Perhaps his greatest filming tool, Howard Hawks has a great sense of motion in his shots. He knows how to rhythmically up speed while filming. In the film Bringing Up Baby, Hawks utilizes this skill by speeding up the shots all the way up. The pacing is at a maximum and if not attentive enough, the viewer misses out on the quick shots that are flawlessly designed.
In today's films, the camera might move slightly slow to bring focus to what's happening in the scene, Hawks foregoes that trope and speeds up the shot. The result is a more impactful film that keeps the viewer glued to the screen the entire time. This way the viewer is fully focused on the film, giving each shot an important role in the overall storyline.
Hawks throws out the window every style of filming that works for this genre of film and adopts a filming style that is so radical with a hint of controlled chaos that rewrites the entire rule book of filming. The roaring gags and filming that loosely emulates the speed and detachment of comic strips completely turn the plot on itself.
The result is a film that unearths the wild sides of the characters by delving deep into the human instinct and brings out something so revolutionary. While it may seem that there is no direction to Hawks' madness, he perfectly brings out the wildness and unpredictability in the characters in a way that remains true to the screenplay.
