hey im shooting a documentary of which ill be directing, im preety good when it comes to directing actors but my skills in directing the camera guy are abit... not there, so im looking for any tips and suggestions on a shooting style thats arty and also carries a serious mood, anyone know of any sites i can check out?
metaphysics ... time and space
metaphysics ... time and space
To be honest, if you're shooting a documentary and the subject is compelling there's really no need for 'arty' shooting styles. And if it's not, then 'arty' shooting styles won't save it.
Personally I really wish people would stop poncing around with their camera-work in documentaries: to me it just makes them look cheap and poorly thought-out. It's also often a really bad idea today with digital broadcasting: I was watching an HD broadcast show about Las Vegas last night and it was full of fancy camerawork and editing (e.g. lots of fast hand-held camera movements and very short cuts) which looked absolutely appalling after they'd gone through the MPEG-2 compression for broadcast. Sequences with multiple two or three frame cuts one after the other, and shots where the camera operator was spinning around, just came out as frames full of colored blocks in the MPEG-2 stream.
Yes, I've seen some short movies on TV like that and my head is just spinning. What's the reason behind shooting some movies or shows like that?
