 "2010-12-27T18:56:38Z")
Hmm, hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix, eh? Maybe a better solution would be directors just KNOCKING THAT SHIT OFF!!!1!111!! (I’m shouting so maybe Hollywood can hear me.) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/9 "2010-12-27T19:25:02Z")
> [@bup](#): > > [A stabilized version of the famous Bigfoot film](http://www.bigfootencounters.com/files/mk_davis_pgf.gif). It shows well how it’s done. Wow, that’s an impressive demonstration. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/10 "2010-12-27T19:26:53Z")
> [@bup](#): > > [A stabilized version of the famous Bigfoot film](http://www.bigfootencounters.com/files/mk_davis_pgf.gif). It shows well how it’s done. Completely OT: Is there ANYBODY who can look at the above and think it’s anything other than a person in a suit? ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/11 "2010-12-27T19:56:17Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Are you sure about that? I thought the movie only cost something like $20,000 to make. Yeah. It was cheap to make, but pricey to fix. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/12 "2010-12-27T20:24:06Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Yes, but the problem is that it is a very time consuming, manual process. Someone has to identify features in the scene and place markers on them to shift the picture up and down, left and right, to lock the feature into place. The problem is that in most cases there is other movement in the scene of either the camera or the objects. It’s an art. Also, the only way to accomplish this involves cropping part of the picture off, because if you shift the picture up to counteract the camera having moved down in the frame, you’re going to have the bottom of the image move up in the frame. I assure you, a bouncing black line at the bottom is more annoying than any amount of camera shake. > > Look at [this demo](http://www.salientstills.com/demo/index.html) to get an idea what is involved. It is not necessarily a manual process, though the manual process is superior to automated processes in most cases. For instance, if a scene is taking place outdoors, it’s relatively trivial to detect the horizon and certain background features that don’t change relative to it and stablize based on that. Unfortunately, these sorts of processes generally won’t work well in the type of situations posed in the OP because the cuts are generally very short so there often isn’t a whole lot of information for detecting the background and figuring out which parts of the foreground are relevant. And, of course, the cropping is the biggest problem with it. You potentially give up a lot of resolution by stablizing it, which is probably a lot more frustrating in the long run than the shakey camera. It did frustrate me for a while too, but once I realized that the whole point is that it’s supposed to be disorienting, as if you were really in the fight, then at least I understood why. Fortunately, it looks like that fad has started to fade away now, or at least not done as intensely anymore. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/13 "2010-12-27T23:37:42Z")
I do a ton of shooting, mostly music, and I’ll be happy to see the end of the trend. I just bought a cheap knock-off of a Steadicam (a [Manfrotto Modosteady](http://modo.manfrotto.com/)) and am learning how to use it to produce smooth, shake-free imagery. But even when I shoot hand-held, my impulse is to try to produce smooth, well-framed pictures. How do they get the shaky-cam? Pour a dozen double-espressos down the shooter’s throat? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/14 "2010-12-27T23:54:39Z")
I understand why they use shakey-cam (at least, I think I do - they think it gives it a _cinema vérité_ look, puts you right in the action, etc.), but I disagree with the use of 99% of it. Take the example I gave in the OP, _Hancock_ - the whole film seemed to be shot in shakey-cam, whether it was an action sequence or a romantic sequence or just an actor on screen looking pensive. I think shakey-cam really started to bug me when I realized that your human eyes and brain don’t see like that - you may be (and probably are) shaking a little as you look around your world, but your eyes and brain adjust for it, and the view you look at appears rock steady. That just makes it even more irritating to me, that directors were ruining perfectly good movies with an effect that isn’t even realistic. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/15 "2010-12-28T00:51:40Z")
I wish something could be done to automatically stabilize Youtube videos. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Amazing\_Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@The\_Amazing\_Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Amazing_Hanna)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/16 "2010-12-28T01:03:30Z")
Oh, you can easily stabilize shaky footage. It’s called “Motion Tracking”. Good news is, it no longer requires much manual work. It’s built into the popular Adobe After Effects software, and there are commercial add-ons available as well. Of course, if you have the option, why not shoot it smooth and then add controlled camera movements in post? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/17 "2010-12-28T01:30:28Z")
Actually, motion tracking isn’t that easy, it’s quite painstaking and problematic, as **Blaster Master** details. Plus, if it’s particularly extreme, anything you steady will inherently include the motion blur that was recorded in the original footage. I’m way over it. Bring back steady camera work and proper framing composition. Stop being pretentious cinematography dicks, Hollywood! ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/18 "2010-12-28T03:55:54Z")
There are also stabilized versions of the Zapruder film of JFK’s assassination. (Graphic, obviously.) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecZ4YOmPz2A](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecZ4YOmPz2A) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/19 "2010-12-28T07:50:21Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > \ > > I’m way over it. Bring back steady camera work and proper framing composition. Stop being pretentious cinematography dicks, Hollywood! Yeah! And no more lens flare (looking straight at you, J. J. Abrams). And could we cut the extreme close-ups down to, say, 50% of the movie? ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495/20 "2010-12-28T20:05:27Z")
Let’s also bring up the light levels a bit, so that one an see the details in a lighted room please. Not everyone in a room watching TV wants complete movie theater darkness levels. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-technology-to-de-shakey-cam-a-movie-possible/565495.md?page=2)