Reel Planet

Tragedy in the Digital Age: Virginia Tech, One Year Later

Buildings fall. Explosions rip through the city. We watch helplessly as our friends run in horror and confusion. It feels like we are there with them. Like we are running too. This is not some nightmare, or some unthinkable disaster happening right now. This is the digital world of Cloverfield.

The concept of using a consumer level digital camera to tell a story has been on the rise in recent years. The “shaky cam” trend has experienced amazing growth in this post-911 decade, and it’s no surprise. The idea that no lens is insignificant, that they can all tell fascinating stories has captured the imagination of the film industry and the general public. As Hud, the man with the camera, says in Cloverfield, “Yeah, people are gonna want to know... how it all went down.”

In April 2007, Virginia Tech was racked with an event so monstrous, so incomprehensible, that one of the only things many Hokies could do was turn on their cameras and point them towards the nightmare. Capturing the sounds and the images in the moment allowed everyone to piece together the experiences of the day. The major news networks were salivating over pieces of footage from digital cameras and cell phones.

We are at a point in society where the technology truly allows anyone to create a story. So many tragedies have become more relevant because of the presence of an amateur with a camera. On Sept. 11, 2001, citizens were there, recording the events while trying to make sense of the horror. It happens in Iraq, where soldiers mount cameras to their helmets and send the footage back home. It happened at Virginia Tech. These stories are the real drama of our times, and Hollywood is savvy (if not necessarily ethical) enough to capitalize.

In real life, as a general rule, giant monsters do not destroy New York City. Shocking, but true. The idea of digital disaster, though, is that the audience is a participant in some “real” event. So, although Cloverfield gives us a giant monster, it’s actually about those roadblocks and tragedies that actually occur in our world. Maybe it is a terrorist’s bomb or maybe it is a school shooting. The monster is recorded by its victims, and when the image is shared with the public, the monster is held accountable for its actions.

The film industry thrives on the simple principle that people will pay money to see a intriguing story. The idea is to give the audience an immersive experience, to put them into the movie (and of course make 10 bucks). With shaky cam the immediacy of the story is obvious, and it all seems that much more relevant to the viewer.

Now that cameras are everywhere, even on our phones, every event becomes a movie. It’s almost a certainty that someone records the most mundane of situations and, of course, immediately uploads to YouTube. We’re living in a documentary age, and it is becoming more apparent due to films like Cloverfield.

As Virginia Tech passes the one year anniversary of the April 16th tragedy, there will surely be a wealth of footage, shot by amateurs, that will be featured on the internet, and on television, and possibly one day in a feature film. Hokies are always going to have thoughts and feelings raging through them, but when those ideas are caught on tape, it allows an audience to connect. It times of tragedy, those connections are crucial.

It is not hard to understand the concept of the shaky cam revolution. Digital cameras are compact, inexpensive, and versatile. They are a perfect tool to document life and tragedy in the moment. The shaky cam trend and the use of digital media to document every aspect of disaster and drama will be with us for a very long time.