FFS! Shots You'd Like To Ban

[Jim_Campbell]

Hideous visual cliches that should be banished from film and TV ...?

Can I start with: character walking away (possibly in slow motion) from something that explodes behind them, with no visible duck-and-cover reaction from said character. Cheesy line of dialogue optional.

Cheers!

Jim

[TordelBack]

Endless opening shots that sweep in low over the sea the towards the shore.

[Roger Godpleton]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqz5dbs5zmo

[Professah Byah]

The slo-mo montage of various characters growing as people after learning the lesson of the episode, without dialogue, while a pop song plays for far too long, although I realise that this means the death of every US television show currently being made apart from 24.

Which I can live with.

[Lady Festina]

Careful Jim / Tordel - you're in danger of wiping out the careers of Michael Bay and Tony Scott....

Personal selection would be:

- The "leap in the air whilst bringing heavy sword down into head / torso of enemy", as popularised by Russell Crowe in Gladiator and used in every Classical costume drama since

- Mirrored bathroom cabinet closing to reveal the face of the monster behind you (just been done too many times)

- Barbara Windsor

[Jim_Campbell]

as popularised by Russell Crowe in Gladiator and used in every Classical costume drama since

Can I add: walking through the fields touching the grass/wheat/cannabis ...? Pretty sure this first turned up in Gladiator* and has was almost immediately copied by every other film wanting to portray its hard-man-hero as having a connection to the land/his family/his heritage ...

Cheers!

Jim

*Fully prepared to be proved wrong with a cinematic antecedent to this, but it was certainly popularized by Oor Pidley.

[The Doctor Alt 8]

What's this? No one has nominated the classic "I don't like it... it's too quiet!" Or has that been used so many times it's sacrosanct?

[Jim_Campbell]

What's this? No one has nominated the classic "I don't like it... it's too quiet!" Or has that been used so many times it's sacrosanct?

Without wishing to be too picky, that's a line of dialogue rather than a shot ...

Cheers!

Jim

[TordelBack]

I was going to add swirly helicopter shot of mountain top(s), but actually I quite like that one...

[Jim_Campbell]

I was going to add swirly helicopter shot of mountain top(s), but actually I quite like that one...

That's largely down to Peter Jackson, isn't it ...? I'm sure we'll be sick to fucking death of it before long, but I'm happy to let that one pass for now ...

Cheers!

Jim

[JOE SOAP]

The boring sex scene, rarely involved in the plot and bereft of story logic in most flicks. There are rare exceptions.

[Roger Godpleton]

Any "between the legs" shots in soft porn. Vaginas are just gross.

[uncle fester]

'The big reveal' often with the aid of a camera on a rising crane to show a city/landscape/other element of wonder - often coupled with a single character slowly walking forward at the bottom in amazement.

Otherwise known as 'the Spielberg'

[radiator]

Pretty much anything involving slo-mo - especially Matrix parodies, which were tired within about 6 months of The Matrix being released.

Ludicrous cgi sfx shots in which the 'camera' spins and darts around in a completely impossible way - theses sorts of shots completely draw attention to how fake the cgi looks. The more naturalistic the better for that sort of thing, imo.

[Mike Carroll]

One of my least favourites is the one where we see a head-shot of one character in a conversation and it goes on for a few seconds too long, which automatically tells you that the other person isn't in the room and the character is practising his lines in the mirror.

There's a related shot where we see both characters only from the neck up for a couple of moments, heralding a "surprise" reveal that they're naked, or wearing strange costumes, etc.