Camera shots in Landry/Mitchell/Marrick scene

[Astrofighter]

Did anyone else notice how shaky the camera was in the first scene with Landry/Mitchell/Marrick. It keeps swaying back and forth. I was highly irritated when I watched it. The movie as a whole is great but this one scene really upset me, it was rather sad camera work. They never had this sort of stuff in the show so how on earth did it make it into the movie? It's not that hard to use the steady cam system...I just don't see how they could have missed this, watch it for yourself if you don't remember!

[Murcielago]

I noticed that too. It didn't bother me too much, but I wonder why they did that in just that one scene.

[wolverine_nl]

Some movies are shot like this, to get the pace rollin' but then the entire movie has to be in that style.

[Astrofighter]

There is no excuse for having the camera flop back and forth, this camera was moving because the camera man couldnt hold it steady not to set the pace faster. Also if you watch some of the shots in the scene are crooked, look at the picture on the wall you can tell its off by quite a bit.

[TraK]

its a camera technique design to make the audience feel uneasy towards this Marrick guy. by no means was it a mistake. I dont think the director and cameraman were incompetent enough to do this. Not all films are shot all on a steady cam or tripod. I think it was a great shot introduce this creepy, mysterious fellow

[Astrofighter]

its a camera technique design to make the audience feel uneasy towards this Marrick guy. by no means was it a mistake. I dont think the director and cameraman were incompetent enough to do this. Not all films are shot all on a steady cam or tripod. I think it was a great shot introduce this creepy, mysterious fellow

Creepy? Come on, this wasnt done on purpose all it made me was upset at the quality of work that was performed. Having a camera shake back and forth doesnt make something creepy. Having close ups makes something more creepy, thats not what happened, trust me go back and watch the scene right now and tell me that it was on purpose!

[jenks]

So you genuinely think that is was unintentional? Don't you think if it was they'd have just shot it again? If it really were a mistake do you think Rob Cooper would just leave it like that? I don't.

[Astrofighter]

Yes I do, how can you watch that scene and tell me that having the camera sit in a stationary position on a noticealbe angle adds to make the scene more creepy at all? What I am talking about is right at the end, Merrick leaves the room and Bridges and Browder are talking the camera sits down in a stationary spot, not moving anymore but its not level, the whole thing is tilted to the side...pretty obvious that it was a screw up. Also there are usually at least 2-3 different units of shooting crews on a show/movie. Robert Cooper didn't direct everything himself.

I think by the time they figured out that it was bad they were unable to reshoot it. You have 3 actors with schedules outside of just the show, especially the actor that played Merrick since this was the first and only thing he ever did with the Stargate its likely to assume they were unable to get him to come back and shoot the scene.

[J_schinderlin56]

I'm a professional camera operator, and yes I can tell you that they did this on purpose. Lots of low budget movies do this sort of thing, they probably did it just because they could.

[TraK]

i concur

[PG15]

Seriously, just because YOU don't like how it turned out doesn't mean they simply made a mistake. How you feel and what they did are completely separate things.

[Asuran]

Well on the commentary, they say that they did the first half of the sceen when Cam and Landry, walk into the office to meet Merrick without cuts, and that it was difficult to hid all the lights and other ogjects that dont belong on camera. May thats why the camera was shakey because they could use a tripod or steady cam.

[the fifth man]

Definitely intentional camera work.

[majorsal]

the scene that stuck out to me wasn't this scene, but the one where marrick was just sitting down/getting ready to interrogate tomin. the camera did extreme close ups of marrick turning on the microphone and such. i actually think the close ups looked *great*, but since this type of work wasn't used in any other part of the movie, it just felt 'weird' to see it used for something so mundane as this scene. i just felt cooper was experimenting. like i said, i liked the look, but... i don't know, i just kept thinking about why cooper did it there and then the scene was going by and i had to rewind.



sally

[PG15]

I think it emphasized the "bureaucratic nature" of Marrick, how he's so focused on the minutiae and details of his work.