Camera Movement Style in Indonesian OTT Originals: Two-Case Using Nielsen’s Five Functions

Abstract

Indonesian original series produced for over-the-top (OTT) platforms increasingly rely on cinematic camera mobility. However, scholarship has rarely clarified how camera movement operates as a recurring directorial style in Indonesian OTT originals, particularly when its functions are specified systematically. This article addresses this gap through a qualitative two-case study of Little Mom (2021) and Zona Merah (2024). The analysis is conducted within Bordwell’s poetics-of-cinema approach and is anchored in Nielsen’s five functions of camera movement (orienting, inflectional, rhythmic, reflexive, and abstract), which are applied to selected key scenes where camera movement is formally salient. Data were generated through repeated scene observation, interviews with key creators, and document and literature review. Findings indicate that each series develops a patterned movement signature. In Little Mom, sustained drift and crab movement, together with follow-orbit mobility, recur as a stylistic strategy that modulates melodramatic affect. At narrative peaks, CGI-assisted traversal and compositing extend movement possibilities and cue a limited reflexive awareness of the image’s constructedness. In Zona Merah, one-shot handheld traversal is combined with follow-and-scan pans and whip-pan impact beats to maintain spatial orientation under threat while intensifying sensory tension. Across both cases, orienting, inflectional, rhythmic, and reflexive functions recur most consistently, whereas the abstract function appears only marginally in the analyzed corpus. The article conceptualizes camera movement as a recurring directorial style in Indonesian OTT originals and proposes a two-case analytical framework linking motion patterns, visual stylistic identity, and immersive viewing experience.