Camera Chase

In a documentary or news program, the narrator walks briskly towards the camera for no good reason to convey a sense of "dynamic energy" or some such rubbish. Often parodied by having the announcer hit his head on the camera. May also include instances where the reporter/narrator walks toward the camera, not briskly, but kind of slowly as if to impart a sense of intimacy. A newsman's Power Walk.

Examples of Camera Chase include:

• Parodied in the Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch "Hell's Grannies", where the reporter falls down an open manhole.
• Eric Idle used a variation in "The Rutles", by walking toward a camera that continues to speed up until he's sprinting to keep up with it. Later on the same joke is used in reverse, with Idle walking in front of the accelerating camera truck until it runs him down, and he has to continue his narration from a hospital bed.
• Done constantly in the History Channel's "Underworld" series, in which the host never stops moving while talking to the camera. Indeed, most of the time he's running along after the camera while dramatic music plays, apparently trying to convince viewers that this documentary series is an Indiana Jones movie.
• Canadian news-entertainer Rick Mercer always does this for his rants, while the camera backs away to keep the same distance. He also turns a lot to keep it extra dynamic.
• The walking-into-a-pole version is being used in a US insurance company's ads, as of 2009. The best part is, it wasn't staged for the ad—it really happened. Chuck Storm is apparently a bit of a klutz.
• Used to good effect in an episode of the telecourse Discovering Psychology. The shot opens on Philip Zimbardo kneeling in front of a pond. He stands up and begins talking about how people create a "mental blueprint" of the world around them—and starts walking towards the camera, where the pond should be, according to our mental blueprint.
• Parodied on Charlie Brooker's Newswipe in the sketch "the world's most generic news report"

Charlie: Next, a walkie-talkie preamble from the orator, pacing steadily toward the lens, punctuating every other sentence with a hand gesture, and ignoring all the pricks milling around him like he's going through the fucking Matrix, before coming to a halt and posing a question: What comes next?

• Parodied in a Mr. Show sketch, with David Cross playing a documentary show host. Whenever the camera cuts back to him, he starts at the back of the room and slowly walks forward as the camera zooms in. This happens several times until he runs out of room and hasn't finished his statement. After a moment of confusion, he steps back and the camera zooms out again so he can resume walking and talking.