Filming Style of Arrested Development

Like many people I am a huge fan of the TV show Arrested Development and when Season 4 came out, I decided to re-watch the first three seasons and noticed something interesting. There is a very distinct camera style that is used during the show. Almost the whole show is shot handheld by someone who is a little too shaky. Here is a clip to show you what I mean.

The dialogue scenes seem to be entirely shot by cameras on shoulder mounts using fast paced zooms and pans. Normally people discourage this kind of filming because it feels somehow sloppy but for me, it somehow works for the show. Here is my theory on why. For those of you who haven't seen the show first off... watch it... secondly it is about a man named Michael Bluth who is forced to take over his family affairs after his father is put in prison. However the rest of his dysfunctional family make his job unbearable. This is why I think the show is shot so frantically, it is supposed to represent how frantic each episode is. Every episode Michael needs to overcome some obstacle being put up by someone in his family. Since Michael is the protagonist I think that maybe the camera represents how frantic and unorganized his job is.

 

Well anyway that is my theory on the interesting camera style for Arrested Development please comment if you have any questions.