The Production Process

The production portion of the project consists of everything that takes place in front of the camera -- in other words, the actual videotaping of your show. 

A typical video crew will consist of the Director, The Director of Photography or DP, the Gaffer, Grips, Audio Engineer and Makeup Artist.  Additional crew members may be brought in as needed, such as a Steadicam Operator, Stunt Coordinator, TelePrompTer Operator, or Choreographer, depending on the requirements of the project.

Video Production Shooting Styles

Once the production is set, it is time for the camera to roll.  There are two basic styles of shooting, film-style or multi-camera.  The term film-style generally refers to the use of a single camera.  Every shot is a unique setup, and we shoot multiple takes.

Film Style

Let’s say that you are shooting a conversation between two actors.  The first setup would be an establishing shot, which is a wide shot that shows the viewer where the scene is taking place. This could be on a city street, in a conference room, in a car or wherever is germane to the story.  The next shot may be a medium two-shot of both actors.  The third setup would be a close-up of actor #1.  The fourth shot would be the reverse of that, a close-up of actor #2 from the perspective of actor #1.  A final setup may be an unrelated shot to develop the plot, such as a close-up of the hidden microphone in the ceiling.

The advantage to shooting film-style is that you have ultimate control over every inch of film or tape.  The script can be divided into many small chunks and shot in small segments.  The lighting is reset and optimized for each shot.  A take can be done over and over until the desired performance is achieved. Sets do not necessarily need to be adjacent or connected, as an actor could walk out the door of one set and into the door of another set that are in two different locations or on two different days.

The downside of this method comes when using non-professional talent, who may find repeatability difficult.  This method obviously cannot be used for one-time events, sporting contests or live programming.

Multi-camera

Multi-camera shooting is generally a compromise.  You do have the advantage of multi-angle coverage, but the lighting usually has to be sufficient for several camera angles at the same time.  Most of these types of productions will have all of the lighting suspended from a grid on the ceiling of the studio, or will rely on daylight.  Examples of this would be a newscast or a sitcom, or in the case of daylight, a football game or auto race.

The main advantage of multi-camera shooting is speed -- the ability to cover large sections of the script in a relatively short period of time.  The Director will rehearse the camera positioning along with the actors’ positions (blocking), at the same time he or she is polishing the actors’ performance.  When shooting, one person will live-switch, or cut between the cameras, as the action continues on set.  Additionally, the Director will usually have the crew also tape the isolated feed from each camera as well.  Using the live-switched tape will greatly reduce the amount of time spent in post-production.  Often the edit session can simply be to finish the program.  The “iso” tapes are available to correct any errors in timing, or to allow the Director to revise the order of coverage after the show is finished shooting.

On a smaller scale, using two cameras simultaneously on non-professional talent may be quite cost effective.  A Fortune 500 company’s CEO may only allocate a single hour for a taping session due to time constraints in his schedule.  In this case, the Director will usually use a pair of cameras, placing both cameras on the same axis, one in a close-up and the other on a medium shot. This coverage will ensure, even if only a single take is recorded, that the Editor will be able to cut up the material, eliminate any false starts or mistakes in delivery and generally make the subject look polished and professional.