When a production is on air live or being recorded live-on-tape, what is the best solution when problems develop?
• I’ve missed a shot!’– If something prevents you from getting your camera into position and you miss a shot, try to get there as soon as possible. Don’t risk missing the next shot too!
• ‘The talent is out of position!’ – Even experienced performers sometimes fail to hit their rehearsed floor marks. All you can do is to reframe, adjust the lens angle, or reposition the dolly to re-compose the shot.
• ‘He’s moved into my shot!’ – Having set up your shot, someone (or something) suddenly intrudes into the picture. Occasionally you can ignore them, but otherwise it’s a matter of reframing slightly away from the intruder, or gently tightening the shot to exclude them.
• ‘It’s too close to focus!’ – When someone comes so close to the lens that you can no longer focus sharply, you can only dolly back or widen the lens angle – or simply move the subject further away.
• ‘I’ve lost focus!’ – If the depth of field is limited, and your subject suddenly moves out of focus, should you make a gradual or immediate correction? If the image is slightly soft, gentle refocusing is effective. But if the shot is badly defocused, it’s probably best to correct it as quickly as possible.
Whenever you want to check that you have the sharpest focus, turn the focus control to and fro slightly (rock focus). Are distant subjects sharper than your main subject? Then you are focused too far away (‘focused back’). If distant objects are indistinct and your main subject is soft, you are ‘focused forward’ of the correct plane, so adjust focus the other way.
• ‘I’ve got a lens flare!’ – Usually much clearer on a color monitor than in a black-and-white viewfinder. Solutions include taking a higher shot and tilting down a little; improving the lens shade/lens hood; shielding the light off the camera.
• ‘My cable is trapped!’ – There’s little you can do if you are on shot, except move around within the available cable length. Wait for an off-shot opportunity to clear the problem. Otherwise you can only vary the lens angle to substitute for dolly moves.
Wrong positions
A performer moves into the wrong position and (1) becomes masked by scenery (or another performer), or (2) is left outside the shot. By trucking (crabbing) left, the dilemma is resolved.
Sudden intrusion into the shot
If someone near the camera accidentally moves into shot, you can reframe the shot or move the camera to avoid them. Alternatively you can make them a definite part of the composition.
Minimum focusing distance
If a subject comes closer than the len’s minimum focusing distance, you have to pull back, zoom out, move the subject further away … or let them go out of focus.