A new Nerdwriter clip puts a 30-year-old film scene deservedly in the spotlight - under the motto "The Director Who Revolutionized The POV Shot", it demonstrates how director Kathryn Bigelow implemented the well-known chase scene in Point Break (1991), which subsequently found many imitators.
After a bank robbery, FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) pursues the leader of a criminal surfer gang, Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) - the interesting thing here is how the audience is placed virtually in the middle of the action and partly in the perspective of the characters (POV - Point of View) via very deliberately chosen shots. The energy and speed of the chase should be felt immediately. Several means were used to achieve this, such as wide focal lengths and tearing pans, but the basic requirement was a camera set-up that allowed cameraman James Muro to keep pace with the running protagonists.
When the film was shot, there weren&t even any serious digital cameras on the horizon, let alone a GoPro or a gimbal. So the so-called PogoCam was developed especially for the filming, consisting of a very compact 35mm camera on a small rig, which is said to have been equipped with two gyro stabilizers at the bottom. Of course, Muro could not look through a classic camera viewfinder during the race, which is why a kind of frame was attached to the top for rough image control. The whole thing could be operated with one hand, but weighed around 9 kilos.
Here again the scene in question, from about 1:30 the chase starts on foot:
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