10 Film Scenes That Broke The Camera
3. The Family Harasses Marta - Knives Out
Away from the intensity of mega-resolution IMAX rigs now, we have the comparatively simple shooting setup of Rian Johnson's brilliant murder-mystery Knives Out.
The scene where Marta (Ana de Armas) finds out that she's the sole inheritor of Harlan Thrombey's (Christopher Plummer) fortune is punctuated by a memorable shot as she walks outside and is pursued by the entire irate Thrombey clan.
There's a noticeable transition from smooth Steadicam footage to shakier handheld - a seemingly intentional creative choice on Johnson's part to signify how suddenly destabilised and chaotic Marta's life has become.
But as the Knives Out Twitter account revealed a few years ago, the sudden shift to handheld was a total accident. Johnson was operating the camera himself during this take when the Steadicam rig suddenly broke, forcing him to take the camera handheld to prevent blowing the take.
glad you think its sexy- it only happened bc rian broke the steadicam https://t.co/kByXbTPU8e— Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (@KnivesOut) March 11, 2020
Ultimately Johnson felt that the jarring motion as he discarded the Steadicam rig fit the scene perfectly, and he was absolutely right.
Watching this scene without this knowledge, you'd never guess it was anything other than a totally deliberate, motivated stylistic flourish.