MovieChat Forums > Let's Rock Discussion > don't look into the camera?

don't look into the camera?


When Paul Anka was singing, he kept looking up, never looking directly into the camera. I thought it was sort of odd. Then came Roy Hamilton's turn, he too never looked directly into the camera (although in a long shot, he did manage a peek into the camera.

It must have been a little too much directing. Although Danny and the Juniors and the "Short Shorts" singers did look directly into the cameras, so that kills my theory, I guess.

The producers could have come up with a few more dollars and sprung for a few more dancers during the Wink Martindale dance show segment, you think?

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No, television was still in it's infancy in 1958 and most singers just performed the same way they did in night club, and from what I've seen the majority of performers on early television shows either sang and looked in any direction other than the fourth wall. Most of the performers on variety shows don't break the fourth wall either.

Nowadays people do sing into the camera on music videoss but they know they don't have a live audience watching them.

I don't judge televison and films from the past by the way television and film are produced today, all things evolve.

No one singing looked at the camera in "Ring-a-Ding Rhythm!" aka "It's Rad, Dad!" either.

Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.

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