From The Director's Chair

September, 1983

Sydney Pollack (whose movies include Tootsie, The Electric Horseman, The Way We Were and This Property Is Condemned): The biggest problem with most home productions is that people get too complicated, trying to get special angles, and so on, instead of just letting something happen. And if you're handholding the camera, jerking is very hard to avoid. If you put the camera on the tripod, move slowly and zoom minimally, you will get a better result. When you get hold of one of these video cameras,...