Single Camera Techniques

Single Camera Techniques

This essay is going to explain everything you need to know when it comes to making a single camera film. It is going to explain all of the techniques that are needed in all the aspects such as lighting, sound, editing and the different types of shots that are specific to single camera productions. It will also explain the difference between single camera techniques to multi-camera techniques. And finally why single camera techniques is better for certain types of media productions than others.

First I will talk about the camera as it is the most important thing when it comes to a single camera production. A single camera production is done by only using one camera all throughout the shooting of the film,TV production. Using a single camera is good as it attracts the audience to making them believe that they are apart of the film. This also means that it is easy for the director as that have full control of every shot, where as if you are filming a multi camera production you have to change the positions of certain cameras as there are multiple cameras on set shooting so a camera might be in a shot.

This is similar for lighting as it is much easier to get the perfect lighting for each shot as you can place the light and the reflector you want in the shot to get the perfect lighting and tone to the person, where as with multi camera productions you have to be careful with the other cameras as a light or reflector may be seen in shot.

The audio sound is much harder to use when doing a single camera production as you have to film each shot and angle individually so when it comes to editing there is a certain amount of overlay. This is when you have the different ambient sounds in the back ground of the clips and once edited the sounds jump around with each shot. So to overcome this you have to film a little bit more on each shot so when overlapping the clips you slowly lower the sound on one and raise the sound on the clip that overlaps it so the sounds emerge together to make a clear sound. It is easier for multi camera productions as all the cameras catch every scene at once so there isn't the cut in between each scene where the sound is different. Also with single camera productions it is common that not all of the dialogue spoken in the scene isn't the person speaking. This is most commonly used with over the shoulder shots as we cant see their faces and lips moving so later on they record the person speaking in a room so the audio is perfectly clear as it would be mumbled and less clear when shooting outside.

Coverage is a term used in the media industry meaning that the director takes lots of takes of the same scene so when it comes to editing they have plenty of options to chose from. This is so if you find one of your shots isn't very good you have backup shots that may be better, so you can use them instead. Producers often by doing this after having plenty of practice shots so they know what have the right shot and angle. From personal experience I have found that it is very important to have a numerous amount of the same shots as when it came to editing some shots weren't as good as i would have liked and had no other footage to use. It is very important to know when filming with a single camera you always have to get an establishing shot/master shot for each scene to capture the entire scene so we can see all of the characters and we can cut back to that shot in-between when the characters are speaking.

Editing is much harder to do in a single camera production as there are many shots that you have to go through to make up the whole filmed sequence, and the longer you film the more money it is going to cost you as you have to keep paying for all the actors, equipment, food and many others. This is why most single camera productions try and film all of the films together in a short period of time. This is different to a multi camera production as instead of moving to camera to get the shot in a single camera all you have to do is cut to a different camera placed ready for the next shot. This is mostly used in love programs such as The X factor and live sports like rugby. It is easier to edit as all the producer has to do is tall the editor to change to what ever camera they want.  But you have to remember when filming a film, that is going to add up to a lot of shots that you are going to have to search through to find the shot that you want so a good thing to do is keep a shot log which is where you wright down how many shots you have done and how many times retakes you did of them shots so you know how many shots you have to go down to get to the shot you need.

All of the types of Genres below are designed for TV, most of them are designed with single camera production but some of them are designed for multi camera productions. This is depending on the turnover of films and how long they have to film. For example.

Period Drama
A period drama is specific to a certain era from the past. This style is most commonly a romantic, To create this style they usually props, costumes and set to make it look like the era and place that it would have looked like during that time. At the minute the most famous period drama is Downton Abbey set in 1927 in England. But another famous period drama is Call The Midwife set during the 1950s.

Crime Drama
Crime dramas are all based on criminals or the police services. They make it drama by adding low lighting which is much easier to do on a single camera as you don't have to worry what the light looks on the other cameras when filming with multiple cameras. Some of the most common watched TV programs are crime dramas such as Breaking Bad and Orange Is The New Black, These programs are very popular because they lure the audience with their dramatic story lines.

Horror
Single camera productions are most commonly used in horror movies because they create the feeling that the audience are there with them making the movies feel more personal. It also makes it ;look like we are in their eyes with the new style of horror by using hand held cameras so we can see what the character in the film is seeing.

Comedy

Single camera and multi camera are used in comedy shows but, they are used in different styles, for example single cameras are used in suck shows Brooklyn 99, In-betweeners and Him and her. Programs shoot in a studio with a live audience like The Big Bang Theory and Friends use multi camera because they can change the camera angle to each character with simply pressing a button, but if they did this with a single camera it would take take a lot longer to do as they need to get each shot and angle, and with there being a live audience it wouldn't be good.


Soap Opera
Soap operas are different to all of the above because they are all filmed with a multi camera techniques because they are on TV lots of times during the week, so they have to keep up the demand of the programs so they have to shoot as many programs as they can in a short period of time so it is much quicker to film with multiple camera techniques than filming with a single camera techniques. Eastenders in on TV 4 times a week so they have to produce lots of episodes.

Series

A series is a bunch of episodes of a program that has the same characters in every episode but the story line changes in every episode the plot stays the same by the characters having the same background in every episode. Such programs as American Horror Story and Sons and Anarchy have the same people in every episode (unless they get killed off) but a different story line each week. TV series are the most common programs on TV.  Series are only set for a certain amount of episodes at a time. For example American Horror Story show 12-13 episodes at a time.

Serial
A serial can go on for a certain amount of episodes, but most commonly they are soap operas where they they have a never ending amounts of episodes that are played on TV. But serial episodes can be adapted from novels such as The 100 and Steven King's Under The Dome. These have the same characters in but a different story line in each week. Theses are very similar to TV series. Most of the worlds TV Serials are soap operas  Like Eastenders and Coronation Street. Eastenders began in 1960 and Coronation Street has been running since 1960.


Single Drama
Single Drama productions are only broadcasted once, they are mainly about real life stories that relate to the news more than it does to what is shown in the cinema. A good example of a single drama is "My Murder". This is based on true events that happened. The single drama was released on the 17th April 2012, The story was about the murder was Shakilus Townsend.

Dirty war is another example of single drama which is about a terrorist attack on London. This was released at the later dates of 2004. This was a very powerful film as it talked about the normal stuff that people don't want to.

The final example that I found was "The accidental death of a anarchist". During questioning by the police, a railway worker falls to his death from the multi-story police station. The government says it was an accident but they ask the public for more information. The Superintendant and Inspector responsible are awaiting the arrival of an Investigating Judge but get more than they bargained for when a lunatic escapes and impersonates him.