Shaky camera

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Shaky camera is a cinematographic technique where stable image techniques are dispensed with on purpose. It gives a film sequence an ad-hoc, news, or documentary feel. It suggests unrehearsed filming of reality in a situation where stable image techniques cannot be applied (this situation may or may not really apply). Thus a sense of dynamics is provided at the cost of the traditional objective of showing as "well" as possible the people/objects/action being filmed.

[edit] History

Traditionally, still and motion photography have relied on firm, stable mountings for a jitter-free image. Great effort is spent to obtain a perfectly stable image.^[1] Many techniques are used for jitter-free images:

• heavy tripods
• sandbags on tripod cross beams for additional mass and stability
• dolly tracks / rails (motion picture)
• cranes (motion picture)
• gyroscopes
• cable release (still photography)
• optical image stabilization technology
• electronic image stabilization technology
• steadicam mechanism (motion picture)

Occasionally, movement of the camera can create interesting effects. A technique taught in most basic still photography classes involves following a moving object with the lens. The resulting effect is that the object is clear, but the background is smeared across the image. The impression left to the viewer is that of action and movement.

Likewise, in motion pictures, camera movement can be used effectively by cinematographers. Panning can suggest a wide open expanse; zooming can give detail in the midst of context, shaky camera implies live, unrehearsed action.

[edit] Criticism

Sign at an AMC theater warning customers about side effects relating to motion sickness due to the shaky camera technique being used in Cloverfield.

Several movies have been criticized for excessive shaky camera technique. The second and third installments of the Bourne action movie franchise directed by Paul Greengrass have been categorized as such.^[2] Indeed, many people report that shaky camera in the Bourne series has reached beyond distraction, to the point of inducing nausea.^[3] The same applies for the films Cloverfield (2008)^[4] and Friday Night Lights (2004)^[5].

Perhaps the most famous film to use the shaky camera technique is The Blair Witch Project (1999). At times, the camera angles would get so bad that it would induce vomiting.^{[citation needed]} The technique was intended to make the film look like amateur camera footage. In many theaters, this was so severe that staff were ordered to hand out motion sickness bags to those who wished to see the movie.^{[citation needed]}

Danish director Lars von Trier is also known to often use shaky camera in his movies. The Dogme 95 movement he co-created in 1995 was partly based on such technique.

[edit] Notable Films

• Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
• The Blair Witch Project (1999)
• Cloverfield (2008)
• REC (2008)

[edit] See also

• Tilt
• Pan and scan

[edit] References