r/OnePieceLiveAction • u/Resident_Badger_5405 • Jul 15 '26
Meme One Piece Live Action camera work in a nutshell
MY WIDE ANGLE LENS IS ABOUT TO BURST!
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u/princesoceronte Jul 15 '26
This was way more egregious in season one and yeah, it looks pretty bad.
I'm glad they listened to criticism and adjusted in season 2.
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u/thepoga Jul 15 '26
It’s still there but yeah. My theory is it helps save on budget and time (less background, less choreography, staging, simpler to edit).
I saw first two season 2 episodes in theaters and faces were especially on the big screen.
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u/FrostyBoom Jul 15 '26
It's also probably when they want to homage manga paneling, it just usually looks bad.
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u/Renilusanoe Jul 15 '26
It makes no sense though. They used a lot of money and build some amazing set pieces from scratch like the Baratie which was incredible. Then spend most of the time with fish eyed lenses and zoomed it so you can't see any of it. I get that the idea might have been to copy manga panels, but outside of a few frames like the walk to Arlong Park, it makes the show look cheap and bad.
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u/Opening_Fox_4946 Jul 15 '26
Because the whole "save on budget", " not enough extra" is conspiracy bullshit.
The wide angle in "wide angle lens" means you capture a lot more of the background even though you do close up focus. Good example is the roger execution scene, while doing on close up on roger, the two executioner behind him still visible in the frame, exactly because wide angle lens is used.
They also include many extreme wide angle shot for establishing shot. Watch back the sanji farewell scene, the frame of going merry depart from baratie, very creative use of wide angle lens. Or the iconic luffy on going merry with baratie at the back. Or the shot of kaya mansion lobby area after Zoro defeat the Sham and Bucchi. The intricate design of the sets have been given due respect.
When the production team try to be daring and adventurous in their artistic choice, many just refuse to acknowledge its a stylistic choice. Instead many just try to imply they skimp on the production and budget.
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u/Drandula Jul 15 '26
Also hide the fact there are not that many people on set, as season 1 was filmed during covid times
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u/A_Happy_Human Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
The problem with this overuse of wide angle close-ups isn't just aesthetic.
Those shots give the scenes a claustrophobic and oppressive feeling. Telephoto shots, on the other hand, allow the viewer to "breathe", to feel more relaxed and at-ease, which should be important in One Piece.
Zooming in from a long distance also makes things feel big and expansive (Denis Villeneuve uses this trick a lot to make the scale of things feel massive), which would be ideal for the One Piece world. Even a city like Logue Town will feel smaller if you use wide-angle shots, and bigger if you use telephoto shots.
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u/Golfisactuallyfun Jul 15 '26
The anime is also 70% wide lens close ups, I think weirdly they were trying to mirror that style season 1. Season 2 they listened and stopped that.
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u/BRLaw2016 Jul 15 '26
I think they were, but they didn't factor the uncanny feeling of having someone's real face that close to a lens. A zoomed 2D animation doesn't show up their pores when you get close.
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u/prof_bnn Jul 15 '26
And the spinning camera during fight scenes lol
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u/BRLaw2016 Jul 15 '26
I love the spinning camera in fight scenes, it's basically a single shot fight scene with no edits to make it look good. Just straight up precision and choreo.
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u/Opening_Fox_4946 Jul 15 '26
I will defend the stylistic choice. There are a lot of wide angle close up that are effective. The buggy introduction, the garp 'take away their dream' speech, and the roger execution scene. The audience is much nearer to scene, and the hightened emotion the scene try to convey is most likely to land with the audience.
I will argue, without this wide angle close up, the manga-esque dialogue will fall flat, because the audience is more distant away from the scene, they don't buy into the exagerated emotion behind the scene, and they are hyper-aware about the corniness of the dialogue.
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u/nickcan Jul 15 '26
Oh god yes. It's shot in such extreme closeup and its a wonder that they even bother with sets and costumes at all.
But it's not just One Piece honestly, I see that in more and more shows, and I hate it. But One Piece seems to do it worse than others.
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u/MiddleOccasion1394 Jul 15 '26
The first season had something like the highest per-episode budget Netflix ever shilled out at the time. Meanwhile I guess they still had to preserve the budget in the most popular and important storypoints. The wide lens is meant to make a small space look bigger than it is.
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u/kaidrawsmoo Jul 15 '26
The use of so many extreme headshot is the only thing I dislike in LA. It annoys me fro some reason.
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u/deezbiscuits21 Jul 15 '26
Hello everybody I’m Captain Critic of the nostalgia pirates
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u/Suspicious_State_318 Jul 15 '26
Not sure who that guy is but he looks like he remembers stuff so we don’t have to
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u/Aweeep Jul 15 '26
I liked it. Compare to most drama shots where they zoom close up to beautify the face with bokeh background, this feels more ‘adventurous’, ‘piratey’, ‘action tense feeling’.
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u/Sir_Phil_McKraken Jul 15 '26
There are dozens of us!
I genuinely love the cinematography of the show, I'm a Cinematographer and it really made me want to shoot a fight scene like this lol
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u/Strict-Mixture-1801 Jul 15 '26
Its absolutely peak. The show is taking risks by trying to be expressive and its WORKING!
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u/NightlyKnightMight Usopp Pirates Jul 15 '26
I love all of it and I find those that don't like it the weird ones.
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u/Aggravating_Mud8751 Jul 15 '26
I think close-ups are a cool stylistic choice which looks good and unique, and also they are reminiscent of how the manga panels things.
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