Single Camera Productions By Smiles

Formats The different formats for single camera production are: -TV Series - Film - Short film

Genres In horror movies, they will often use a single camera to make it seem like you are experiencing what is happening in the film by yourself. This is know as a POV (Point of View) Shot. In Period Dramas, they usually just keep the camera on a tripod and leave it alone when filming. It is very rare that they will move the camera about or anything else within it. In Soaps, they tend to do that same technique as Period Dramas of just keeping the camera in the same place the whole time. They tend to have more variety with the shots and shot types, but on the whole they keep everything the same.

Narrative Linear – A linear narrative is when the story and a beginning, a middle, and then an ending. This is the traditional way that scripts are written for screenplays. Non-Linear – A non-linear storyline is one that does not follow a specific guideline for telling the story but tends to do its own thing. Think Pulp Fiction. Realism – A realism storyline is one that sticks to the truth and tries not the lie throughout as the stories are usually told from a real life story.

Narrative Open and Closed endings – An open ending is when they leave the end of the story/film with everyone guess what could be next, open for interpretation. Whereas a closed ending is a definitive ending, with nothing to the imagination. Cliff-hangers – The cliff-hanger is the ending of a TV series or film where they keep the story open for interpretation either way or the end result. The best example of a cliff-hanger would be The Italian Job.

Narrative Sequels – There are films that go along on a franchise and break the story down into more than one movie. This will usually happen and will keep the viewers guessing if there will be a sequel (this usually happens after a cliff-hanger)

Technical Aspects Camera – Shots with the 180 degree rule may be harder to achieve with a single camera, but it’s very simple to record a whole film using just one camera. Although it will take longer, it is usually a lot easier to co-ordinate the camera and all of its shots if you only have one to concentrate on. Lighting – Once again, this will take longer if you have more than one lighting rig, but with one single camera, it can be pretty easy to get a nice shot with good lighting. If you were to record using multiple cameras and lots of lighting rigs, you would have to make sure that the lighting was good on both the cameras and nothing was in the way.

Technical Aspects Sound – With a single camera comes a single sound rig. This is restrictive but extremely useful when it comes to the ease of recording sound meaning you wont need to worry about any other microphone then that one. This will also come in handy when wanting to edit later because you will only have to edit one single track. Editing - Editing with a single camera is a lot easier because if you had multiple cameras, you would have to sync them up during editing and it would means more tracks to add in. If you just have a single camera, that will result in single camera editing, which will most likely not be conversations and will just be the storyline itself.

Pre-Production Scripting – Scripting for single camera production is a lot easier because you don’t have to write in the other camera. It is also somehow easier to visualise one you start writing the script. Building the Scene - This is harder to write for but essentially would be the same as the script, although just visual representations apposed to written down ones.

Pre-Production Building a story out of the scenes – To build up a story out of the scenes, you will not necessarily need multiple cameras or any cameras for that matter. All you need is the footage and if you can use a single camera appropriately it should not be too difficult. Of course you could use multiple cameras but the single camera can always add more than more cameras