According to Wikipedia, experiments using a hand-held camera in film began as early as 1925, however, I feel like I've been seeing it a lot more the last few years...maybe too much. In my opinion, there is a right and a wrong way to utilize the shaky cam...and sometimes, the way director's choose to use it doesn't work.
I like the use of the shaky cam in a lot of movies. Saving Private Ryan used hand-held cameras during the Normandy beach scene at the beginning to make you really feel like you were a part of it. It put you on the edge of your seat and made the horrors of war even more horrible (probably part of the reason I still will not watch that movie a second time) It made sense and it wasn't distracting...it worked to make the movie better. The Blair Witch Project took this style to another level and used the shaky cam to make their film look like a found footage documentary. It is shot exactly like a documentary in that it is only about the experiences of the moment and not about the characters involved.
Since then the shaky cam/found footage idea has been used in many movies...from Cloverfield to the Paranormal Activity movies. Mostly the shaky cam just makes me dizzy and has me almost shouting "Turn around! Look the other way!" at the screen.
Recently I saw End of Watch starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. Peña and Gyllenhall play two police officers in L.A. who stumble upon some stuff and get in trouble with a drug cartel...I think? Mostly we just follow them around as they make jokes in their car and arrest people...also the find some really horrible crap in people's houses. For some reason Jake Gyllenhaal has a camera. He tries to explain why at the beginning of the movie...something about law school and a film class and how he's making a movie...or something?...but he's mostly just videotaping his friends in locker rooms and holding the camera when maybe he should be focusing on chasing down that criminal and using his gun properly. So the footage cuts from Gyllenhaal's camera to their dashboard camera...or maybe it's just his camera on the dashboard because I thought dashboard cameras were supposed to face out?...not into the car, and sometimes seems to be held by some mysterious man in Gyllenhaal's closet (someone is recording Gyllenhaal's sexy scene with Anna Kendrick...so I'm going to assume that it's Joe the creepy closet man...either that or it's Michael Peña and that would make for a whole different movie). Also...the criminals have a camera...and they're recording themselves too. Everyone likes to have video evidence of that one time they drive by shot all those people right? There are also some steady transition shots of the sunrise and some palm trees.
Overall I liked the movie...but I feel like you either have to choose to do something documentary style or not. The shaky cam effect really worked to increase the drama and really turn those tense moments into nail biting ones. It did exactly what it was supposed to do when things got rough. But don't introduce the movie as "hey I'm Jake Gyllenhaal and I'm shooting a friendly little school film about all the people I shoot everyday" and then have scenes from someone else's perspective...as well as scenes that were shot the normal way and added for flow (hey look everyone...the sun is rising so that means it's tomorrow!).
You can use the shaky cam and not introduce it as a plot point (like Saving Private Ryan) or film documentary style (like The Blair Witch Project), but it doesn't make a lot sense when you try to have it both ways.
On a side note I learned how to type ñ on the computer today.
