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Playing With / Screen Shake

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Basic Trope: The screen and/or set is shaken to let the audience know something's going on.

  • Straight: On an episode of Space Trek, the ship is hit, causing it to shake and everyone to scramble for their battle stations.
  • Exaggerated: The shaking is so bad that Captain Glick falls out of his chair, and lots of people come to Dr. Kennedy for some nasty injuries even before the actual battle.
  • Downplayed: The ship shudders a bit, and Captain Glick asks for a status report before taking action.
  • Justified: Can be caused by just about any Negative Space Wedgie, so long as said wedgie would cause an impact on the ship or the time-space continuum.
  • Inverted: The ship causes the space scenery around it to shake as it goes through.
  • Subverted: The ship is impacted, but does not shake.
  • Double Subverted: But as the ship is barraged by more Applied Phlebotinum/asteroids/what have you, the shaking commences.
  • Parodied:
    • The entire crew comes to expect this to happen so frequently (i.e. at least Once an Episode) that they wear suction cups or duct tape on the soles of their shoes, and everything is bolted to the floor.
    • The ship starts shaking and the alarms start going off. Everyone is so used to this that they just look up briefly and go back to reading magazines/eating/whatever.
    • When the ship is hit, people go flying in completely different directions.
    • "Ensign Expandable, can you tighten the Bridge Video Recorder's mount?"
  • Zig Zagged: Some NSWs cause the ship to shake, others don't.
  • Averted: The ship does not shake, either because no Negative Space Wedgie is given to it, or it doesn't affect the ship that way.
  • Enforced: We need to create drama and show that something is happening.
  • Lampshaded: "Caaaaappttaaaaiiinnn, weeee'rrrreee shaaaaaakkiiiiinnnnggggg!"
  • Invoked: The Foreheadians launch an attack on the ship.
  • Exploited: Capt. Glick steers the ship to get hit on purpose, and uses the momentum to create an even more devastating line of fire.
  • Defied: The writers feel this is Cliché and so find a different way of creating drama and action sequences.
  • Discussed: "All that hit the ship was a tiny rock! It won't shake, it's perfectly stable on its own!"
  • Conversed: "Why would a spaceship shake so much like that?" "The writers want to show us that something's happening. It must be big, 'cause Capt. Glick fell out of his chair!"
  • Played For Laughs: Someone falls suggestively on top of someone else.
  • Played For Drama: The shaking sets the mood and leads into an action sequence.
  • Played For Horror: The shaking camera is focused on unsecured barrels of hydrochloric acid lying above the cast.

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