Movie With Static Shots Only?

[Rasmus Larsen]

"Sånger från andra våningen" is a featurefilm with only static shots.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120263/

[Heath McKnight]

A good mix on longer films is always good, too. I have a friend that does one thing for everything...handheld. It gets REALLY old after a while.

heath

[Luke Neumann]

For sound issues it makes sense to stay in one place with the camera...unless your actors have wireless mics, then you can do whatever you want and have the same volume...if you are using your cam's on board mic for sound then you SHOULD stay in one place.

If you are filming a scene where you won't be using any sound...I would say move around. You could film out of a slow moving car or in a wheelbarrow...there are so many ways to move without too much camera shake...While filming Evil Dead, Sam Raimi used to grease up a 2x4 with Vasoline and slide the camera along it.

I would suggest...unless you are using a Wireless or a Boom Mic...stay in one place for Dialogue Scenes...and move around for most others

[Stan Harkleroad]

Originally Posted by Dylan Pank

Only speculating here, but if you think Clerks is the best low budget movie ever, Ozu might not be your thing - though there is a running gag about diarrhoea in Good Morning. Or was it a gag about running diarrhoea?

I don't think anyone said it's the best low budget movie ever made but it is a good example of what the OP was asking about.

[Ken Campbell]

The problem with static shots is that the video risks having that "flat" look to it. Dimensionality comes from changing the position of the subject or the camera, or both. You could add a lot of visual interest with just something simple like this www.glidetrack.com

[Matthew Overstreet]

Static shots can work. Just make sure you put the effort into editing. Try experimenting with shot length ... think of it like the beat of a song. You can mess with the viewers perception of time fairly easily.

If you want a moment to seem drawn out, it's been said that all you need to do is keep the shots at a steady pace ... like 3 or 4 seconds per shot, no variation. If you want to speed things up a little, try varying the shot lengths more.

[Aric Mannion]

Originally Posted by Federico Lang

Wallace and Grommit, all made on still shots, also the corpes' bride.. it not that difficult but it long....long...

There's really NO panning in those? I think there was in the Wallace and Gromit movie.
I would say don't be afraid to pan and tilt unless you find this an interesting challenge to work in.
I think "In the Mood For Love" was all static, although I really thought every movie had pans or tilts. If you are familiar with that cinematographer, he's always kinetic (ashes of time redux, fallen angels, chungking express) but the director thought it would be an interesting challenge to use only stagnant shots.

[Lee Stokes]

Seun, in general, be a slave to your story. If that means it must all be done with static shots, so be it. But don't force it into a box it doesn't fit in.

[Michael Horton]

Francis Coppola's recent film Tetro was all locked off

[Lee Stokes]

Originally Posted by Dylan Pank

You need to check out the movies of Yasujiro Ozu. from the fifites onwards he hardly moved the camera in any of his films.

For DVD it's irrelevant, but for web distribution you're right, it will make the movies far easier to compress.

Yes, I just watched 'Tokyo Twilight' last night. At the time of starting the DVD I had forgotten this thread (or more accurately, the mention of Yasujiro Ozu), and then about halfway through, realized that there hadn't been any camera movements.
Very interesting. Much thought had to go into the shots, and the actions that would take place within those shots (not many, in this case).

Nice work!
Lee

[Matthew Overstreet]

I just shot my feature film with nothing but static shots and really long takes. I guess you could consider it a somewhat experimental style, but it worked fairly well and principle photography was a breeze.

You'd think the style would be boring, but we kept the turning points going and we have a lot of room for error since it's a somewhat voyeuristic feeling... it keeps you interested.

[Lee Stokes]

Originally Posted by Matthew Overstreet

I just shot my feature film with nothing but static shots and really long takes. I guess you could consider it a somewhat experimental style, but it worked fairly well and principle photography was a breeze.

You'd think the style would be boring, but we kept the turning points going and we have a lot of room for error since it's a somewhat voyeuristic feeling... it keeps you interested.

Is it the film you note in your signature? I have already sent the link to my personal email so that I may watch your film later, at home.
=]

Lee

[Matthew Overstreet]

Yes, we just finished principle photography last Thursday.

We've got a rough cut together, it came in at about an hour and thirty three minutes. We put together a trailer based off that rough cut and the sound is VERY... rough. The audio was probably the worst part of the entire production, but I've got someone who can clean it up and all that good stuff. We've shown it to a few select individuals and reactions were positive. I'm happy.

Not too sure where we're going to go with it yet, debating whether we should go for local festivals or higher end fests. I guess anything is worth a shot.