camera movement © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 10.1016/B978-0-240-81209-0.50011-7 Along with sequential editing, the ability to move the camera is the most fundamental aspect that distinguishes film and video from pho- tography, painting, and other visual arts. As we have seen, moving the camera is much more than just going from one frame to another. The movement itself, the style, the trajectory, the pacing, and the timing in relation to the action all contribute to the mood and feel of the shot. They add a subtext and an emotional content independent of the subject. We talked about the cinematic uses of camera moves in Language of the Lens; here we can cover the techniques and technology of moving the camera. The most basic use of the camera is where you put it. Camera placement is a key decision in storytelling. More than just “where it looks good,” it determines what the audience sees and from what perspective they see it. As discussed in the chapter on Shooting Methods, what the audience does not see can be as important as what they do see. Since Gri!th freed the camera from its stationary singular point of view, moving the camera has become an ever increasing part of the visual art of filmmaking. In this section we will look at the dynam- ics of camera movement and also take a look at some representative ways in which this is accomplished. The dolly as a means of moving the camera dates from the early part of the 20th century. The crane came into its own in the 1920s (see Figure 11.2 for a modern ver- sion). Shots from moving vehicles were accomplished in the earliest of silents, especially with the silent comedians, who didn’t hesitate to strap a camera to a car or train.. After the introduction of the crane, little changed with the means of camera movement until the invention of the Steadicam by Garrett Brown. It was first used on the films Bound for Glory and Kubrick’s The Shining. MOTIVATION AND INVISIBLE TECHNIQUE In narrative filmmaking, a key concept of camera movement is that it must be motivated. The movement should not just be for the sake of moving the camera; doing so usually means that the director is su"ering from a lack of storytelling skills. Motivation can come in two ways. First, the action itself may motivate a move. For example, if the character gets up from a chair and crosses to the window, it is perfectly logical for the camera to move with her. Not necessary, but clearly one way to do it. Both the start and the end of a dolly move or pan should be moti- vated. The motivation at the end may be as simple as the fact that we have arrived at the new frame, but clearly it must be a new frame — one with new information composed in a meaningful way, not just “where the camera ended up.” A big part of this is that the camera should “settle” at the end of any move. It needs to “alight” at the new frame and be there for a beat before the cut point. This is espe- cially important if this shot might cut to a static shot. Particularly with the start and end of camera moves that are moti- vated by subject movement, there needs to be a sensitivity to the timing of the subject and also a delicate touch as to speed. You seldom want the dolly to just “take o" ” at full speed, then grind to a sudden halt. Most of the time, you want the dolly grip to “feather” in and out of the move. The camera movement itself may have a purpose. For example, a move may reveal new information or a new view of the scene. The Figure 11.1. (previous page) Setting camera may move to meet someone or pull back to show a wider up a crane. shot. Unmotivated camera moves or zooms are distracting; they pull cinematography 210 Figure 11.2. A Chapman Lenny Arm rigged on a camera car for some moving shots in Greenwich Village. The grip who will operate it wears a safety harness. (Photo courtesy of Mark Weingartner.) the audience out of the moment and make them conscious that they are watching a fiction; they do, however, have their uses, particu- larly in very stylized filmmaking. There are many ways to find a motivation for a camera move, and they can be used to enhance the scene and add a layer of meaning beyond the shots themselves. They can also add a sense of energy, joy, menace, sadness, or any other emotional overlay. Camera move- ment is much like the pacing of music. A crane move can “soar” as the music goes upbeat, or the camera can dance with the energy of the moment, such as when Rocky reaches the top of the museum steps and the Steadicam spins around and around him. Motivating and timing camera moves are part of the goal of invisible technique. Just as with cutting and coverage in the master scene method, the goal is for the “tricks” to be unnoticed and not distract from the storytelling. Basic Technique There is an endless variety of ways to move the camera, and it would be impossible to catalog every one here. It is useful to look at a few basic categories of types of moves to provide a general vocabulary of camera dynamics. The most fundamental of camera moves, the pan and tilt, can be accomplished in almost any mode, including handheld. The exception is when a camera is locked o" on either a non-movable mount (as it might be for an explosion or big stunt) or where it is on a movable head, but the movements are locked down and there is no operator. Many types of e"ect shots require the camera to be locked down so that not even the slightest move- ment of the camera is possible. Sandbags on the tripod or dolly, or even braces made of C-stands or lumber may also be used. camera movement 211 Beyond the simple pan and tilt or zoom, most moves involve an actual change of camera position in the shot. Other than handheld, these kinds of moves involve specific technologies and also the sup- port of other team members: the grip department. Grips are the experts when it comes to mounting the camera in any way other than right on a tripod or a dolly, and they are the people who pro- vide the rigging, the stabilization, and the actual operation when it comes to performing the actual move. A good grip crew makes it look easy, but there is considerable knowledge and finesse involved in laying smooth dolly track on a rough surface (Figure 11.3) or rigging the camera on the front of a roller-coaster. Every detail of rigging is beyond the scope of this chapter, but we will touch on some of the major issues. TYPES OF MOVES Pan Short for panoramic, the term pan applies to left or right horizon- tal movement of the camera. Pans are fairly easy to operate with a decent camera head — which sits atop the tripod or dolly, holds the camera, and permits left/right, up/down, and sometimes side- ways tilting motions. There is one operational limitation that must be dealt with. If the camera is panned too quickly, there will be a strobing e"ect, which will be very disturbing. As a general rule of thumb, with a shutter opening of 180° and a frame rate of 24 or 25 fps, it should take at least 3 to 5 seconds for an object to move from one side of the frame to the other. Any faster and there is a danger of strobing. Tilt The tilt is up or down movement without changing camera posi- tion. Technically, it is not correct to say “pan up,” but as a practi- cal matter everybody says it. The tilt, being a vertical move, is used much less frequently than the pan. For better or worse, we live most of our lives on a generally horizontal plane, and that is the way most action plays out in narrative, documentary, and informational film- making. As we will see later in this chapter, cranes, Steadicams and aerial mounts are to a large extent used to break out of the confined horizontal plane and make the scenes more truly three-dimensional. Filmmaking is confined, to a large degree, by where we can put the camera. Certainly the ability of the Steadicam and similar rigs to move with action up and down stairs and slopes has opened up a new variety of moves, that help with this three-dimensional e"ort and keeps us “with” the characters as they move through space. Given the technology now available and the ingenuity of our grips and camera assistants, there is hardly anywhere a camera can’t go. Move In / Move Out Move the dolly toward or away from the action. Common termi- nology is push in or pull out. For example, to the dolly grip: “When he sits down, you push in.” This is di"erent from a punch-in (see following). Moving into the scene or out of it are ways of combin- ing the wide shot of a scene with a specific tighter shot. It is a way of selecting the view for the audience in a way that is more dra- matic than just cutting from wide shot to closer shot.