05.07.08
Don’t underestimate the POWAR of handheld camera
Have you noticed how popular handheld camera is these days? If you’ve ever studied film, you most certainly can’t help but notice every time you turn on your TV. It’s especially noticeable in action series like Battlestar Galactica where they not only film approximately 95% of their shots with handheld, but they even simulate handheld camera in their CGI space scenes!
It’s a good trend because since the invention of steadycam, handheld camera has been visually tolerable and subtle as well as dynamic and exciting. Naturally the style has spilled into games, which constantly nick ideas from films as well as feed new ideas and styles back into the older medium. Mass Effect’s space sequences featured camera work pretty much identical to the floaty simulated handheld cameras in Battlestar Galactica, Gears of War used shaky and up-close-and-personal handheld camera to show the nasty chainsaw kills, and Guitar Hero sometimes simulates handheld camera to give the impression of a camera man amidst the audience at the front of the stage.
Most recently, I’ve noticed Grand Theft Auto 4 has a bit of a love affair with the handheld camera. It’s used in pretty much every shot of every cutscene, and GTA4 features many many many cutscenes. Far more interestingly, however, GTA4 features several different camera modes, one of which is seemingly randomly placed handheld camera positions. This camera mode makes the action look remarkably cinematic, making the extended car chases even more convincing than the impressive AI and the dynamic open city already makes them, but unfortunately I find it quite difficult to steer properly with the shifting, sometimes very inconvenient camera positions.
I’m looking forward to seeing where simulated handheld cameras can be used in future titles. Assassin’s Creed had something like it in pretty much all the fight scenes, which worked really well (sadly when people describe the game’s often unstimulating and repetitive combat system, they usually neglect to give it credit for the never inconvenient dynamically placed cameras). In any case, I don’t see cutscenes in games going away any time soon, and now that games can apparently fully simulate handheld cameras in-game, more studios than ever will need to hire cinematic designers and cutscene directors. Oh, would you look at that? I happen to be pretty well qualified for the position 
Casper said,
May 8, 2008 at 07:21
Regarding “more studios than ever will need to hire cinematic designers and cutscene directors.”:
http://www.idsoftware.com/business/jobs/index.php
Jonas said,
May 8, 2008 at 09:23
Cinematic Art Director, you say? I have no idea what that means
Casper said,
May 8, 2008 at 12:55
But it hell does sound like something we can be with our education, right?
Jonas said,
May 8, 2008 at 14:13
It does. I noticed Bioware was seeking a cinematic designer a while ago, too. I would’ve applied in a split second if I wasn’t interested in finishing my damn education first. Maybe for their next game.
Smike said,
September 20, 2008 at 16:46
Steadicam is actually barely perceptible to most people. Operators have always used various rigs and stability mechanisms like arms and such to make the camera not look TOO jittery - and sometimes they’ll strap handhelds to a cameraman or actor - but using a steadicam would basically make it cease to BE handheld camera work. The whole point of the steadicam was to move a camera around WITHOUT shaky or unfocused movement. So a good steadicam shot has no perceptible shake, it simply “glides” as if almost on a track.
Handheld camera actually evolved from the Italian new wave of the post-war 40s and really got noticed when Bill Friedkin used it in 1971’s “The French Connection”. He stole the idea from the limitations imposed on documentary filmmaking - the need to use handheld 8 or 16mm cameras - as he was a doc filmmaker originally.
So Battlestar and NYPD Blue and Homicide’s “pioneering” looks really evolved from documentary filmmaking and shaky 8 and 16mm handheld cameras from the 60s and 70s, and thus that’s where these games are getting it all. Kinda silly really.
Jonas said,
September 20, 2008 at 17:23
But it looks cool.
Smike said,
September 20, 2008 at 19:26