Multi Camera Filming - Reflection

We arrived early on Wednesday to film our multi camera project of Hairspray.

We first started off by packing up all the equipment in the Media room to be transported down to the Performing Arts building. We tied all the wires up, placed them in boxes, packed the mixing desk up, packed all the monitors up, put cameras in the bags and decided which tri-pods we were taking. With 6 of us packing up the equipment in the gallery; it was done in no time at all. Then came the time to transport everything downstairs and into the back of a car so we didn’t need to walk it all down the performing arts, with it being in the car it made it much easier.

When we arrived we then had to unpack everything again, but when we arrived they were still rehearsing their closing song, so we couldn’t immediately go in and start setting up and had to wait for them to finishing singing.

Then the time came to unpack the car and set up the cameras and the mixing desks and the monitors. With everything being connected to the mains there was lots of wires that were going to be lying around and some would need to be taped down so no one would trip over them. We also required tables to put all the equipment on but the tables that were already in the theatre were too wide to use as there would be no room for us to move around ones everything was on it and everyone was moving around, so this required carrying narrower tables all the way from media.

There was four cameras to set up in different positions, one in each corner, one in the middle so we could capture wide angles and one of the floor in front of the middle one so we could capture close ups.

While the finishing touches with the equipment was happening some of us sat down and watched the dress rehearsal so we knew what to expect when we actually filmed it. After the first half, we all decided on the roles we were going to do during the filming, and we were all assigned two jobs, so we would do half of filming and half being the floor manager or on the mixing or directing.

The jobs that I was assigned were floor manager and cameraperson. The most difficult job to do was the camera as I was sat on a really uncomfortable floor and my back and legs began to ache and also it is very difficult to hear the instructions from the director through the headphones as it was very quiet and it was especially hard when there were singing a song. The floor manager job was by far the easiest and towards the end of filming nothing went technically wrong and I had very little to do.

So overall the filming and everything went very smoothly and we had no difficulties apart from when one of the monitors went off and a few of the wires fell out of cameras.

Equipment List - Multi Camera Filming

4x cameras
4x tripods
4x spare batteries
mains chargers
1/4x microphones on one main camera
1 boom pole
1x mic cable
cable snakes/duct tape
spare fuses
electrical screwdrivers
8 tapes - backup just in case
1 dvd recorded

1 vision mixer
4x 10m firewire cables
preview monitor, TX transmission monitor - 5 screens with cables
1 talk back system w/ 1 microphone - with AA batteries w/ mic stand w/ 1 short mic cable
5 receivers
5 batteries
6 headphones
1 MacBook w/charger - for digital copy

Rifle shotgun mic kit
Sony HDVS w/ Song NPF960 batteries w/ Sony main chargers
Rode Microphone
Media C10 microphone stand
Seinnheiser E835
Libec Tripods
Data Video - SE800
Philips DVD Recorder

Recce - Multi Camera Filming

This is the recce that we have have created for the multi camera filming on the 10th of June. As you can see on this, we have not drawn on where the cameras are going to be placed as we do not how many cameras we are going to be using.

This is a bigger version of the floor plan with all the cameras and mixing desk added.

Risk Assessment - Multi Camera Filming

These are the risk assessments that have been filled out for the filming of our Multi Camera production on the 10th of June 2015.

Live music event/Festival

A live music event like this one or a Festival is also a multi camera filming scenario. Many of the cameras that are used at a live music event are hand held cameras. And only a few on tripods. The reason why some of the cameras are hand held on events like these is because it is easier to get close ups of the instruments and other small details. There can be up to 10 cameras capturing the show. There is usually two cameras on the stage capturing the audience in the form of an over the shoulder shot of the artist. The other camera on the stage will be getting close ups of people in the backing band. 

This is the opening shot of the Ed Sheeran video, this has been filmed with a camera that it attacked to a crane, at first it begins as a very wide shot capturing the vastness of all the people that are there to watch this one single human preform on stage. With this sort of shot and how long they zoom it in for all the other cameras can get prepared for the following shots. It then begins to zoom into the stage before cutting to the following shot:

This shot that has been used after the previous one has been captured by one of the cameras on stage, and it is almost a reverse shot from the other camera. This is also a shot that is helping to create an atmosphere for the viewer at home, or at the festival if it is being shown on the big screens.

This particular shot will have been filmed by one of the camera on a track at the front of the stage, this is also one of the same cameras that will shoot the close ups of the singer and also the camera that will capture people in the audience as it will be capable of swinging round to the opposite direction.

This is a close up angle filmed with one of the camera on a track in front of the stage, but it is being shot from the other side. With these close up shots, its shows the emotion on the singers face, and because it is a shot with his eyes closed, it almost looks as if he is lost in the music and is comfortable.

The reason why a music event such as Glastonbury is a multi camera production is because there are lots of different acts and lots of different stages to be covered in the time that it is one, so they could be filming one event to be shown later on TV while they shown another act live. And this requires lots of camera, but the smaller stages tend not to require as many cameras as the main stage. With the different camera that are set up they can cover a lot of the action of what is going on, from the audience to what is happening on stage and behind the singer - the backing band.

The visual style of these type of productions it depends on when it is being filmed, as it is being filmed during the day there is no requirement for lights etc, but if it was being filmed in the dark then the camera would have to be adjusted so it would pick up on all the details of the singer and make sure that the lighting didn't wash them out.

With this being an outdoor festival there is usually no restraints on the location environment as it is an open space to sprawl out with as much equipment as necessary.

This is a plan of what I think the camera set up is for Ed's Glasto set. There could be more cameras than there are on this plan.

Chat show

The Graham Norton Show is a multi camera chat show. The reason why this is a multi-camera chat show is that they have 4 or five cameras set up in different positions enabling different edits/shots. There is one camera on the presenter which is Graham Norton, then one camera which is on the guests and this will move to each guest when they are talking or it will focus on two guests. There will be another camera that gets a shot of everyone and lastly there will be one on a crane that captured the guests are they are coming up the steps and into the audience, this is also the same camera that will be used for getting shots of the audience. The reason why this and many other chat shows are filmed in a multi camera set up is because is kind of a rolling show, with it being a shot with multiple camera they don't have to stop and start to capture things from different angles as this would be time consuming. 
With a show like this they usually cover soft news stories and they don't talk about hard hitting subjects. It is intended to be fun and lighthearted.
With this being one of the big shows for the BBC channel they will usually have big A List celebs as their main selling point for people to watch the show. So for example on the above clip they have Chris Pratt who was on the show to promote the new Jurassic World film. Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law who were on the show to promote their new film Spy, and then the local celebrity that was John Bishop who was featured on the show to promote his new TV show. And everyone that is a guest on this show is interviewed altogether, so the guests have a chance to interact with one another, not like on The Jonathan Ross Show where the guests all come out to be interviewed separately.
With this being filmed in a studio, there isn't as much space for the equipment as there is at an outdoor event, so people have to be careful of wires and tripod and other equipment.

This is a plan for the cameras for the Graham Norton Show or how I envisage it to be. There could be more cameras or the cameras might not even be on tracks, and I also think that there is a camera on a crane to capture Graham at the beginning of the show when he is opening the show and introducing it, but I have not drawn that onto my plan.

Live Sporting

Sporting events are captured out on location. They require a lot of on site live editing. There will be a director sat in a gallery making live cuts, and because Sky or another channel are paying millions for the recording of the event they don't want any mistakes, and with wanting a perfectly edited show, it is highly stressful. For example for a Premier League match being broadcast on Sky Sports there will be between 10 and 24 cameras. To keep the audience intrigued there will be a range of different camera angles, not only does this create better coverage of the game it also creates at atmosphere for the fans who cannot be at the match to watch the game live.
Before or after the match and at half time they will probably cut to a studio where they will have a presenter and a pundit and experts talking about the match. The studio set up will often use a shot of the pitch in the background, but sometimes they don't even have to be at the actual pitch itself, they may just use a live feed camera to provide pictures of the stadium.
For example the studio that is used on Skysports is set up in such a way that it is appealing for men to look at, as it features blue colours and famous people from the profession. There is also the Skysports logo plastered on everything, so that the audience know who is providing the coverage for the pre-match or mid match commentary. Also when the people are being interviewed there will be a name tag and then along with that there will be onscreen graphics that contain things such as the time, goals scored, the game, what team is playing and statistics - these statistics are just information that doesn't really make much sense to the audience they are just used to fill the screen with information.
To make some of the shots in the filming of a football match they will use so many cameras on tripods and then they will have a camera which is known as a Spidercam suspended above the pitch which can moved to anywhere on the pitch and this can help create more atmosphere in the game for the audience watching on TV as the people in the stadium might not be able to see what is happening from where they are sitting.
Some of the reasons why so many cameras are used in the production of a sporting match is because its not a stop/start game, every single angle of the sport needs to be captured. 
When filming a sporting match there is usually no restraints for the cameras to be in as it is more or less and open space. But when filming in a studio they have to be mindful of the wires and everything lying around as it will be more of a trip hazard as it is in a confined space.

The plans that I have drawn are what I imagine to studio set up to be and what cameras are placed where.

This is a plan of a football pitch and the cameras that are based around it to capture the game, there could be more cameras that what I have drawn on this plan.