MovieChat Forums > Tape (2002) Discussion > Shoddy camera work

Shoddy camera work


I love this movie. I thought it was well done overall, especially since there are no scene changes and a cast of only three people. Really awesome movie.

But does anyone else get bugged by the camera work? There are several times through out the film where two characters will be having a conversation, and instead of cutting back and forth between them, the camera repeatedly swings from one person to the other the whole time they are talking. After awhile you begin to get dizzy seeing the camera swing back and forth so much.

I wish that more actual editing had been used cutting back and forth between the characters from one still shot to the next, instead of repeadtedly swinging the camera back and forth.

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i agree, the camera setting was kind of crappy. the plot was good though. it was a very unique film. i enjoyed it.
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Rudeness is an epidemic- Hannibal

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I think it worked well because it gave the whole voyeuristic feel. It's like there's another person in that room (sort of a hidden camera) but no one's aware of it.

Salad or Liver? What would it be?

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"I think it worked well because it gave the whole voyeuristic feel. It's like there's another person in that room."

Exactly. I'm not a fan of the shaky-cam school, but in this case, it worked very well.

I am not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.

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nope, the camera work was fine.

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Yeah, I thought it worked perfectly for this film. Any other film, sure it wouldn't fit but this one, spot on.

From now on, please try to not split infinitives

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I thought the back-and-forth camera work gave it an air of tension.

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Just because the cast was three star actors, the camera work is probably considered cool. Had it been three unknowns (but just as talented) this film would never have had this much discussion.

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Does anyone here know if this was shot in digital, or with actual film?

"Tolerance is the virtue of the weak" -Marquis de Sade

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It looks pretty digital to me, and I'm sure today's digicams would provide a much more polished look. But to me, the voyeuristic, rather seedy look was part of the authenticity.

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shot on Panasonic AG-DVX100A mini-DV camera....the production company InDigEnt shoots all of their movies in DV...pretty damn cool if you ask me

idgafBRO

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I almost turned it off after a few minutes because of the amateur camera work and editing. I'm not even talking about the swinging back and forth. It gets better as it goes along (as does the acting), but at the beginning it was awful. Bad cuts, awkward inserts, annoying angles. Just seemed like a lot of wrong decisions. Then I found out it was directed by Richard Linklater and I couldn't believe it. But that made me decide to stick with it and it did get better over time or maybe I just got used to it. Anyway, the script is great, so I did end up enjoying the film over all.

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I agree with imfinished, if it wasnt a Richard Linklater film I would had turned off at the shoddy shots and camera work. There we're some intresting ones in their, but overal fail. The swinging camera was overused I understand he only had one camera and wanted to capture a better more fluid performance but it really took me out of the film.

and it was shot with a digital camera.

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This is actually the first film I have seen where the camera work made me laugh. It was genius and it was horrible at the same time. It was horrible because it looked like something a high school student would have done for grins chits n giggles. It was genius because it almost made the camera a character in it's own right sort of like you are seeing this literally through someone else's perspective and not either of the character's perspective that was in the room. It was as if the characters ceased to be important and it was just the perception of the unseen viewer that became important.

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I agree. That whole back and forth crap almost made me ill. I was wondering if the cameraman had just bought the camera, and was trying to figure out how it worked. Very irritating.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, and / or doesn't.

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It was done that way on purpose. The movie "Rachel Getting Married" has a scene just like that.

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