MovieChat Forums > Tropa de Elite (2007) Discussion > camera jerk

camera jerk

posted 15 years ago by leforcat
3 replies | jump to latest

This is one of the worst directed & executed films I've seen for years and years. It's all made by the "lets jerk around with the camera and cut & paste later"-method. Not ONCE did the director seem to consider a possibility to chose the method of presenting a certain scene to it's best advantage - it's all "filmed" by a guy jumping around in sneakers with a camera at half-distance. He even forgot to cut & paste, for the most part. And no, it does not make you feel you're there - it makes you feel sick. A great subject-matter wasted. 2/10.

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[–] kimmykins_m 15 years ago

I actually enjoyed the cinematography and editing - even though I did feel slightly sick.
It invokes realism, panic and voyeurism by using a hand-held camera; which I think was the director's intention - after all he did direct the "Bus 174" documentary - to give it a documentary feel.

[–] leforcat 15 years ago

Off course, I realize it's all a matter of taste. But I insist it's only a ploy that will go out of fashion (soon, I hope). You see, you can't replace the lack of concept & directing skills with a jerky camera. And most of all: it's NOT realistic. In real life, our brain adjust to the fact that we shake or are in violent motion, or whatever, so that what our experience, our vision of what happens around us, is in fact hardly shaky. It's a matter of adapting and of survival, actually. But some film-'makers' WANT you to believe it must shake to be realistic. Well, very far from it!
In fact I'm sure you realize it's SO much cheaper to shoot this way, that's the main reason, and that's the only thing working against this crap disappearing soon...

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[–] emeticosincero 15 years ago

Camera-shaking is far from being a "cheap solution" in nowadays fiction films.