flogging the dead horse...

[andrewbuchanan]

Just curious, a friend and myself were trying to figure out which shot is the most tired, over-used, and generally played out (beside the obvious guy runs away from bomb in slow motion just as it goes off behind him - which is way too obvious).

 

I had to put forth the shot in the big budget movies where everyone sees the giant object/weather pattern/asteroid in the distance and slowly walks toward camera as they look at it. Perhaps the shadow of the giant wave/spaceship/cold front creeps over them - or maybe some wind blows their hair. I really hate that one. People have been ripping it off since Close Encounters (possible before). Look for it in War of the Worlds.

 

Now, who's next?

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

The steadicam roundy-roundy. Character stops and starts glancing around in confusion, usually in the middle of a crowd/room with many pillars/other object field to provide good parallax, and some poor guy has to toil around and around him.

 

This irritates me on the same sort of level as the weather-chart icon they used tonight that has a cloud, one raindrop, one snowflake, and the sun poking out the other side. I mean, come on.

 

Phil

[Marco Leavitt]

I would have to say its that phony jerk motion look they're railing against in another thread. Man do I hate that. Man, oh man, do I hate that!

[Luke Prendergast]

Hey wow - on one side of this pillar time runs at normal speed; but when I step past it time suddenly slows to one third speed. Usually when there's a group of investigator types crossing behind it.

[Chris Keth]

I got awfully sick of the freeze motion camera move that the matrix made so famous. Unfortunately it's a really cool effect...unfortunate because I hate it now and associate it with the matrix.

[Jeremy]

How about the opening the fridge with the camera inside the refrigerator shot looking through the food / juice / whatever at the opener of said fridge. That one has to be a king of overused shots. If not king, then at least a crowned prince!

 

I was happy to see it done differently in X-Men 2, when Wolverine opens the fridge and the camera is in the bottom of the inside of the fridge, looking up through the food, that was a new one on a tired shot... I think I've seen it done similar to that in something else though, too.

[Adam Frisch FSF]

1. The cranked contrast bleach-bypass-wannabee-look with time lapse cityscapes punctuated by

a closeup of a face. Just today there was a horrible ad for Amex with DeNiro in it (worst offenders in this style is always finance). Makes 35mm look like video. Stop it now, for the love of God!

 

2. Bullet Time (worst offenders: action ads)

 

3. Narrow shutter angles (worst offenders: swords- and sandals battle movies of late)

 

4. Fake anamorphic blue flares added in post (worst offenders: music videos).

 

5. Unrealistic special effects where the car you flip tumbles into center frame on your

wide angle crashcam, ending in a perfect editpoint as a total black-out (worst offenders: any summer Hollywood flick).

[Guest fstop]

Many mentioned here, too many to list in such a dire post-modern era litterd with Michael Bays and Guy Ritchies-

 

some of these Adam mentioned (suprise! :) ):

 

"The artsy jerk".

 

"The artsy jerk" with telephoto lenses.

 

"The artsy jerk" with telephoto lenses in an interior with blown out windows shot on tungsten film/tungsten balanced.

 

Handheld domestic drama with simulated available light.

 

Skip bleached flashbacks.

 

8mm flashbacks.

 

Any kind of filtrated/processed stylised flashback sequences.

 

White flashes in horror films.

 

Speed ramps.

 

Slow motion John Woo gun in either hand firing simultaneously.

 

Rack focus shot of man holding gun, pistol in foreground.

 

Rack focus shot of man holding gun, pistol in foreground, albeit with comped on CG slow moption bullet popping out the front.

 

Criminally unimaginative, Silouhetted, congo blue gelled 80s music video sex scene.

 

Hero running away from exploding whatever in slow motion to the sound of a racing heartbeat (one for you, Andrew).

 

45 degree shutter angle fight scenes.

 

Bullet time.

 

Obvious sub-Kimball grad filtered skies in action movies.

 

Bleach bypass in sci-fi movies.

 

Uncorrected kino green tint in faux-Anime garbage.

 

Obligatory DI Isolated section of an American funded Hong Kong action movie ("oooh, those red roses are SO pretty").

 

The Vertigo shot.

 

Anything directed by Hype Williams concerning a black music artist in a flo lit corridor shot by a wide angle/fish eye on a dolly.

 

Too many ball-less filmmakers out there today. I don't doubt Bryan Singer will employ all of these tired tricks in his much not needed Superman follow up due to start shooting the week after next.

Edited February 24, 2005 by fstop

[Luke Prendergast]

Flashlights during the day in Bruckheimer television (teeth grinding sound).

[Justin Hayward]

The steadicam roundy-roundy.

 

That phony jerk motion look they're railing against in another thread.

 

Narrow shutter angles

 

Criminally unimaginative, Silouhetted, congo blue gelled 80s music video sex scene.

 

Obvious sub-Kimball grad filtered skies in action movies.

 

Guilty.

[Guest fstop]

Frenetic steadicam tracking into a hospital ala ER.

 

Patient's POV during a "tense" operating scene.

 

Person waking up in bed after a nightmare, springing their back out of the sheets at a 90 degree angle so their face is inches in front of the wide/zooming out zoom lensed camera- breathing heavily.

[Guest Alex Taylor]

A slow crane up and back as the character(s) walk away from the camera to end the movie.

[Adam Frisch FSF]

Mexican stand-offs in student films.

[Jason Maeda]

circling the actors sitting at a table.

 

shafts of light.

 

jk :ph34r:

[andrewbuchanan]

Yeah yeah, how bad does the two pistol stand-off suck! That should be punishable by death, no drawing and quartering... then death.

 

Big-ups to Phil for that s*$&&y steadicam shot - I hate that one too. It is so played out.

 

...and who could forget Jeremy with the "camera inside the fridge/mailbox/drawer shot (doesn't this one seem particulary endemic to student films).

 

and f-stop your list... well, it hit close to home, maybe too close. We haven't work together have we?

[DavidSloan]

Jesus Fstop...what DO you like? Camera locked on sticks with no movement, for 2 hrs?

[Tenolian Bell]

I don't think the shots themselves are so much the problem.

 

But the fact the story sucks and we care nothing for the characters is the problem.

 

Then they use tricks to cover up the lack of plot and bad acting, which makes the shot feel useless.

[Matt Pacini]

This is funny!

 

Yep, the fridge shot, the roundy-round steadicam shot, , camera circling people at a table shot, slow-mo stuntment running away form the explosion, as you guys said.

 

Actually, the most lame thing about this last shot, is that they always jump into the air right when the explosion detonates, which makes no sense whatsoever, because:

 

A. How the hell would they know when the explosion is going to go off behind them?

B. The most unsafe thing in the world to do in that situation, would be to jump into the air, thereby maximizing the amount of time for objects from the explosion to come hit you, and also guaranteeing that you will be free and clear of anything to protect you.

The right thing to do would be to drop to the ground and/or behind something immediately. Just a stupid shot.

I thought it looked dumb the first time I saw it 20-ish years ago, and now I refuse to continue watching anything after I see that shot.

 

There should be a law, that if anyone suggests any of those shots, everyone on the set gets to take turns giving the guy a wedgie.

 

Oh, the other thing I'm seeing lately in some TV shows.

They speed up the action as a transition. Has anyone seen this?

It's freakin ridiculous. Like someone will say the last line in scene 1, and instead of cutting to scene 2, it goes into super-undercrank, as the person zips out, gets into a car, drives through 8 city blocks, gets out, and walks into a building, down a hall, and starts speaking again, and they do this transition in about 6 seconds.

Freakin' idiotic.

 

The Isolated color object in a B&W frame.

Oh, geez, I'm doing a commercial right now, and they're asking me to do that, and I'm telling them it's totally cliche', overdone, and ridiculous, but for some silly reason, they think it's cool.

I'm gonna edit it without doing it, and hope I can talk them of it. I just cringe thinking that I may have to actually do this.

 

Matt Pacini

[Rik Andino]

I agree with Teno

Shots don't make the story--characters do...

 

When use properly alot of these shots or effects work

When used improperly then they can become annoying...

 

Eitherways this is the exact reason filmmakers and cinematographers

aren't choosen for market research...

You're average audience loves most of these shots

That's why they keep doing them...to please & appease the common-folk

 

Movies are made by filmmakers but not for filmmakers...

Tis a shame...

but imagine a world were movies were made to please & appease filmmakers

Could be a scary episode of the Twilight Zone :o

[Wendell_Greene]

Anything directed by Hype Williams concerning a black music artist in a flo lit corridor shot by a wide angle/fish eye on a dolly.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

'Don't be hatin'

[Jonathan Spear]

every single shot in 'XXX.'

 

and vin deisel.

[Patrick Neary]

how about the medium over-the-shoulder shot, followed by the medium over-the-shoulder shot, followed by the medium over-the-shoulder shot, followed by the medium over-the-shoulder shot.....

 

"Gladiator" was a terrible offender on that one, maybe the curse of directing via the video assist rearing its ugly head.

[Mario Jimenez]

oi!!!!

 

tis an art!!!

 

the tools are always the same!!!

 

or.... would you prefer the cheesy panoramic of the family/group of escapees walkin thru (crossing frame/or..pan to follow) a landscape???

 

yes they are all too much used, but hell they are the tools to have!!!

 

same as painting, same brushes, same strokes, ya just mix em differently!!!

[Jon Allen]

every single shot in 'XXX.'

 

and vin deisel.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You think that's his real last name??? :P

[Ben Schwartz]

First and foremost...the Zolly.

 

The walk into camera/walk away from camera match cut.

 

The camera-in-the-mailbox shot (a close, equally lame relative of the camera-in-the-fridge shot).