So in the British version of The Office, it really matters that they’re being filmed: characters are aware of the camera, people have watched “the show” and seen things they did or said, and the camera affects what people do and the nature of the story. It’s incorporated into it in a thoughtful way.

(The first season of the US Office is the worst until the series is about to end, so I’d encourage anyone to watch it, if only for the season, third, and fourth seasons)

There a handful a find okay, and for me it comes down to this: there has to be a good reason why the story is being told this way. For instance, if the story is told through a handheld camera that’s running for the whole film (like, say, Cloverfield), there has to be a good rationale for that. Most films that use these trips don’t seem to consider them at all, sort of how sitcoms started adopting The Office-style framing. A movie like [REC] comes to mind as doing this successfully, because the characters are reporters and film as much as they can because they think they might expose something suspicious or hidden. Almost every other time, though, it’s just wanting to use shaky cams and limited perspective and security footage regardless of what might be best or most effective.