Shaky camera,[1]shaky cam,[2]jerky camera,queasy cam,[3]run-and-gun[4] orfree camera[4] is acinematographic technique wherestable-image techniques are purposely dispensed with shaking. It is ahand-held camera, or given the appearance of being hand-held, and in many casesshots are limited to what one photographer could have accomplished with one camera. Shaky cam is often employed to give a film sequence anad hoc,electronic news-gathering, ordocumentary film feel. It suggests unprepared, unrehearsed filming of reality, and can provide a sense of dynamics, immersion, instability or nervousness.[4] The technique can be used to give apseudo-documentary orcinéma vérité appearance to a film.[5]
Too much shaky camera motion can make some viewers feel distracted, dizzy or sick.[6][7]
Traditionally, still and motionphotography have relied on firm, stable mountings for a jitter-free image. Great effort is spent to obtain a perfectly stable image.[8] However, experiments with hand-held camera began as early as 1925 withEwald André Dupont'sVarieté andAbel Gance'sNapoléon.[4]
Hand-held camera movements became more prominent in somefeature films of the 1960s, including a number ofJohn Cassavetes-directed films.Jonas Mekas named and defended the "shaky camera" work ofavant-garde filmmakers, writing inFilm Culture in 1962 that he was "sick and tired of the guardians of Cinema Art" accusing the new cinematographers of poor camera skills.[1] Mekas saw it as an inexpensive improvisational technique, one that allowed for greater artistic and financial freedom.[1] Other examples of 1960s hand-held usage includeThe Miracle Worker,Seven Days in May,The Battle of Algiers andDr. Strangelove.[4] TheJapanese filmmakerKinji Fukasaku was known for using shaky hand-held camera shots as a trademark in many of his films, most notably 1970syakuza films such asBattles Without Honor and Humanity[9] as well as inBattle Royale.
In 1981, the "shaky cam" style was named, and given new energy.[2] In the filmThe Evil Dead, directorSam Raimi ordered Tim Philo, his cinematographer, to bolt a camera to atwo-by-four-inch piece of lumber, 22 inches long, and have two stronggrips hold it and run down a city block, bumping over fallen bodies, following a female character, after which the camera was swung roughly around to go the other way.[2] Another shaky camera effect invented on that film was one the crew called "Blank-O-Cam", where the cameraman would lie on a blanket and be carried in it by four grips, the camera pointed forward near ground level to track people's feet.[2] Further shaky cam techniques were employed by Raimi on his subsequent films includingCrimewave in 1985.[10]
In 1984, theCoen brothers and their cinematographerBarry Sonnenfeld used shaky cam techniques inBlood Simple, then again in 1987'sRaising Arizona.[10]Woody Allen's improvisational style of filmmaking was matched with hand-held camera techniques inHusbands and Wives, shot byCarlo Di Palma in 1991 and 1992.[11] The film's opening scene uses the hand-held style to achieve a sense of "free-floating anxiety and terminal loss of moorings."[5] Reviewers joked thatDramamine was required to prevent motion sickness.[5] Allen and Di Palma continued to use the technique but with more finesse and restraint[5] onManhattan Murder Mystery and subsequent films throughout the 1990s to save time spent on principal photography, and to stay within budget.[11]
The 1993 police dramaNYPD Blue is recognized by many[who?] as the first television show to use shaky and swooping shots for most of its camera work. In 1994, the TV seriesER employed shaky camera techniques, as did the 1996 disaster filmTwister.[12] Danish directorLars von Trier used shaky camera, called 'free camera', in his movies. TheDogme 95 movement he co-created in 1995 was partly based on the technique.[4] Trier's 2000 filmDancer in the Dark was criticized for having too much shaky camera motion.[4]
Janusz Kamiński, cinematographer forSteven Spielberg on 1998'sSaving Private Ryan, used a traditionally shot scene of a modern-day cemetery to open the film. For the initial action sequence, he used the hand-held camera technique to depict the gritty intensity and brutality of the1944 Normandy beach assault on D-Day, from the boat to the beach and beyond.[13] The 1999 filmThe Blair Witch Project made extensive use of shaky cam to make the film look like recovereddocumentary camera footage. In 2009, the Dutch movieWinter in Wartime (film) (released in the US in 2010) made use of the shaky cam. The 2007 filmsThe Bourne Ultimatum andThe Kingdom and the 2009 filmsRampage andDarfur make much use of the shaky camera.
Several films have been criticized for excessive shaky camera technique. Thesecond andthird installments of theBourne action film franchise directed byPaul Greengrass were described by film criticRoger Ebert as using both shaky cam andfast editing techniques.[6] Ebert did not mind it but many of his readers complained—one calling it "Queasicam".[6] Film professorsDavid Bordwell andKristin Thompson described the development of the technique over 80 years of cinema and noted that Greengrass used more than the usual shaky camera motion to make it intentionally jerky and bouncy, coupled with a very shortaverage shot length and a decision to incompletelyframe the action.[4]
The filmsFriday Night Lights (2004),[14]Cloverfield (2008)[7] andAmerican Honey (2016)[citation needed] have been described as making viewers nauseated or sick.
DirectorChristopher McQuarrie has criticized the technique as a gimmick used to try and hide the lack of real energy in a scene.[15]