One of the most striking examples of camera movement in recent memory for me was in Gus Van Sant's Elephant. Elephant is the story of a school shooting, partially inspired by the Columbine massacre, that is horrifying in large part because of the juxtaposition of trivial high school life and the life-and-death tragedy of a murderous assault. The camera movement highlights this disconnect between the mundane and the terrible, and lends a sickening element to a movie that is ultimately designed to sicken. In the above scene, a Steadicam tracks behind an unnamed character as he goes about his day. The long, uncut shot is captured in a way that mimics how we see the world: moving steady, at walking pace, directly behind the character. We are brought into an intimate view of his life... lingering at pretty girls in the hallway, following him through fields and doors and corridors as we are given a slice of his life. The camera movement feels so natural as to be almost unnoticeable, and this sets up the entire scene to be broken down. The long, slow, steady follow shots of this character contrast heavily with the rapid firing of bullets and sudden onslaught of bloodshed. This perfectly captures the juxtaposition I mentioned earlier and is a result of intentional, deliberate camera movement at its finest.
In a lighter tone, Gotye's extremely popular music video for Somebody That I Used to Know uses some interesting camera movement in the opening shot. The camera smoothly tracks over the left side of Gotye's body from head to toe. The song contemplates past relationships leading into hurtful breakups, and I love how the initial camerawork reflects the first stages of this emotional and taxing process. The camera slowly explores his body, revealing only a small portion at a time, the same way a lover might learn and become close to you during the whirlwind of meeting. The movement of the camera separates us from truly knowing the whole image of Gotye's body, which works perfectly with the concept of the song.
These two examples of camera movement have given me insight into what makes camera movement effective and what makes camera movement bad. First and foremost, I feel that camera movement must be motivated. This means that there must be a reason, or meaning behind making the camera move a certain way. If the story told by a shot could be better told still, then it should be. If the camera is moved on a dolly, or glidetrack, or steadicam, or anything without having a meaningful reason to, then the movement feels very jarring and unnecessary. The scene just doesn't feel right and the movement can take the viewer out of the story.
Similarly, if the technique of movement is executed poorly, then the camera movement can snatch the audience from the enraptured state of receiving the story. For instance, if the movie is cut so that the beginning of a glidetrack shot is seen, then the audience can subconsciously (or very consciously, if the sudden movement of the camera sliding along the track is obvious enough) realize that "this was shot on a camera". If they become aware of the medium of the work on any level, the suspension of disbelief and depth of the story are compromised. This reminds me a little bit of reading a good book: there comes a point where the reader is not merely "reading the words", but walking through the story in their mind. Every film should strive to do the same, and camera movement should aid this cause rather than negate it.
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