Filed under: General
I just watched the Bourne Ultimatum.
A great film with a great plot and stunning visually, except for one little thing.
Paul Greengrass, the director, obviously blew the budget on having second unit crews shooting in Madrid, Morocco and Italy, because there obviously wasn’t enough money left in the kitty TO BUY A FREAKIN TRIPOD.
The whole film is shot in medium close up shots (nipples to forehead), on what looks to be a handheld camera.
It must be one of those colossal Panavision jobs that weighs about forty kilos because the operator can’t hold the bloody thing steady.
It’s the first time since I watched the notoriously shaky-camera film ‘The Blair witch Project’ that I had to leave the room because I was getting seasick.
Dead-set, I thought I was giong to hurl.
Paul Greengrass had enough money to afford a pigeon wrangler, even an assistant pigeon wrangler (thanks Noa for spotting that one in the credits), but no cash left for a tripod.
I am bitching because I fall into the small percentile of the human population that can not watch subjective (point of view) footage shot with a certain focal depth without waiting to vomit.
It’s shot that way so as to immerse the viewer in the action, but the only thing it immerses me in is bile and whatever I had for lunch.
I think it’s about three in two hundred people that get affected this way.
I know this made up statistic because my friend Jeremy who makes Playstation games (coolest job ever) told me about the first-person camera angle that the programmers use to give that immersive sensation to a video game.
All those games that are first-person shooters? If I play them, the only thing I’m shooting is chunks out of my nose.
Halo 2? GTA San Andreas? Time Crisis? Doom? Wolfenstein? All of these I can not play without being horridly seasick and off balance.
As a result of my genetic pre-disposition to have an adverse reaction to certain camera angles, I was unable to enjoy the solid acting of Matt Damon.
Ahem.
Great script, great plot, brilliant locations, incredible action, heart pounding chases, very mean baddies, and me excusing myself from the packed theatre lest I spray the poor person in front of me with the tofu that I ate for lunch.
After watching this fabulously shaky movie, we went to my mate’s house to check out “Victoria Beckham, Coming to America” that he had on the recorder box.
It was not, as I had hoped, a remake of the Eddie Murphy classic, but instead one hour salvaged from an aborted reality series aimed to introduce America to the Beckhams and try to get them to embrace the family, and the game of soccer that he plays.
What an unintentionally hilarious piece of television.
Truly incredibly brilliant in its’ genius self-hole digging of Posh.
“Adam my hairstylist and Meg my make up artist are my two best friends”. You PAY your two best friends? I was a little sad. Also wondered how much she gets them for, as mine are costing me a mint to keep up…
Idol’s on tonight.
I hope you enjoy it.
About a sixty people worked their arses off to make those audition show happen.
I hope you spot a favourite early!
Take care, have fun, hold the camera still..
xx aa
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Just stumbled across this post, and not a moment too soon. You’re doing a major public service by outing Bourne’s jittery shame.
I’m right there with you when it comes to first-person shooters. And I can spend all day on a boat, but I want to die watching “Saving Private Ryan” on anything larger than a 15-inch screen.
Anyway, thanks. I’ve just saved $15.
I’m getting incredibly sick of shaky-cam action films. Not quite as literally as you, however. I just think it’s a bit of a cop-out to not even show all the action in frame. Damned if I could tell one six-pack from the next in 300. Good movie, but it took a bit of imagination on my part to watch. At any rate, I suppose I should watch the first two Bourne movies to prepare for this one.
As far as Idol goes, my favourites are Brianna for her voice and songwriting, and Cleo for songwriting and being completely beautiful.
Tom xoxo
And how could I forget Jordan Paris?
Tom xoxo
I watched the hillz a few weeks ago. If you think the movie you watched was bad, then you haven’t seen this movie.
The movie was a waste time. Paris was in it for 2 seconds and i could have gotten my little brother to act better then her. The camera wasn’t only shaky but it was also blurry, 10 min into the movie I was so bored i ended up skipping half the movie to see what happened in the end.
THEY ALL DIED! The whole cast.
Victoria tried a little too hard to be the new Jessica Simpson. I thought it was funny, because I wasn’t laughing with her, but at her. How ridiculous it was that she had her hair and makeup artist with her to get her license photo taken.
Did you get scratches on your legs when you attempted to climb up that tree on Idol? You looked a little in pain. But maybe it had been a while since you had been to the toilet….
BInga,as a vegan, you can set your watch by the last time that I used the toilet..
xx aa
At least you have GPS in your watch to help you find the closest loo.
Love Idol soo much. Been watching it since the start. Mark is a crack up. Must be painful sitting through some of those auditions, I’d go nuts too!
No real stand outs so far for me. Hoping for another “Bobby Flynn”.
It was lovely to see shots of James, and your good self, giving some TLC to those that didn’t make the cut for Idol. How many hugs do you estimate you gave out during the audition process?
The thing that gets me about Posh is how did a gal so cold and talentless get a hubby so hot and talented? Yes I’m a tad bitter!
If spaghetti westerns come back at some stage, you’d make a great extra with that sombrero and moe. A bit more squinting of the eyes wouldn’t go astray next time!
Yeah sicky-cam not cool. The only shaky-cam I ever liked and was done so brilliantly and in-fact innovative was from the BBC smash hit THE BILL. Jezza
There “wasn’t enough money left…” (a bit odd)
“in the kitty to BUY A FREAKIN TRIPOD”…
G said that, verbatim
’bout the Bourne Ultimatum
Pigeon wranglers must charge more than god.
Hey Andrew,
Just sitting down to watch Idol tonight and your camera man in the upstairs section with the Finalists already through also looks like he needs to purchase a tripod. I thought it ironic that after your comments in this post you are now the subject of a shaky camera.
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