Multi Camera Techniques

Introduction

I will be discussing the different techniques used in a multi camera production, what a multi camera production is, the advantages of a multi camera production and how multi camera production is used shot by shot.

What is a multi camera production?

A multi camera production is a production that is filmed with more than one camera, this is usually used within a certain TV category like The Jeremy Kyle and other reality shows, this is because there is a lot going on in these type of shots and they need to catch everything on camera. Our live news show was a multi camera production, it was multi camera so that we could catch everything that was happening and so we could change shots without stopping and starting, this was useful because we could change from one presenter to the other.

Advantages of multi-camera

There are many advantages to doing a multi camera production, the first advantage is being able to film from different angles without stopping and starting, an example of this would be my live show as we went through the whole twenty minutes without stopping and starting but getting different angles and shots at once. Another advantage would be catching everything at once, for example on The Jeremy Kyle Show there are cameras everywhere as a lot is going on, they have cameras backstage incase guests run off, they have cameras on the guests and also have cameras on the audience and Jeremy. Live programs such as The X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing use the multi camera set up, as it means the audience can look at the program from different perspectives.  The reason for using multi camera set up on Live shows is so the camera’s can be set up in place and ready for each shot, if the program was shot single camera, it would make it much more difficult to keep the pace of the show, and the camera would change position each time it was moved. There are many more advantages such as there will be less continuity errors as the actors will not look different and you can catch them from different angles, this would also save time on post-production.

Examples from TV and News

The Jeremy Kyle show uses a multi camera set up as a lot of things are going on and they have to be able to catch them for example;

If you have this scene and someone stands up, you would have to catch their emotions, the person at the other end of the argument, the audience and Jeremy, if this was a single camera show you would not be able to do it as you wouldn't be able to catch everyone's expressions and feelings.

Another example would be a live news show;

 

You would not be able to film this single camera as it is live and you would have to edit the show on a vision mixer, the news show camera set up for two presenters is two cameras in the picture above so you can have one focusing on one presenter and the other camera focusing on the other  presenter, this is a good way to do it so you can catch both the presenters talking but switch the cameras on the vision mixer when editing.