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When you compare these movies side by side, the difference is unmistakable. They are choppy, chaotic and a lot of times just confusing. They lack that fundamental clarity that we’ve become so used to. The camera also rarely moves and when it does, it follows the actions of its characters, accentuating speed and power.īut modern action movies aren’t shot this way. To achieve this, scenes were often shot in a wide angle, with most of the body visible in the frame. And it makes sense, earlier action films, especially martial art pictures, focused on showing the physical feats of its stars. The one common denominator among older action films is clarity. It's sometimes so bad that you may ask yourself, "What am I watching?" So how did we exactly get to this? Let’s rewind a bit. The shaky camera, fast cuts and just plain overall mayhem.
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You've probably seen this countless times.
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