I'm not sure if I have the terminology right, but I think it was filmed in documentary style. My point has always been this can be done with a steady camera while thinking of the opening of Saving Private Ryan. I see no excuse for the jerky home movie effect, because it is too detrimental. The other aspect of this type of filming is that it boxes in the audience into only seeing what the characters see. It's a trade off between a dramatization and projecting the feeling the audience is watching something real. I'd also make a comparison with the flight scenes in War of the Worlds which was not documentary style, but it still gives an excellent "human masses trying to escape" vibe as I think of the van scene followed shortly by the ferry scene. Despite this, Cloverfield is a good movie if it does not give you motion sickness. However in this regard, it's much better than Blair Witch. If I remember correctly, Cloverfield previews went out of their way to minimize how it was filmed .
I agree 100% about the jerky home video effect. It's nauseating. And boxes you in to what you can/can't see. But I understand why it has to be that way (documentary style, as you said). I just don't enjoy it. Cloverfield was an exception, for me, because I got so sucked into the story that I didn't really mind or notice the effect as much.
What I really hate is when "normal" (not the home video style) movies have the jerky camera movements just to evoke tension/intensity/urgency/stress to an otherwise boring or poorly acted scene, when a steady camera would have sufficed. A prime example that comes to mind is the awful Denzel Washington train movie Unstoppable (just thinking about that movie makes my blood boil, I hated it so much). Even in non-moving indoor scenes, like in the dispatcher's office when the "runaway" train hits :gasp: 20 mph, the camera shakes all over the place, just to make a lackluster moment more intense, and it is so very unnecessary. A few minutes into the movie, I realized I was so tensed up. It wasn't because the movie was suspenseful, because it's not AT ALL, but I felt like I was bracing myself from all the camera shaking and moving. And that effect is used throughout the entire movie, its just detrimentally unwatchable.
There are a few, and very few in my opinion, instances in which it actually works though. One example is the final scene in Twister where they've run into the shack and they're trying to fasten their belts onto the metal pipes. The shaky camera works because of the actual urgency of the situation, and I think adds to the scene. It wasn't overused in the least throughout the movie, and in fact, it's hardly even noticeable when it is used unless you're looking for it.
