Positioning cameras

From your floor plan you should have a good Idea how many cameras you will need in each area of the studio. If you are working on a programme that has been running for some time, this will have been done already, and it is usually worth fitting in with the camera positions and numbers that are familiar to everyone else.

Cable runs

Most studios have a number of wall boxes that cameras can plug into. You will have to consider lengths of cables available as well as where the cables will lie during your shoot in deciding which wall boxes to use (i.e. will a cable appear in shot dragged across the centre of your stage?).

Crossing cameras

While it is possible to direct cameras across the front of each other, there are two obvious dangers.

If the camera in front doesn’t fully clear the second camera’s shot, you lose a camera until it has moved sufficiently out of the way. Additionally cables can become tangled, with some cameras sitting inside other operators’ ‘loops’.

Reverse numbering

While it might seem obvious to lay out the cameras from left to right, there is something to be said for reversing this order.

Suppose you have an interview with two cameras. If you lay them out left to right, the view in the monitor stack is of two people looking away from each other. However, if you put camera 2 to the left of camera 1, then in the control room the two people appear to be talking to each other. Many new directors find this arrangement more natural.

Set limitations

Studio sets are not normally designed to carry heavy weights. A full camera pedestal with camera, lens and prompter unit is more than enough to overload lightweight flooring, so if you need to have cameras inside your set you will have to consider using lightweight tri-pods and smaller camera/lens combinations.