Multi-camera is just what it sounds like, the use of multiple cameras at once in a production, usually used in live events such as concerts, sports events and talk shows, this footage is captured individually and is often edited on the fly via a vision mixer if one is available, ill go into more detail about vision mixing and editing multi-camera footage later on , multi-camera can be used to film a scene twice, from different angles, reducing the number of times the scene must be played out, the cameras are setup in a variety of places to get a variety of different shots
There are many reasons for using multi-camera, reducing the amount the camera moves thus saving time and effort, allowing live events to be filmed from different angles producing a more entertaining programme for viewers at home.
Events such as festivals and concerts require the use of multi-camera due to there nature, live events cannot be stopped to allow the camera to move to get a different angle, instead multiple cameras are set up allowing all the action to be captured at once, this also gives a more entertaining experience for people watching at home, the number of cameras used can vary depending on the size of the performance and the reputation of the performer.
Performances captured by one camera lack the quality multiple cameras provide, mainly due to lack of angles, one camera can only capture one angle at one time resulting in a very boring viewing for people at home, also due to the limited angles one camera isnt able to capture all the action in detail.
As well as events such as festivals and concerts multi camera is also used in some TV shows such as The Cube, Pointless and The Chase, these productions are studio based, meaning they are recorded in front of a live audience, due to this multi camera is needed. These shows are all game shows and as such they cannot be stopped to allow the camera to be moved also the show has the be entertaining for the studio audience due to this the show cannot be stopped part way through for camera movement.
The placement of these cameras is consist ant, for example in Pointless one camera looks at all the contestants in a long shot and another a mid shot of individual pairs of contestants, and other cameras focusing on the presenters from 3 different angles, these studio productions usually follow the 180 degree as the camera never looks at the audience although not all multi-camera productions follow this rule.
I will now thoroughly analyse how multi-camera is used in a live performance of Enter Shikari, unlike most studio productions this performance breaks the 180 degree rule many times, multiple cameras face away from the band and into the audience, this gives a very specific visual feel to the production, having cameras placed within the crowd gives the audience a sense of being there which is very effective and makes the audience feel more involved and engaged as you get the full effect of the lights and smoke effects etc.
In this specific example the use of multiple cameras helps to convay a meaning to the audience, quickly changing from camera to camera matches the hectic nature of the performance this is done more through shots of the audience, the energy and movement shown by the audience gives that hectic excited feel the performers want to put across, the cameras are also set up either hand held or on a tripod with aot of movement, by allowing the camera to move the audience gets a more exciting experience when watching.
As I said the 180 degree rule is broken sometimes, most commonly when the camera is on the drummer, this camera changes are sometimes synced with the music, as with this shot below.
From watching this performance I can see that there are at least 8 cameras evenly dispersed around the crowd and stage, giving even coverage of all the action. The shot above is used when the singer leans towards the ground when shouting, we'll call this camera camera A, this camera is a mobile camera and covers the action occurring towards the front of the stage. There is a camera at the back behind the crowd set up to capture a wide shot of the entire stage. There are also 3 or 4 mobile cameras located behind the crowd, these capture a variety of different shots, some cameras are used to give the impression that the camera is in the crowd getting mid shots to close ups. There are also cameras to the sides of the stage, these cameras capture wide shots and mid shots on either the left or right side of the stage. There is one final camera placed behind the stage, this camera doesn't move, it is used to capture the action of the drummer and the crowd.
Soundtrack is one of the most important components of a film, but is one of the most overlooked components by student film makers, this can result in fantastic visuals being dragged down by poor sound design, simply having a good looking and engaging film is not enough, thats just 90% of the work, and that 10% can be the difference between a professional piece and an amateur one, the same amount of time should be spent on visuals as soundtrack allowing both to be at the same professional level. Soundtrack doesnt however just include music, other forms of sound such as foley and voice overs should be taken into consideration.
Foley sound is the process of recording sounds off set, this can be due to specially required sounds such as gun shots and other sounds that have to be added later, this allows the film maker to get imaginative, thinking of what will make a convincing replacement for the sound, money may not be available to get a real gunshot sound and so other things must be used. Foley isn't jst used for sounds such as gunshots, problems during filming such as a loud set resulting in poor sound will also require foley sounds, it is common for footsteps to be recorded separately, this requires someone to mimic the running or walking of the actor who was being filmed.
In this blog i will analyse 2 examples of soundtrack, one from film and one from television, for film I decided to go with what I believe to be one of the greatest soundtracks in film, Lord if the Rings.
The Lord of the Rings has one of the most epic soundtracks ever devised, being built up from nothing to giving the impression a war is taking place and the camera is right in the middle of it, this is done through the inclusion of many types of sound, utilising diegetic and non-diegetic sound, diegetic sound is sound that can be heard by characters in the scene such as dialogue and sound effects caused in the scene this could be a door closing or a car engine starting. Non-diegetic sound is sound that is not heard by characters in the scene, like background music and commentaries. In this scene non-diegetic sound is used alot, an example of this is the music played in the background, this is used to create the mood of the scene, in this sense this mood is the build up to glory, the music also gives the impression of a much larger scale, this is most likely filmed on green screen and so the mountains and apparent scale are digitally created, this music assists the visual effects in putting across the impression of a much larger scale. External diegetic sound is sound in the scene that could be heard in the scene by characters such as environmental noises such as wind and rain, these sounds can also be produced by people such as footsteps, in this Lord of the Rings example a external diegetic sound is the sound of the horses running, this is simply done by filming the horses playing out the scene. Another form of diegetic sound is Internal digetic sound, this is usually coming from within a characters mind such as a thought, the character can hear this and so can we but other characters cant, another exam. The use of non-diegetic sounds in this example such as the clinking of swords on hundreds of characters at once, this increases the scale of the scene adding depth and realism.
This scene relies heavily on diegetic sounds, particularly the sounds of the elephants and the sound of people being stabbed and slashed, without this the scene would lack depth, it would feel very boring and flat, these sound effects provide the base line for delivering a believable battle, creating a sense of violence and action. One of the most noticeable uses of non-diegetic sound in Lord of the Rings is the music used in the background, the music varies dramatically depending on the scene and the emotion, in this scene in particular the music is being used to portray overcoming an obstacle, giving a sense of victory, this is done through a slow build up and change in the music, to begin with the music is quiet during preparation for the battle, giving the feeling of being in the battle, pulling the audience in. Although non-diegetic sounds are used alot there're still alot of diegetic sounds being used, most dialogue and natural noises in the scene are being recorded during the scene is played out, these sounds are usually used to create realism and believability of the scene.
All these types of sounds are also implicated into Television programs, I will analyse the use of different sounds used to create emotion and generate an atmosphere to entertain the audience. In this particular scene non-deigetic sound is used alot to put across the danger the characters are in through background music, high notes are used to create tension and suspense, this paired with the diegetic sound and visuals of stumbling zombies creates a very real, believable scene, the music is however used best when not played at all, it creates a heart in your mouth feeling, creating alot of suspense. Use of digetic sounds is common in this scene, mainly for the zombie sounds, these sounds are used to give the illusion of zombies within the scene, paired with different zombie noises the illusion of a herd of zombies is created, without these digetic sounds the world would appear set up and not believable. A major form of digetic sound is the characters dialogue, this is important in this scene as the characters have to be quiet but when talking they must still be heard over the music, zombie sounds and other environmental sounds. The timing of the music flows with the visuals, constantly adding to what is happening on screen even when events suddenly occur, such as in my example when the zombie spots and begins to chase Sophia, the music used quickly changes from suspenseful to full blown panic and fear, this combination when paired with the zombie sounds, dialogue and general environmental sounds the scenes construction makes for a believable in depth scene utilising sound and video combination.
There are a variety of issues facing factual programming directors, these issues must be considered by producers when creating a factual programme. These issues can easily be avoided but have serious consequences if not considered.
Balance & Accuracy
One issue that is obvious is balance and accuracy, this means the programme must be honest and true, the producers must not lie about facts or try to mislead the audience keeping the story even and fair on both sides as facts shown in the programme will be viewed by possibly millions and facts shown in the programme will be believed by watchers, an example of a programme that doesn't look at both sides equally is super size me, the audience are only shown the bad side of fast food, pushing the audience to see the negatives of fast food misleading them, this issue is dealt with by showing the changes the restaurants have made to make their service better, although the programme leans towards the negatives of fast food, this is very similar to bias which I will look at later in this blog entry, the inclusion of positive changes made by restaurants allows the programme to avoid these issues.
Impartiality
Another issues faced is impartiality, this covers problems such as discrimination against race, hair colour gender etc, this issue is in place to prevent any uproar caused due to offensive content, an example of this would be a program about people who have blonde hair being stupid and unable to hold a job, this would be very offensive towards blonde haired people and would receive bad press and possibly lose the privilege of being broad casted, impartiality is not completely possible as some form of opinion will always exist, a good example of this is again in super size me, the producer has a pre-composed opinion and attempts to push his opinion on us the viewers, this is done by forcing himself to eat as much fast food as possible, whilst making little attempt to show the other side of the story, avoiding this issue would have reprocutions, in the example of super size me McDonald's restaurants could
Objectivity and Subjectivity
As film makers we can either be objective or subjective either we tell a truthful story by being objective or we push our own personal opinions into the production. While it is important to be truthful and show the facts during a production, being subjective is not necessarily a bad thing, Supersize Me was very subjective, the film makers of Supersize Me included their opinions in the production, they clearly believed that fast food was bad for you and wanted to put that across in the film, this can be seen through the focus on the negatives of fast food and the service they provide, this wasn't much of an issue as there is proof that fast food is bad for you and what was discussed in Supersize Me was accurate but put across very subjectively. The opposite of this can be seen in Lift, unlike Supersize Me, Lift is objective, opinions were not pushed instead the Film Maker had no opinion of what would happen when he started recording he instead let the action unfold by itself, creating great raw emotion and behaviour. This issue would effect the production as if the film maker wanted to make a fair honest documentary he/she would have to be objective and stick to the facts keeping personal opinions out of the production, this could be difficult if the film maker as a strong opinion related to the subject, this can cause some subjective views to be taken.
Opinion
When planning a factual programme research is very important in order to pin point the subject and the direction to take the story, although this is effective the addition of public opinion can assist in the subject decision, this can be done by asking the public what they think about your idea or their opinion on the subject matter, this simply gives you more knowledge on the subject matter. The inclusion of the public's opinion in the film gives the audience more security as they know you haven't just done your research you've also gotten others opinions. Supersize Me does this, asking the public about fast food and getting advice and information from professional health care specialists, this gives the viewer the security that what they are watching is true.
Bias
Bias is when one side is favoured over the other or vice versa, News Papers are often bias, mainly in political views, all Newspapers have a strong political view and stories found within these Newspapers will be positive towards their political view but negative towards others, this however means the audience for the paper is reduced as people with opposing political views wont read the paper. In factual programming bias is likely to be an issue as everyone has some form of opinion before hand even if it isn't a strong one, this is likely to creep into production at some point, to avoid this the film makers must ensure they give even positives and negatives on both sides of the story. Supersize Me was very bias, portraying fast food as very bad for you without saying much positive about the food and service, this was clearly the way the film maker wanted the programme to appear, and in the case of Supersize Me it was successful in putting the intended message across mainly due to the overwhelming public opinion that fast food is bad for you. Being extremely bias does have its problems, mainly due to the audience, if something is very against what someone believes, they are unlikely to watch it resulting in a smaller target audience and thus less viewers.
Representation
Representation relates to how characters and people are related to in a film or other form of media text, representation can apply to anyone, representations can be positive and negative and can be applied to huge groups. The representation of women is often raised as in the media women are shown as strong, independent and empowering, this is a very positive representation and creates good role models for young girls. A film maker will think of representation alot, do i want this character to appear to be nice or not, and depending which is chosen will determine the audiences view on that character or group. In Supersize Me the representation of the McDonald restaurants is very negative showing bad customer service and poor health benefits from eating there food, the representation of the American public is also very negative, the focus on obesity levels and how they have risen gives the public a bad image, this however is supported by facts and cannot be pushed aside. Representation can be a big problem if taken to far, programs may be denied broad casting due to poor representations of people which could get the production company in trouble, for example a program that represents all ethnic people as being thieves and carrying knives and just being generally anti-social would cause problems within the ethnic community.
Privacy
Privacy is very important for any type of programme, but for a factual it is a necessity. Getting permission to film a subject is the first step in protecting someone's privacy without the permission ti film you could be invading someone's privacy by pushing a camera in their face. Although you may have gotten permission to film a person or group of people their privacy can still be invaded, you may not be wanted following subjects around there house or at work where they're just trying to live their lives. The privacy of people in Supersize Me was kept as the privacy of McDonalds employees was not invaded at all, and the people being interviewed were just interviewed, no attempt to follow up the questions was made.
In my 3 minute wonder documentary I will take into account all the issues I have discussed above and use them to keep my documentary fair and true. I have a personal opinion based on my 3 minute wonder and I must not include it in my production as I am trying to give a fair representation of the subjects I am filming and interviewing, I will give both sides of the argument equal opportunities to give there opinion, this should give me a fair factual programme. As alot of my subjects are under 18 I will have to get permission to film them, via a contract, making sure I don't invade their privacy. During my production I will try to get the opinion of the public on my subject matter and so must get a fair representation of the public, I will do this by getting a range of interviews from a range of different types of people, this range of interviews should give me an unbiased view, pairing these interviews and keeping my ow opinions out of it should make it successful. All filming will be known of, no secret filming will be done to keep the privacy of all involved. My documentary will be very subjective, as it is focusing on peoples opinions and what they think of a certain subject, this should be ok though as it is not me that is being subjective, it is the people in my film. My 3 minute wonder will acknowledge the issues raised and progress positively in order to avoid these issues and create a fair accurate documentary.
I was in the production group working on 'Maladjustment', I wrote the script, partially directed, recorded and operated the boom mic. Every member of the production team then had to edit their own version of the film, we used Adobe Premiere cs3 to put the film together, colour correct and to add titles and credits. I used Adobe After Effects to apply special effects including replacing a mirror reflection, adding a fly and making a character appear to pass through a wall.
Organising the edit
In preparation for the edit I created a set of 'bins', these are essentially folders to store footage, soundtracks, titles and special effects, this meant when I went to put scenes together I had already selected the clips to put into those scenes, I named the 'bins' scene 1-8, soundtrack and special effects, this meant when it came to putting in special effects or applying a sound effect I wasn't searching through all my footage, which consisted of over 350 clips, I could instead just go into either the relevant scene 'bin' or soundtrack 'bin' and select the desired clip or sound, this process speeds up the editing process and creates a much more organised and professional looking edit.
Edit decision list
The edit decision list involves going through footage ans selecting footage that is suitable for use, reasons that footage may not be chosen can include poor framing, poor acting, lights or other equipment in shot, poor sound levels etc. The clips that are seen as unusable are then either put aside in a 'outtakes bin' or deleted.
Putting together the scenes
When putting together the scenes instead of creating on long sequence as my entire film I made a sequence for each scene, this allows modifications to be made within each scene. This makes the edit much tidier and makes the scenes more accessible as the sequences are much shorter and contain less clips. When the scenes are all put together correctly I made another sequence called master, this will contain all the other scenes sequences and act as the final edit, because I made sequences for each scene if i wanted to change anything I simply had to open up the desired scenes sequence and make changes in there, this would effect the master sequence.
During the edit
While I was editing i came across some problems, which were expected from a first production, most notable was a boom mic in shot, we had no other shot to use to replace this and so I had to try and hide it through editing.
This is the original clip, the boom mic is clearly in shot and is unusable, to fix this I had to find a point in the clip where the boom was least visible, i then cropped as seen on the left.
I put this cropped image on top of the clip which successfully covered the boom, the clip is now usable.
Colour correction and special effects
In my film i wanted to create a gritty feel which was not achieved through just lighting alone, I used a effect called fast colour correction, this gave me lots of freedom to change my film yet the interface was simple enough that i could easily reverse anything i didn't like, I also did a few special effects, the most time consuming and most believable effect was the mirror reflection replacement, this was done in after effects, I took my original clip of Jacob in the mirror, the camera couldn't move otherwise the effect wouldn't have been done, without moving the camera or tripod Fran stood in the same place Jacob had so her reflection was there, I then filmed her doing her actions. In after effects I stitched the 2 clips together so that Jacobs reflection was Frans, I used the pen tool to draw around Jacobs reflection and cut it out so that Frans can be seen beneath, I then applied my colour correction to the scene, I dropped the saturation, darkened the whites and pulled up the blacks to give the colour seen below.
As well as events such as festivals and concerts multi camera is also used in some TV shows such as The Cube, Pointless and The Chase, these productions are studio based, meaning they are recorded in front of a live audience, due to this multi camera is needed. These shows are all game shows and as such they cannot be stopped to allow the camera to be moved also the show has the be entertaining for the studio audience due to this the show cannot be stopped part way through for camera movement. 
