These guys are right... it all depends on the "look" you are going after.
Each show or movie develops it's own "visual language," and its up to you to define that language, or at least oversee its evolution. It's not a doc, but here's one example... the cable series "The Wire." The directors and DoPs had a carefully crafted visual language on that show, that didn't take but a couple of episodes to evolve into a fairly concrete set of guidelines. In the end, the language that developed was an effort to always use long focal lengths, always use dollys on tracks, and always keep the camera moving. That became the visual language. Now, as I said, it was an
effort to follow those rules. Sometimes they were broken. Sometimes they would use wider lenses, or a handheld or Steadicam shot, or a static camera.... but not often.
In the "handheld vs. non-handheld" question, I think it's interesting to watch a show and make a guess at their visual language guidelines... and see when they follow them and when they stray. "Law & Order," for example, evolved its language through its two decades. For years it was fairly straightforward: handheld exteriors and tripod/dolly interiors. But eventually that evolved to handheld exteriors AND handheld interiors EXCEPT when in the courtroom which were dolly shots but with a "loose" pan head. Now, that's continuing to evolve, as sometimes you see handheld in their courtoom scenes as well.
Again, it just depends on what you want it to LOOK like... balanced of course with what's logistically possible (and convenient) at your various locations. For docs, what you often see (and what seems to work well) are tripod interviews and handheld pretty much everything else.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
