The Camcorder

The home video camera is proving to be a useful too! for the professional. Able to provide instant moving pictures without involving studio equipment it has become a boon to designers, assistant directors and many others engaged in television and movie production. It is used to record location details, rehearsal routines and action continuity.

The camcorder is particularly useful in the field of special effects, where it is used to assess and analyse workshop experiments and prerehearsals. It can also be used to show directors and producers what they may expect in the final recording and to familiarise actors with effects sequences in which they will be taking part.

Transitory effects

Many effects are short-lived and difficult to evaluate by eye. Explosions and bullet effects sometimes fall into this category. The camcorder can prove invaluable (particularly on location) in assessing the best means of deployment. There is little point in arranging a dramatic run of bullet hits if the furthest ones will be obscured by dust from the ones in front.

Filmed sequences

35 and 16mm film cameras continue to be widely used in movie and television production. This can make life difficult for the special effects designer who has no means of knowing positively what is ‘in the can’. Rushes shown the following day could reveal unacceptable blunders.

To get round this problem it is now common practice to operate a small camcorder alongside the main film camera. Results can be viewed instantly and faults rectified before the set is dismantled and the artists released.

One important thing to remember is that the camcorder will record the scene at a slightly different angle from that of the film camera. This should be allowed for and doubts expelled by re-checking through the viewfinder of the main camera. (No! That hand will not have been in shot on the film.)

The camcorder, although useful for tests of this nature, should never be used to assess the quality of studio lighting, the colours of costumes or the suitability of make-up.