Cloverfield

One of last summer’s blockerbusters was Cloverfield. A reason why it was so popular is because of the unconventional way the film was shot. The movie was shot in each main characters’ first person point of view. The whole movie was suppose to mimic sequences of footage shot by a handheld recorder as the characters flee through Manhattan from the unknown creature that is attacking them. The movie was also edited for rhythm, each segment is pieced together, beginning and ending abruptly to mimic a footage of unedited, homemade video. Again, to make the film appear to have been recorded by characters experiencing madness and escaping from peril, most of the movie is shot in tilting movements to imitate the characters running while filming. The movie mostly takes place during the night, so for parts of the movie, the lighting and color (green in quality) mimic the “night vision” function of most handheld recorders. Furthermore, the movie is filled with many nonliteral sounds that are usually edited out in most movies. The scratchy sounds of the shuffling of the camera, the “ding” sound of pressing the “record” button and the whipping sound of wind as the characters run around all contribute to the unconventional effects of this movie.

Here is a trailer of the movie: