A video camera produces an electronic picture which can be transmitted and displayed on a TV set instantaneously; it requires no ‘processing’. This is called live television. As an event happens, so it can be seen. Multi-camera production technique uses a number of cameras which are switched to in turn to show different viewpoints of an event. This production method allows the material to be transmitted as it occurs or to be recorded for future transmission. If it is recorded then the material can be edited before transmission. Single-camera coverage is usually recorded and the material receives extensive editing before transmission. This is similar to the film technique where one shot is recorded and then the single camera moved to another position or location to record another shot. The shots can be recorded out of sequence from their subsequent edited order. This type of production method is very flexible but does require more time in acquiring the material and in editing.
Pictures are nearly always accompanied by audio, either actual speech, music, or effects of the subject in shot, or sound is added in post-production. The old cliché that television is a visual medium is a half truth. In nearly every circumstance, the viewer wants to hear, as well as see, what is transmitted. Pictures may have a greater initial impact, but sound frequently adds atmosphere, emotion, and space to the image.
Planning a Production
Every programme involves some type of advance planning. A two-minute news bulletin, broadcast four or five times a day, with a news reader reading straight to camera, will need scheduling of resources and people. It will require the news to be collected and scripted, for the presenter to have access to make-up, the studio facility to be booked and technicians to be scheduled to control the studio facilities. More complex programmes require a longer planning period, and a standard procedure to inform and involve all the diverse crafts and skills needed to mount the programme.
Two Types of Programming
Programmes can be roughly divided into those that have a content that has been conceived and devised for television and those programmes with a content that cannot be preplanned, or are events that take place independent of television coverage. Many programmes have a mixture of both types of content. If it is scripted for television, then the production is under the direct control of the production team who can arrange the content as they wish. The time scale of what happens on the screen is under their supervision and can be started and stopped as required. If it is an event that would happen independent of TV such as a sports event, then the production team will have to make arrangements to cover the event as it unfolds in its own time scale.
programme idea
idea is commissioned/budget agreed
research and script
contract technical staff/performers
detailed planning/design/rehearsals
camera script/running order
planning meetings/recces
book facilities
schedules and call sheets
set and light studio or location
rehearsal
record or transmit
post production
transmission
audience research and feedback
Planning for the Unpredictable
There are many events covered by TV that contain unpredictable action which cannot be rehearsed such as sport, discussion programmes and other ad lib activities. No one knows when a goal is going to be scored in a football match or how the run of play will develop, but the TV camera deployment must provide for any of the normal eventualities in a match to be covered. Planning for this requires predicting potential incidents and having cameras assigned to capture such eventualities.
From the initial commissioned idea some form of script or, possibly to begin with, a rough ‘running order’ of the contents of the programme will be structured. The running order identifies individual sequences in the programme, what the sequences will contain, the vision and sound sources utilized and the duration of each item.
The next stage of the planning involves preparing a script and deciding on design requirements. The flow chart of decisions to be made before recording or transmission day depends on the programme format. Scenery needs to be built, scripts written, artistes contracted or programme guests contacted, technical facilities booked and pre-recorded inserts arranged and edited prior to the recording/transmission day. A regular weekly series will have a production planning formula which fits the turnaround time between each programme. It will also have some future projects in production.
Depending on the complexity of the programme, there will be planning meetings and/or recces if it is a location production with engineering managers, lighting directors, camera supervisors, sound supervisors and all other members of the production team who need advance information in order to plan for the programme.
For many programmes, a camera script will be prepared which breaks down the programme into sections or scenes, and then further subdivides any significant action into separately numbered shots which are assigned to specific cameras. This camera script is usually modified in rehearsal, but allows a reference point for all concerned in the production. The production assistant calls each shot number as they are taken during rehearsal and transmission/recording, and the director reminds everyone on talkback of any significant action/event that will occur. The shot number system binds together a whole range of different production activities from lighting changes, to equipment repositioning, scenery changes and vision mixing. It is not simply a structure for cameramen.
The shot number system provides for the most detailed planning and production precision in, for example, the camera coverage of an orchestral concert where the shots are directly linked to the orchestral score. The score is followed by the director, vision mixer and production assistant and each shot is cut to at a predetermined point in the score. But multi-camera coverage can use a mixture of other techniques including:
Some sequences of the production are shot numbered but other sequences are ‘as-directed’ (i.e. they are not pre-rehearsed). In this method of camera coverage, the director will identify what shots are required on each camera during the transmission or recording.
Cameras are assigned a role in a structured sequence of shots. For example, a game show where each sequence of the quiz or game will have a defined structure, but the order of the shots will depend on the progress of the game, e.g. if ‘A’ answers Camera 2 will be used. If ‘B’ answers then Camera 3 will be used, etc. This is the most common technique in covering group discussions.
Cameras are assigned a role (e.g. football coverage – one camera holds a wide shot, one camera is close, one camera picks up ‘personality’ shots, one camera for slo-mo replay, etc.). With this system, cameras stick to their ‘role’ and do not attempt to offer additional shots unless directed.
Cameras are assigned a role for part of the event. For example, a state occasion where a camera position allows unique coverage of a location – a section of a street through which the procession will pass – but is subsequently available to pick up other shots to reflect the atmosphere of the event.
An as-directed shoot such as a pop concert, where some cameras concentrate on lead singers, instrumentalist, etc., and other cameras are on wide shots and audience.
All cameras are isoed (i.e. they are individually recorded) and then edited together in post production. This technique is more likely to occur using PSC (portable single cameras).
Normally a script is divided into segments and itemized as shots. Any other change of visual source including VTR and electronic graphics is also assigned a shot number. The shot numbers are continuous and if during rehearsal an extra shot is added then it is given the previous shot number with an alphabet suffix (32 then new shot 32a followed by a second new shot 32b and so forth). This avoids renumbering the whole script.
If the programme contains ‘as-directed’ sequences such as a discussion then each camera will be given an indication on their individual cards such as 2 shot, MS, MCU, etc., followed by ‘intercut’ or ‘as directed’.
Shot Description
Shot descriptions are abbreviated as much as possible so that the information can be quickly scanned. In a complex show with many shot changes in a fast cutting sequence, the cameraman may have the briefest time to look away from the viewfinder to check the next shot and camera position.
A television studio equipped to mount live and recorded multi-camera productions usually contains three main areas: the studio floor area, the control rooms and a series of production rooms.
The Studio Floor Area
The studio floor surface needs to be absolutely level and free from bumps, cracks or unevenness. One of the basic needs of multi-camera work is to move the camera ‘on-shot’ smoothly and quietly without the use of tracks or boards. If the floor surface cannot accommodate camera movement ‘on-shot’ then it is unsuitable for the production of continuous multi-camera programme making.
Access for scenery is through large double doors. There must be sufficient grid height overhead to accommodate a cyclorama, a 16ft+ cloth that is stretched taut in an arc around one, two or three sides of the studio to provide a lit backing. Suspended from the grid are lighting hoists that can be lowered for rigging lamps and individually routed to a numbered input into the lighting console. Access to the grid area is often required for rigging lamps, monitors, speakers and suspended scenery. Electrical driven hoists are used to suspend scenery and for flying in scenery pieces. Other hoists may be available for audience monitors and speakers or simply to liberate more floor space.
The studio walls are usually acoustically treated to improve the sound handling qualities. Installed at strategic positions along the studio walls are the technical facilities commonly called wall boxes. Monitors, microphones, foldback-loudspeakers, technical mains, and talkback can be plugged into these boxes to provide flexibility in technical rigging depending on the production layout. Positioned on the studio wall may be outlets for water, gas, etc. for production purposes. Studios require air-conditioning to extract the heat generated by the lamps and a ‘house’ lighting system, (plus emergency lights), when studio lamps are not switched on for rigging and de-rigging. Fire alarms and fire lanes are required to provide an unimpeded route for audiences and production staff to the fire exits.
Control Rooms
Away from the studio floor area are the production control rooms. If they are sited above the floor level, there is often quick access via stairs straight on to the studio floor. The main studio production control room contains a vision mixing panel, a talkback system and communications to other technical areas, possibly a caption generator for in-vision text and possibly the control system of the prompter device. All the equipment is housed in a long customized desk facing a bank of preview picture monitors displaying each video source used in the production.
Some of the preview monitors may be switchable depending on the number of video sources used in the production. These will include each camera’s output, VTR, telecine and frame store outputs, any input from an outside broadcast that may be used or other studio inserts, caption generator and electronic graphics output, electronic VTR clock, a special effects output and a ‘studio out’ monitor displaying the visual source that is selected at the vision mixing panel. Other monitors may provide feeds of programmes currently being transmitted. Prominent on the monitor bank wall will be a large clock plus an indication of the studio status (e.g. blue light ‘rehearsal’, red light ‘transmission’).
Sound, Lighting and Vision Control
Adjacent to the production control room (commonly called the ‘gallery’) is the sound control room where the audio inputs to a programme are mixed. Opposite a bank of preview picture monitors and monitoring loudspeakers is a sound desk used to control the level and quality of the audio output. There will also be audio record and replay equipment.
Lighting and vision control usually share the same room and are equipped with preview monitors, a lighting console to control lamp intensity and for grouping lamps for coordinated lighting changes. A diagram of the lamps in use (mimic board), helps the console operator during rehearsal and transmission. Alongside the lighting area is the vision control panel which houses the controls for altering the exposure, black level, colour balance, gain and the gamma of each camera. From this position, the vision control engineer matches each camera’s output so that, for example, the skin tones of a face that is in shot on several cameras is the same. If the studio is equipped with robotic cameras, the remote controls may be located on the vision control panel.
Each studio camera has its associated bay of equipment housed in the vision control room or in a technical area adjacent to the control rooms. Vision control also needs communications to other technical areas. Other production facilities used in multi-camera programming are a graphics area which feeds electronic graphics, animations and electronic text to the studio, a technical area where video frame store machines are centrally available and allocated according to production requirements. Half inch VTRs are often located in the production control area.
Two other rooms connected with programme making are the production office, which is the base for the planning and preparation of a programme, and a green room or hospitality room which is used for the reception of programme guests before and after the programme.
On the studio floor the floor manager (FM) relays information from the director during rehearsal and recording/transmission to the front-of-camera artistes, and liaises and coordinates all other technicians working on the studio floor. The FM may have an assistant floor manager (AFM) and/or a floor assistant (FA) working alongside, depending on the nature and complexity of the programme. Camera operators wear headsets to hear the director’s instructions. There may be sound technicians on booms positioning a microphone in relation to artiste movement and the lighting design, or they may be rigging and adjusting personal microphones worn by the programme presenters. A prompter operator controls the script text displayed on a television screen attached to the front of the camera. This allows presenters to look straight at the lens while reading scripted links via a mirror reflection of the text monitor. Depending on the studio, the prompt may be controlled from the control room, the studio floor, or another production area. Scene-hands may be needed to reposition furniture and/or scenery during rehearsal and recording/transmission. Electricians working with the lighting director pre-rig and adjust lamps and electrical equipment according to the lighting plot. Other members of the production team such as the designer, make-up supervisor, costume design and wardrobe may be on the studio floor, in the control rooms or working in their own specific areas (e.g., make-up). Additional crafts will augment the basic production team depending on the demands of the programme (e.g., a special effects designer).
Post Production
Planning and acquiring the video and audio material is the first stage of programme production. There is often a second stage of post production when the material is edited and audio dubbed (see Editing, pages 138–169).
Other production areas include graphics area where graphic designers provide electronically generated visual material for the programme as well as two dimensional graphics. Usually a central technical area where engineers operate video machines to provide prerecorded inserts into the programme (although VTRs may be run by control room staff), and also to record the programme if required. Often a studio or maintenance engineer will be responsible for the serviceability and line-up of all studio equipment.
In addition to the control room staff (see opposite), these are the basic crafts involved with everyday programme making. Depending on the type of programme, there may be many other specialist staff on the production team such as property master, special effects, unit managers, painters, carpenters, etc. On OB units, riggers drive the OB vehicles, rig cables, lay tracks and track cameras. There is often an overlap of job functions, and a multi-skiller may be required to work in any of these production skills.
Control Room Staff
Walk into a control room which is engaged in making a programme and there will usually be a programme director with a script or running order on the desk, talking into a microphone to a number of other production personnel. Talkback – the information from the director and the responses from other members of the crew – is the lifeblood of any multi-camera production. On one side of the director sits the production assistant who works with the director in the preparation of the programme. She times the show, calls the shot numbers and in some broadcast organizations, will cue video machines to replay pre-recorded inserts. On the other side of the director is the vision mixer working from a script and under direction, operating the vision mixing panel switching between cameras and all other vision sources.
Also in the control room there may be a technical coordinator who deals with planning and communications, a producer or editor who, depending on programme formats, will oversee content and running order of items. There may also be a caption generator operator who adds text to the pictures (e.g. name superimpositions abbreviated to ‘super’).
In the sound control room, the sound supervisor controls the audio and can talk to sound assistants on the studio floor. Possibly there is also a sound assistant playing-in music and effects. In the lighting and vision control room, the lighting director sits with his lighting plot and a console operator at the lighting console and balances the intensity of each lamp in the studio according to the shot and the requirements of the production, and groups the lamps for lighting changes and effects if needed.
A vision control operator, responsible for the exposure and matching the cameras, sits alongside, and may also control robotic cameras. There are usually four adjustable presets on a robotic camera. The variable lens angle can be selected and the pan and tilt head adjusted to frame up a specific shot. These positions, plus an elevation unit on the camera mount to adjust camera height, are stored in a memory bank to be recalled when that specific shot is required.
Outside Broadcasting
An outside broadcast (OB) is any multi-camera video format programme or programme insert that is transmitted or recorded outside the studio complex. Most of the equipment permanently installed in a studio complex is required for an outside broadcast. Production, sound, engineering and recording facilities are usually housed in customized vehicles (often referred to as ‘scanners’), or as a travelling kit of lightweight, portable vision mixing panels, video tape recorders and associated engineering equipment, sound mixers, etc., housed in cases and reassembled in a suitable area at the location. In general terms, studio productions have more control of setting, staging, programme content than an OB. There is a logistic difficulty in duplicating all these facilities outside the studio, but location recording offers the advantage of complex and actual settings plus the ability to cover a huge range of events that are not specifically staged for television.
OB Vehicles
The main OB vehicle houses the control room which serves the same function as a studio control but the equipment and operating areas are designed and compressed to fit a much smaller space. Technical support vehicles are used for transporting cable, sound and camera equipment, monitors, lighting gear, and other production facilities that may be required. In addition there may be a separate VTR vehicle equipped with recording and slow motion machines, etc. For a live transmission, there will be a radio links vehicle or portable equipment which may be a terrestrial or a satellite link or alternatively, a land line that carries the programme back to a base station or transmitter. The number of vehicles on site will increase with the complexity of the programme and the rig. There may be props, scenery, furniture to be delivered to the site. Dressing rooms, make-up and catering may be required.
PSC Units
Lightweight cameras combined with a video recorder allow the same flexibility in location production previously enjoyed by film cameras. The techniques developed with this type of video camera and recorder are a mixture of TV and film method. The material can be edited or it can be used live. It uses the technology of video but can use the discontinuous recording methods of film. Whereas live multi-camera television broadcasts often require the separation of operational responsibility, the one-piece camera and recorder can be controlled by one person. To competently employ this video/film hybrid technique, a basic knowledge of video recording, sound, lighting, video editing and TV journalism needs to be developed (see Working on location, pages 96–117).
Layout – outside broadcast control room
- Caption generator operator
- Vision engineer
- Vision supervisor
- Vision engineer
- Vision engineer
- Engineering manager
- Editor/producer
- Vision mixer
- Director
- Production assistant
- Sound supervisor
The rehearsal period is structured in a variety of ways depending on the programme.
Blocking or looking at shots allows the whole production team to make the necessary adjustments section by section. The programme is rehearsed shot by shot, stopping each time there is a problem (e.g. unsatisfactory framing, unacceptable sound, unflattering lighting, etc.). During this phase of the rehearsal, shots are established, lighting and sound adjusted. A solution is found or will be found before continuing with the rehearsal. This may be followed by a run-through of a particular sequence adding pre-recorded inserts and this gives an indication of the time needed for camera moves, pace of movement and change of shot. Finally, depending on the programme, there may be a full dress run-through from opening titles to end credits. This final rehearsal is an attempt to run the programme exactly as it will be transmitted or recorded with no stoppages. The dress run may reveal logistical problems of moving cameras, presenters, scenery, etc. between sequences and all the other craft adjustments that need to be made in continuous camera coverage. Any significant alterations to the production as the result of this rehearsal may be rehearsed again (time permitting) or the production crew will be made aware of any unrehearsed material or shots before the recording or transmission. The rehearsal period should be used to check the production requirements for the whole programme. There is no point in having a perfectly rehearsed third of a programme if the remaining two-thirds could not be rehearsed because of lack of time.
Rehearse/Record
There are two main methods for recording a programme using multi-cameras:
- Rehearse a section of the programme and record that section.
- Rehearse the whole of the programme and then record or transmit the programme ‘live’.
To some extent the first method of rehearse/record is efficient in that only small sections are rehearsed and remembered, but it does require a high level of concentration throughout the shooting day because the production is periodically in ‘transmission’ conditions and sometimes allows insufficient time for all disciplines to get it right.
The second method requires extended rehearsal unless production content is so flexible that coverage is arranged by assigning a role for each camera during the programme (e.g. ‘Camera One on a wide shot’, ‘Camera Two on close-ups’, etc.). If content is precisely known (e.g. drama serials/soaps, sitcoms, etc.) then the camera rehearsal will involve working through the programme shot by shot so that everyone associated with the production is aware of what is required.
There are a number of basic visual conventions used in television production. Many of these standard visual techniques were developed in the early part of the twentieth century when the first film makers had to experiment and invent the grammar of editing, shot-size and the variety of camera movements that are now standard. The ability to find ways of shooting subjects and then editing the shots together without distracting the audience was learnt by the commercial cinema over a number of years. The guiding concept was the need to persuade the audience that they were watching continuous action in ‘real’ time. This required the mechanics of film-making to be hidden from the audience; that is to be invisible. Invisible technique places the emphasis on the content of the shot rather than production technique in order to achieve a seamless flow of images directing the viewers’ attention to the narrative. It allows shot change to be unobtrusive and directs attention to what is contained within the frame and to smoothly move the camera to a new viewpoint without distracting the audience.
‘Invisible’ Technique
Shots are structured to enable the audience to understand the space, time and logic of the action.
Each shot follows the line of action to maintain consistent screen direction so that the geography of the action is completely intelligible (e.g. camera positions on a football match). This directs the audience to the content of the production rather than the mechanics of television production.
Invisible technique creates the illusion that distinct, separate shots (possibly recorded out of sequence and at different times), form part of a continuous event witnessed by the audience.
Customary Technique
The nature of many programmes (e.g. sport, discussion programmes) does not allow precise information about shots either to be rehearsed or confirmed. Multi-camera production technique relies on the assumption that every member of the production crew is equipped with a knowledge of the conventions of the specific programme format and has a thorough mastery of the basic skills in their particular craft. Information about shots will be supplied during rehearsal and/or during transmission/recording, but it will be assumed by the director that the production staff will respond with customary technique to the specific programme requirements (e.g. matched shots for interviews, see Interviews, p. 116).
Pre-Transmission Checks
On most programmes there is period prior to transmission or recording for a facilities check, an engineering line-up and to establish communications, make-up and costume check for presenters, a ‘confidence’ brief or running order check by the director to the cast and crew. This period is also used by all crew members to review their individual role in the production and a last chance for staff to query any point on which they are uncertain.
Although it is the director’s role to provide all relevant information, it is easy for someone who has worked closely with the programme content for several weeks to assume that other people will know the material as well as themselves. It is up to each member of the production crew to extract the information they require to do their job. If, to solve a problem, you require a production change after the rehearsal has ended, always make the alteration through the director so that everyone in the production team is aware of the change even if you imagine it will have no knock-on effect.
There is often a point in rehearsal where confusion arises and a problem appears insoluble. If you have a bright idea to clear this logjam then make your suggestion, but the production crew should avoid bombarding the director with numerous conflicting ideas. A production that is ‘directed from the floor’ soon loses coherence and efficiency.
Prior to Transmission and Recording
The usual procedure is that all the crew and cast will be in position at least five minutes before transmission or recording time or longer if additional rehearsal or briefing is required before transmission/recording. The floor manager checks that everyone is present and that the studio doors are closed or the location is ready. Recording/transmission lights are switched on over any door leading into the studio or production area.
Silence is established and the director will check that each section is standing by before the final thirty seconds is counted to transmission or recording. A VTR identification clock may be run before a recording.
If there has been adequate rehearsal, the recording should provide no problems with the director cueing action and prompting everyone of upcoming events (e.g. ‘X is now going to stand up’, ‘Y is going to move over to the demonstration table’). Any engineering breakdowns or equipment failures will require the director to state clear alternatives to the rehearsed programme. An experienced crew will also mentally anticipate how the breakdown will affect their individual operation. It is usually advisable to be positive in an emergency and stick with the decision.
