MovieChat Forums > Line of Duty (2012) Discussion > Camera shots

Camera shots

posted 12 years ago by robpowell39
5 replies | jump to latest

This was a great series and I enjoyed it very much, but did anyone else get distracted by the weird camera filming style? Last night, the shots were too close up so you could not get the full context of the subject and the camera seemed to be held by someone suffering from Parkinson's (no offence to Parkinson's sufferers intended).

I think Spielberg first invented this style of shaky camera shots to introduce greater realism in the opening sequences of Saving Private Ryan and no doubt this production company was trying to copy the great man but I certainly found it far too distracting and in my mind they got it badly wrong.

[–] monkeyslut2729 12 years ago

I noticed this in the first episode and it ruined a lot of it for me. I can't understand why someone would choose that style of filming. All it does is make it really distracting. Also when the camera zoomed in to close ups it was cringeworthy.

[–] Borg222 10 years ago

I agree....a couple running action shots with shaky handheld...yeah that is real...but just a set up still shot with shakey shakey. Just annoying really. Lots so times the zoomed in from afar seemed like someone used a Kmart cheap tripod....

[–] gorbals406 10 years ago

Even a cheap tripod would have been a godsend. Maybe some people in the entertainment business read these IMDb posts and will finally put an end to the camera-shakes gimmick. Maybe they'll realise just how passé this technique really is and how it's naught but a MAJOR annoyance to almost all viewers. We live in hope.

[–] harrybarry-3 10 years ago

I just finished watching the first season and I am not sure if I will be able to watch second season because of the shaky camera use.

It's extremely annoying.

[–] wak1 10 years ago

Shaky seemingly on the spot camera filming style is common and yes it was very distracting in the first series at many times but not all the time thankfully.

It seems (so far, I am not finished with it) to be not as bad (but still the style) in the second season.

At time it makes little sense, for example, without giving spoilers, a shot of a woman and a man in bed making love, lets say, there isn't going to be a cameraman sitting there filming this with a handheld camera and the effect is no longer one of being privy to events which is the intent of the style but instead a clear fault.