Camera work-lightsaber battles

[Hannibal]

Did anyone else think the camera work was less than desirable?

 

In TPM the camera just sort of followed the battle so you could see the action. In AOTC there was lots of movement and edits you could barely tell what was going on. Especially the Obi-Wan vs Dooku fight.

 

BTW I loved it when Obi-Wan catches Dooku's lightning on his saber. That's the greatest ever.

[TheOneJediJJ]

I caught that too... Some of the camera effects seemed really different that in any of the other Star Wars movies. Like that weird zoom in on the transports right before they blew up... what was that? And the "artistic" close up on Dooku and Anakin's faces as they were dueling. The saber fighting was much weaker than Episode 1, until yoda came in... The filming was much different though, but I think that is all a part of the dark nature of the film(?) I dunno... it all clicked though. I have to see it so many more times!

[Jedi_Monk]

Like that weird zoom in on the transports right before they blew up... what was that?

Lucas was obviously trying to get a hand-held camera feeling, a documentary effect to make the battle seem more realistic. They're common tricks in war movies, but this time it was done with a completely CG environment.

 

I would've liked to see a pulled back, one-cut version of the Anakin/Dooku battle, but I really liked the strobe effect, too--it gave it a certain feeling. And, if you think about it, that battle will be something uniquly Star Wars, as people don't generally fight eachother with neon tubes

[Clone142]

Yes the close-up effects were not bad but the lightsaber duels could, in my opinion, have greatly benefited from being longer and include both close-ups and more traditional camera angles.

[eastcoast2895]

i think that these saber battles were more story driven than the ones in ep1, so the camera angles tried to express more feelings. the saber duel in ep1 was not involved as much as what was happening around them (more centered around the three people involved) while the saber duel in ep2 was either save the galaxy from war or die trying (although it was more like loose an arm trying). also i think the camera effect of the glow on the faces was beautiful. the anger on anakin's face and the evil on dooku's were expressed stronger than if seeing the battle from a good point of view were the entire fight was seen. so the summarize i think the camera battle this time was part of the story and therefore shot in a way to show interaction in between characters and therefore couldn't be that long and must be shot up close. BUT i do wish that the battles were as long as the one in ep1 and shot so we could see the fight.