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Cinematography, tricks that bug you...

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Overuse or misuse of the graduated filter.
 
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Will Vincent said:
Indie/Guerilla: A piece of nylon panty-hose stretched across the lens. ;)
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Bingo, Will. Gracias. I was lookin' for a cheap solution.. and thank goodness I have all these panty-hose lying around with nothing better to do... ;)
 
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...a technique that bugs me...I'm not sure if this qualifies as cinematography or not, but I hate it when I see it...

...actor looks down, washes face, looks up and stares into mirror. Hate it, hate it, HATE IT :grumpy:
its used so much, its trite. Whatever psycho is in the mirror when you look up, let 'em getcha!
Or is the actor using this as a tool as portrayal of a reflection of himself and his life, oh whatever happened to me...

...stop doing this or come up with a better way to do it, geez...

--spinner :cool:
 
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Mis-used jump cuts. Too many times they can be used as a cop out to get out of a scene, and it's brutally obvious when it's happening. When used correctly, they are perfectly fine, unless of course, every other cut is one.
 
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Well Lefteye, it seems you have revitalised the thread.
I think my worst and most detested cinematography effect has to be over excessive use of the shaky cam for action scenes... so irritating.
 
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There is an effect I think I remember seeing in "You've got Mail" a few years ago. It is basically the smoothest pan ever attempted in the entire world with perfect starts and stops. My guess is that it is actually movement within a static shot that is done in post. It catches me off guard every time, because I know that the only other way to achieve that is with motion control equipment. IMO, It also takes away from the human element that you are used to experiencing during a dialogue sequence.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Luke
 
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Yeah, I'm hip Luke. :)

Mine is the fight scene close up. You know the one where it looks like a lot is going on but all you see is the actors face grimace. PAH-Leeze. If you don't have the sack to shoot a fight properly, don't.
 
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Personally, I hate the "extreme close-ups and fast editing during action sequences to obscure any action on screen". Why the hell do people do this?! If you're going to film an action sequence, I'd like to see it, not complain afterwards that quick editing and useless extreme close-ups were added into the film as filler to extend the scene. :bang:
 
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I've heard the crazy dolly zoom or Vertigo effect called many different names. One name i've heard of recently is the 'trombone shot'.
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That's good to know. I didn't realize there were other names for it. I think it's a really neat technique. For some reason, none of my friends can understand how it works when I try to show them. They think it's magic, lol. And they're all their twenties, too :weird:. I guess that's what makes me the filmmaker and them the engineers...

Luke
 
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I saw a Casper Van Dien movie called Shark Attack. It had the worst framing ever. As in, the shark is in the middle of empty water, while in another shot the actors are sturggling on the surface to avoid being bitten.
I assume it was improper framing because in a Casper Van Dien movie you know there's going to be quality.

/sarcasm
 
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