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    Hand-held help

    There's yer Last Wave/Blair Witch/Cloverfield etc. business.

    Then there's yer 'Offices'.

    I'm sure there are lots of other shaky-camera flms/TV shows.

    Can you jog me memory, like?

    #2
    Hand-held help

    Arrested Development.

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      #3
      Hand-held help

      Evil Dead.

      Good chunks of the Bourne trilogy.

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        #4
        Hand-held help

        Diary of the Dead, one of Romero's recent films
        People Like Us

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          #5
          Hand-held help

          The first significant handheld film was probably Chronique d'Un Été by Jean Rouch, anthropologist filmmaker, who used the new lightweight Aaton and Eclair documentary 16mm cameras to record French life in 1960

          The technique was then used in feature films especially by the early Jean-Luc Godard and his cameramen Raoul Coutard. It was cheap and quick and created a feeling of intimacy. It also created a different kind of aesthetic, a clear break from the cinema du papa.

          British TV with Directors like Michael Apted (coming from World in Action shooting film documentaries every week) and cameramen like Chris Menges used handheld 16mm on the social realist dramas in which a camera style familiar from documentary helped to denote realism.

          In 1976 the Steadicam was invented which counterweighted the 35mm camera and used a video assist as viewfinder. This allowed the freedom to roam of the handheld camera with the smoothness suitable for the big screen, - The two films most associated with this breakthrough are The Shining and Rocky

          In TV the Shakycam series, which changed the aesthetics of British TV, was probably This Life, produced by Tony Garnett, (producer of Kes), which used long lenses and occasional soft focus.

          Now some directors, like Stephen Soderbergh and Lars von Trier like to operate on their own films where possible. They will often use the handheld camera to interact with the performers like another character.

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            #6
            Hand-held help

            Yes, that was what Godard specifically wanted, wasn't it - the camera acting as a character.

            I'd add Werner Herzog and Wong Kar-wai as significant users of handheld camera. Woody Allen's also used it.

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              #7
              Hand-held help

              Green Wing was virtually unwatchable because of this 'technique'.

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                #8
                Hand-held help

                Thanks, all.

                Some great suggestions there. Memory duly jogged.

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