A TWO-CAMERA SHOOT

[Ken Wilson]

Hi to all. Atta mentioned my two-camera shoot and said he read about it in
FVM magazine. In fact, it was in our regional mag "Nor Easter" which he has
somehow got hold of.
I have always used a single camera for my shoots, ever since my days on Super
8. How this new one came about was due to a script written by one of our
regular actors, Keith Pottage, who has written amateur plays. (Note: plays!)
Keith writes good scripts, but they tend to be ensemble pieces set in one
location, as in a play.
He suggested that we shoot this 20 minute film as though it were a play i.e.
in long uninterrupted takes. This allowed actors to get into the role which
is hard to do in the usual method of fragmented shots. I told him we would
need more than one camera and even then it would be hard to do. However,
he was not put off.
We had 2 shoots. Two cameras on one shoot and three on the other. One operator
had the camera set wrongly and so in effect we had 2 cameras all the way
through. Very long takes were done and we only stopped when someone fluffed
a line.
One cam was a Digital 8 (Sony) and the other a Panasonic mini DV. One mic
was used, plugged into digi 8. This meant that at edit stage, any shots used
from the mini Dv had to have the matching sound taken from the other cam
and to have it`s own (on-board mic) sound deleted.Needless to say,this was
very time consuming.
Colour balance was very different on the 2 cameras. The digi 8 was very colour
saturated compared to the Pana mini DV. Focus was sharper on mini DV and
Digi 8 looked "soft". Filters have been applied in Premiere to try to match
them up.All in all, a very long and laborious method of film making. Possibly
better for the actors, but not for me.
I would not advise using the method outlined above.
Ken

[dave]

"Ken Wilson" <forums@theiac.org.uk> wrote:

Hi to all. Atta mentioned my two-camera shoot and said he read about it
in
FVM magazine. In fact, it was in our regional mag "Nor Easter" which he
has
somehow got hold of.
I have always used a single camera for my shoots, ever since my days on
Super
8. How this new one came about was due to a script written by one of our
regular actors, Keith Pottage, who has written amateur plays. (Note: plays!)
Keith writes good scripts, but they tend to be ensemble pieces set in one
location, as in a play.
He suggested that we shoot this 20 minute film as though it were a play
i.e.
in long uninterrupted takes. This allowed actors to get into the role which
is hard to do in the usual method of fragmented shots. I told him we would
need more than one camera and even then it would be hard to do. However,
he was not put off.
We had 2 shoots. Two cameras on one shoot and three on the other. One operator
had the camera set wrongly and so in effect we had 2 cameras all the way
through. Very long takes were done and we only stopped when someone fluffed
a line.
One cam was a Digital 8 (Sony) and the other a Panasonic mini DV. One mic
was used, plugged into digi 8. This meant that at edit stage, any shots
used
from the mini Dv had to have the matching sound taken from the other cam
and to have it`s own (on-board mic) sound deleted.Needless to say,this was
very time consuming.
Colour balance was very different on the 2 cameras. The digi 8 was very
colour
saturated compared to the Pana mini DV. Focus was sharper on mini DV and
Digi 8 looked "soft". Filters have been applied in Premiere to try to match
them up.All in all, a very long and laborious method of film making. Possibly
better for the actors, but not for me.
I would not advise using the method outlined above.
Ken

Hi Ken

Its rather funny reading your post as I couldn't help a wry smile its like
listening to myself. My friend and I have filmed weddings, and other specialities
for a number of years and we have always used the exact same cameras. At
this moment in time we both use tha canon xm2 which is a semi pro 3ccd camera.
I have absolutely no complaints with the cameras they are first class, but
with different light situations " indoors " i.e one end of a room compared
to the other where the lighting is different we too have to use premiere
to get the colour to match up. Obviously outdoor use there is no difference
and like most cameras the picture quality is excellent. So I know exactly
what you mean because i've been there and done it.....lots of times.

Dave cross