Why does shaky cam exist?

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biozeminadae1

biozeminadae1

A life, a journey's end in one
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Oct 21, 2019
Perhaps you have noticed it, it's not exactly subtle. You're watching a movie or a video game cut-scene and instead of relaxing your eyes on what's happening, you become distracted when you see that the camera is shaking. For no reason. There no earthquake happening, there is no catastrophe happening that might warrant such an intrusive element of the viewing experience. You have two characters, sitting, talking to each other, maybe they're standing, or maybe they're just taking a stroll, and the camera is shaking.

Kratos and his son enter or exit their home, the camera shakes. What's there to shake about?! Furthermore, why are so many movies and games practicing this same style of filming, in which the camera just follows people around (follow shots), frequently focusing on close-ups and the widest angle ever employed is just a medium shot? Many movies now are just long takes, eliminating standard long shots and establishing shots. If there is something that reminisces like an establishing shot, it's usually filmed over the shoulder and is still fucking shaking.

My eyes do not shake when I see things, I don't want to be reminded of the camera when watching an event of superseding pictures. Pisses me off. Why does this happen? Why does this exist?
 
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It adds verisimilitude in found footage and other "this totally happened, bro" type movies. Then they realized that it's a great way to cover for bad fight/action staging and shitty special effects and it just became a general trope. It's like how they'll digitally add in fake lens flares.
 
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Shaky cam is a good way to hide shitty camera work. The motion makes edits seem less noticeable, it makes the shot appear to have more action, and it obscures detail. Originally it was just a byproduct of just moving with the camera but now it is the lazy-man's jump cut. Total shaky cam death.
 
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I forgot what movie it was, but basically a documentarian decided to make a movie but shoot it like a documentary and won a bunch of awards for it because it made his movie feel more realistic. Then other filmmakers noticed how effective it was and just kept using it, thus beginning the shaky cam trend.
 
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MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:
I forgot what movie it was, but basically a documentarian decided to make a movie but shoot it like a documentary and won a bunch of awards for it because it made his movie feel more realistic. Then other filmmakers noticed how effective it was and just kept using it, thus beginning the shaky cam trend.
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You might know this but George Lucas originally wanted to make documentaries, but his interests changed. Despite that he loved that style of filming. When he eventually got the funds to make the first Star Wars, he filmed it similarly to documentaries of the time. The camera never shakes in his movies that is noticeable.
 
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biozeminadae1 said:
You might know this but George Lucas originally wanted to make documentaries, but his interests changed. Despite that he loved that style of filming. When he eventually got the funds to make the first Star Wars, he filmed it similarly to documentaries of the time. The camera never shakes in his movies that is noticeable.
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It's not George Lucas who popularized it, if it were him I would've just remembered his name instantly. The guy I'm talking about is pretty obscure.
 
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MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:
It's not George Lucas who popularized it, if it were him I would've just remembered his name instantly. The guy I'm talking about is pretty obscure.
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I know you didn't say that, I'm just mentioning George Lucas as a guy who filmed a space opera (almost) as a documentary. Documentaries shouldn't have shaky cams, either is what I was trying to say.
 
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biozeminadae1 said:
I know you didn't say that, I'm just mentioning George Lucas as a guy who filmed a space opera (almost) as a documentary. Documentaries shouldn't have shaky cams, either is what I was trying to say.
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Oh I see what you mean.

Yeah, most documentaries are shot really, really well these days, especially that BBC Earth series with the elderly man narrator.
 
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modern horrors said:
I think Bourne movies popularized shaky cam. Gotta copy what's popular. There's that gif of two guys wrestling on the ground, meanwhile guy with a camera spazzes all around them like a retard.
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This one?
1710532185564.png
 
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Nobody knows how to act anymore so they just shake the camera around to hide the fact that the punches and kicks are way off in a fight. In video games it's a sad fact that they emulate Hollywood a lot still which is really stupid because you shouldn't have any terrible fight scenes to hide. Same thing with rapid cuts like that scene in Taken whatever the hell one it is where Liam pretends to jump a fence.
 
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MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:
I forgot what movie it was, but basically a documentarian decided to make a movie but shoot it like a documentary and won a bunch of awards for it because it made his movie feel more realistic. Then other filmmakers noticed how effective it was and just kept using it, thus beginning the shaky cam trend.
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The Blair Witch Project.
It was a college project filmed for a few hundred thousand dollars, won awards, then was given a nationwide theater open.
It was also garbage.
 
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