Multi-Camera

Multi-Camera Productions

A multi-camera production is a setup of several cameras that record and broadcast scenes at the same time. The main type of productions that this technique is used for are live music events, TV news, sports coverage, game shows and studio based sitcoms. They use multiple cameras so that they can get lots of different angles, this makes the whole footage look more professional and is a lot easier to film. The majority of multi camera productions are shown in day time, these productions include things like talk shows and sporting events which are mainly shown in the day rather than at night.

Live sports

Sky Sports 

Sky sports have 24 different cameras filming matches to catch footage from every angle. The cameras them selves are positioned all around the stadium some of them filming the actual game whilst others filming the crowds reaction. The picture below shows the camera positioning of the 2010 world cup in South Africa. There are 32 cameras setup to film at the same time meaning that you can get footage from every angle needed. There are also cameras needed to film the reporters, you need a number of them for things like wide shots of everyone to close ups of each reporter.

The Olympics 

Panasonic released a statement saying that they provided 'At least 100 full HD cameras' for the Rio 2016 Olympics, but on top of that there are now drones covering certain events as well. The Olympics will need a lot of cameras as there are sports on all the time, some are in different locations like swimming pools whilst others at the main stadium filming the multiple events happening at the same time.

TV Studio Sitcom

Friends

Friends was a sitcom which was aired from 1994 to 2004 about a group of friends in New York. Pretty much all of the show was filmed in a studio with a live audience in the background so they didn't have to use pre recorded laughter. In the studio they will have multiple cameras focusing on different parts of the set, for example one camera could be filming a wide shot whilst another camera could be filming a close up on a character. Here are some examples of multiple camera shots in a scene of Friends

Camera 1: This first scene is shot of Joey talking to the manager from the right.

Camera 2: A shot looking at Joey from the Left of the stage 

Camera 3: Another close up of Joey and the manager but this time looking at them from the middle

Camera 4: A close up of the manager from the right. Although this could also be camera 1 again but changed from looking at Joey to the manager.

Camera 5: This shot is a close up of Joey but from the far left.

Camera 6: This last shot is a wide shot of the main characters.

Altogether in that scene there were 6 different camera angles, some of them could just be the same camera in a different position.

Similarities and differences 

Even though both live sports and Tv sitcoms are multi camera productions there are some differences between the two. Sitcoms are normally filmed in studios, so this means the cameras don't have to move location, this makes things like lighting easier as you always have each camera set up for the perfect looking shot. This is something you can not do with live sports, as it is broadcasted straight away, this means they can't edit the footage or get a cinematic look. Another differance between Sitcoms and Live sports is the amount of cameras they use, Sitcoms normally have around 6 cameras for different angles, but because they normally film in studios there isn't much need for any more cameras, whereas Live sports need loads of cameras. This is because of the amount of things you need to film, for example with the Olympics there are multiple events happening at the same time, so that means there are going to multiple cameras for each event, and on top of that there are cameras filming the crowds reactions. The main similarity is that they both use multiple cameras to record their production, but there are some others. The positioning of the cameras in each production is still the same, for example on soccer Saturday they have a panel of reporters, as shown by the pictures below, one camera is filming the with a wide shot, but at the same time other cameras are filming each reporter with a close up.

This is the exact same as what would happen in a Tv sitcom. They botch use the exact same screw, for example each will have there own camera men, audio recorders and set designers (for live sports its only for the reporters). The equipment they use will be the same for things like lavalier microphone and shotgun microphones, Soccer Saturday will use lavalier microphones more that Friends would because a Lavalier is able to clip onto each subject meaning you can pick up everyones audio at the same time, an alternative to this is just use quite a few shot gun microphones but this is a more complicated option. Friends is more likely to use shotgun microphones as because its not live and able to do cuts, there is no need to pick up all the audio at once. The one difference between the cameras they use is that the cameras used for live Tv are specialized for broadcasting straight to our Tv's wheres as with sitcoms its all edited before it hits our screens.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Multi camera production is a great way to get footage quickly, this is due to the fact there are so many cameras recording at the same time. Sitcoms normally come out every week, this means that they are going to need to get footage fast and this is why all them cameras help. By shooting from all the different angles you get to see things that you would miss if there was only one camera, this especially goes for live sports as there as so many different angles to make the footage more interesting for the viewer. If there is a panel of reporters like there is on Soccer Saturday, then you want to have as many cameras as possible to capture everyone's reaction, this is the best method of filming something like this. Also for live Tv you dont need to give it a film look as you normally would with single camera techniques, so that means you dont have to spend time editing and colour grading which you wouldn't have time to do anyway. If your filming a sitcom then you wont have to take as much retakes if you have multiple cameras filming at the same time, this gives you more opportunity with your filming, also it can make your actors speech flow better as you can film a whole scene with multiple angles without stopping and moving any camera equipment.



Cons
There are a few cons with multi camera production like the fact its likely to be way more expensive than single camera filming, this is because you have to buy all the cameras and depending on what your filming you could need a lot of them. Then you are going to need to pay crew to run everything which could be another pricey part. The difficult part about filming a sitcom would be the lighting, this is because if you use single camera techniques you can just look through the camera and adjust the camera to see what looks best, but having multiple cameras means that you need the lighting to be good in all of the cameras, however many are on set. Another thing is that the footage that is produced (for sitcoms) is not going to look film standard, this is due to many reasons like the fact they have to plan, film, edit and release a whole episode every week. This makes it impossible to really focus on the quality of the picture itself when you have that kind of dead line.