The "unchained camera technique" ("Entfesselte Kamera" in German) was an innovation by filmmaker F.W. Murnau that allowed for filmmakers to get shots from cameras in motion enabling them to use pan shots, tracking shots, tilts, crane shots etc.
The technique was introduced by Murnau in his 1924 silent film, The Last Laugh, and is arguably the most important stylistic innovation of the 20th century, setting the stage for some of the most commonly used cinematic techniques of modern contemporary cinema.
Famous quotes containing the words camera and/or technique:
“In what camera do you taste
Poison, in what darkness set
Glittering scales and point
The tipping tongue?”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience there is no theater. Every technique learned by the actor, every curtain, every flat on the stage, every careful analysis by the director, every coordinated scene, is for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, our evaluators, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful.”
—Viola Spolin (b. 1911)