Pro Cinematographer On How Camera Movement Can Make A Shot Worse - Brad Rushing

Brad Rushing began working with Roger Corman's Concorde/New Horizons film studio which afforded him some of his first feature film opportunities as Director of Photography where he learned valuable skills.

After a number of years concentrating on indie feature films Brad began to shoot high end music videos photographing award-winning, iconic clips for artists like Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Lionel Richie, Nelly and Eminem. Brad's ground-breaking work on Moby's "We Are All Made Of Stars" won an MTV Video Music Award "Moonman" for Best Cinematography in a Video, and many of the other music videos he shot have won awards such as VMAs, MVPAs and Grammys for Best Video. Brad also won a Canadian Society of Cinematographers Award for Best Cinematography in a Video for the Alsou video "Always On My Mind."

Brad's most recent work is the feature film "A California Christmas" which filmed in Petaluma, CA in July 2020, one of the first film productions to start under stringent COVID-19 safety protocols. The film debuted on a major streaming platform for the 2020 holiday season and was number one on Netflix for one week straight.

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[oceanicstorm]

I'm glad you touched on this matter. I feel that motivated camera movement is underrated (modern day cinematic films are missing) or used without thought or conviction. The works of Kurosawa, David lean and Tarkovsky are masters of cinematic movement.

[BionicDance]

Can we at least agree that shakey-cam is an abomination that needs to end?

[knifedreamer]

This is a critique I have of James Wan’s horror films. He uses a lot of movement which breaks the tension instead of builds it. The Haunting of Hill House & The Marvelous Mrs Maisel both do camera movements very well.

[GhoulishExpeditions]

Can't wait for this entire interview to be released.

[TheFeelButton]

Pushing the primal buttons! Cheers Brad and Film Courage!!

[patrickfreeman]

I personally hate shaky-cam and any kind of camera movement for its own sake.

[christopherquinn]

I have always wondered does the type of film make a difference in how it might be shot. Would you use for example different camera movements and coverage for a romcom versus a drama or action picture?

[ibzillaire]

One thing that I don't hear people touch on often is how story is told through "cuts" - from one image to another. and how using two images(two ideas) cut together can create a third idea in the audiences mind. Alot of movies that are made today are filmed with the goal of either beauty\aesthetics or just to follow the actors around and no intention to tell story through image. (David Mamet has a book on this).

[davetheimpaler]

Some people always try to argue the Spanish version of Dracula is a superior film to the Tod Browning/Bela Lugosi classic because of the camera movements and rudimentary special effects but I completely disagree.
The camera movements only serve to ruin the atmosphere and the early special effects break the immersion.
Whereas the Browning/Lugosi version is timeless.

[petrub]

Listen to the first sentence and that's the whole thing. After that he says nothing just rambling. Thanks, anyway

[MarioLanzas.]

2:03 Pitty that most visual effects nowadays do the exact opposite. especially CG animators seem to give more priority to show off how much detail can they add to their work than actually do something seamlessly integrated in the story. It's very distracting.

[VincentStevenStudio]

Michael Bay is an example of bad camera movement. He moves it in ways that is jarring and awkward.

[BionicDance]

This guy keeps saying, ""And the audience will feel X, " or, "The audience will be wondering why X, " or whatever...and I think that's a very wrong assumption.
I think that's how a _filmmaker_ might think of it, but your average moviegoer...? Probably not. They probably won't be thinking, "Ooohh, the lighting is different! Bet that means something!" or "Why aren't we seeing that character's face?"
I don't think most people go to the movies for Art™...the movies with broad appeal tend to have more in common with stories told around a campfire than they do with writers and painters; they serve a very different purpose, and I don't think this guy is taking that into account.