Single Camera Techniques: Single Camera Production

Format

TV Series Short Film TV series can be distinguished from short films and films because in general the story runs onscreen, from start to finish for a lot longer than a film. Even the longest films like Lord of the rings aren’t as long as even one season of a TV programme like House or Breaking bad. Having said that films have an advantage for being shorter because they can be watched in one sitting whereas it is basically impossible to watch an entire series of TV without becoming bored of it. The budget can vary depending on how long the series stretches and how much money the sets and locations would be etc. Short films are like feature length films but the storyline is compressed into 30 minutes or so. Because of this the viewers attention is easier to keep because they know they wont be watching for very long whereas if it was a 120 minute feature film they would want to be kept entertained for the full time. Short films generally don’t have as much media attention because not as many people watch them which means less budget spent on campaigning. Because of the lower budget, the directors can get away with using less cameras or making single camera productions

Film Films are arguably the most famous format to display moving images in. They usually release in cinemas and traditionally span over 100 minutes or so and can run for as long as 3 hours in some cases. It is unusual to find single camera productions with a large budget because a lot of the money will go into the equipment which includes cameras so unless it adds to the story to only use one camera such as hand held films (or found footage) like cloverfield and Blaire witch project. What makes films different from TV series is they can be watched in one sitting without the audience becoming tired or uninterested.

Genre

Horror Period Drama The horror genre usually has the intention of putting the viewers on edge and scaring them. If there are people in the audience with sweaty palms by the end of it thats probably a good sign overall! Often the story ends unhappily, take cloverfield as an example of a single camera production, the story ends in the death of the protagonists but the silver lining is that the entire alien invasion is recorded for historical use. The fear can come from “jump scares” which is an easier quicker way of scaring the audience with things like loud bangs or screams. Other more subtle ways of scaring them are with dark plot twists, horrifying realisations and intense music. The better written horrors will involve less jump scares. Period Dramas on Television are dramas usually set in the past such as Downton Abbey with lots of dramatic costumes and makeup. The audience for these dramas want to see people from decades ago living their lives reenacted because they cant go back in time to see them. There are cliffhangers at the end of the episodes to keep the viewers hooked wanting to see what happens next and the only way to see is to watch the next episode.

Soap Opera Comedy Soaps aren’t considered to be particularly high in budget like a leading TV series because they make a new episode everyday so they cant afford big special effects or complicated rigs with lots of lighting and explosions etc. All the viewers want is simple character development in a section of society, the attraction is that there are lots of separate stories happening and some of them cross paths and again the cliffhangers make the viewers want to find out what happens next. Usually more than one camera is used in the daily production. The aim for the director of a comedy production is to make the audience laugh, or entertain them with humour. This can be achieved using written gags, slapstick comedy and humorous acting. To enhance the comedy, a live audience is often at the live studio laughing at the funny moments. This gives a cue to the viewers at home as to what was meant to be funny. Again it would be unusual to find these productions only being filmed with one camera because some of them are filmed in scenes in the studio which means all the acting in the scenes happen at once so there is a need for multiple cameras.

Narrativity

Story Lines: Linear A linear story is the conventional method of storytelling where the story has a beginning leading through to a middle which leads to an end. Children’s stories like goldilocks and the three bears are good examples of linear narratives to make it easy for a child to follow, not that all linear stories are juvenile. Non Linear Sequels A non linear storyline is a story line that isn’t laid out in chronological order. This is becoming increasingly popular for mainstream cinema and Television like LOST. Non linear works best with stories with need of flashbacks. One of my favourite films with a non linear storyline is Blue Valentine which tells the story of a relationship in two linear storylines mixed together A sequel is a sequence of Films that can be strung together to make a full story. Usually there are only two films in the sequel but there can be three or more known as a trilogy. Star wars for example has seven films to make the storyline.

Realism Cliffhangers Realism in storytelling is a believable storyline in a realistic setting with realistic scenarios so there are no dramatisations or polished views it is either a representation of an event that really happened or a story told as realistically as possible Cliffhangers are essential in gripping a viewer. They occur when the story stops before a pinnacle moment making the viewer want to know what happens next. This is a useful technique used by TV producers to hook the viewers into watching the next instalment. This can happen in any instalment such as a film or TV Episodes like Breaking Bad

Open Endings Closed Endings An open ending is when a story ends with unanswered questions so the viewers can assume what they want to happen. A good example of an open ending is Prometheus when they go looking for the engineers of the human race and realise that something must’ve created the engineers leading it open to presumptions such as there is a God. A closed ending leaves no room for suggestion like an open ending, usually the story is wrapped up entirely or the viewers are told what happens in the long run so the most famous closed ending is “they lived happily ever after” which is popular in fairytale stories. This leaves no room for assumptions or theories.

Technical Aspects

Camera Editing In a single camera production only one camera would be used so the shots would be gathered cleverly to account for continuity. For example in scene with a meeting, one would record the characters walking towards each other and another shot of them standing with each other instead of collecting the shots in a random order because the standing positions may change and look strange. The editing for single camera techniques needs to take into account continuity as well when clipping the scenes together for example with the meeting scenario the walking would be placed on the timeline in chronological order and when they finished walking they would meet in the middle of the shot.

Lights Sounds Lights are very important in making a single camera production look more professional. Different lighting rigs can be found for different productions such as films having floodlights to film whole action car chases and entire streets being lit with special lighting for a film like batman. The lighting rigs in TV are generally less sophisticated because lights cost a lot of money but there will still be lighting for actors and props etc. Sounds can be edited into a single camera production whether its sound effects of voice dubbing, sounds are important. They can set a scene just as well as the mise en scene for example the intensity can be raised with the deep repetitive music at the start of the Dark Knight movie before the bank heist.

Pre production

ScriptingBuilding a scene Building a story out of scenes Scripting is vital to convey exactly what the directors and producers want the single camera production to turn out like. A storyboard can do the same job except there are sketches to set the scene slightly more vividly or if it is difficult to imagine what the scene would look like with positioning props and actors. other scripts have two columns, one for actions and one for the audio description, often used for single camera techniques. Like a book, the scene in a story has to be built. It takes longer for a book to build a scene because it can only be built with words whereas a scene is almost instantly set with a single camera production because its just a moving image of the scene. However diegetic and non diegetic sounds can build an atmosphere and the actors facial expressions can also build the scenes emotionally. In pre production thinking of the scene in detail makes for a more impressive mise en scene. Like chapters in a book, the scenes in a single camera production add together to create the story in supplements. Building a story with scenes can get more complicated when flashbacks are involved and if the story isn’t in linear or chronological form then the viewers have to piece together the story in their heads. Pre production planning is required to make the scenes work together when combined.

Scene Shooting Techniques

Master Shot Close Up The mastershot can be used as an establishing shot but its purpose is to capture the scene at such an angle that all characters and props of interest are in frame. Close up shots can be used in a variety of formats and genres. When zooming in on a car chase for example the excitement is raised for example in one of my favourite chase sequences in a movie, Place Beyond the Pines, a getaway driver of a motorbike is racing down a freeway and a follow car cameraman zooms in on the bike as its shaking with full throttle speed to add the effect of speed and lack of control. it can be used in other genres such as drama the camera can zoom into the face of an actor reacting to a dramatic piece of information.

Cutaways Repetition Often found in documentaries when the narrator is explaining something and the editor cuts away to an insert such as in supersize me the narrator would talk about the menu of Mcdonalds and the editor would cut to an insert of Mcdonalds menu or Mcdonalds outlets. Repetition in a single camera production is unusual and isn’t used very often but it is a type of flash back or reminiscence. Scenes and clips can be repeated for emphasis if it’s important.