Explanation Of Multi Camera Production Media Essay

During the beginning of the second semester of multi camera production we were introduced to the “News Production”. News in the media refers to the sector of mass media that mainly focuses on the current news to the public. As broadcasting news is watched all over the world and the number one news channel is the BBC. The BBC is widely broadcasted all over the world covering range of stories for the public interest.

News is often reported by a number of sources, such as newspapers, television and radio programs, wire services, and web sites. News coverage is a kind of reporting normally written or transmits in news styles. Most news is investigated and presented by journalists and can be shared to various outlets.

As technology has come a long way it has come into the work place of the news broadcasting, as news is covered from all areas of the world and anywhere and anytime journalists have to think on their feet as some stories they may cover do not allow a news crew and cameras at a particular scene. Journalists are prone to use their mobile phones to cover breaking news in certain countries; the main purpose of news is to get the story which is very important rather than the quality. The story is the important key to news broadcasting as it is essential to the viewers even if it may not be as good quality and filmed by a video phone.

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Through researching and in lectures, BBC is the most factually based and straight news channel, as it’s very different to any other news in Britain and USA. For example CNN and Fox news in the USA looks more set up and planned out, it is usually over the top and an exaggerated show, repeating same stories in different ways as they are also in competition with each other. However ITV news is mainly the same stories as the BBC but it is more commercial based news rather than the facts and straight to the story as it would drag.

From having an introduction session in the news room, has given me more of an insight how the news works and how it is set up to gather much information to broadcast to the viewers. Through the tutorial session of the News Room, I have learnt everything in news is on demand and fast all editing is done by three main editors, photo, audio and video editors to get the perfect story. This is something that I would like to get into as it’s very challenging and putting up with pressure and delivering on a deadline.

“The newsroom is the heart of the news-gathering process. The newsroom is controlled by the news editor, who supervises this whole process. The news editor complies a dairy of jobs; brief the reporter who will do them; monitors the days or weeks work. (i.e. checks it while it is going on); checks the finished stories, liaises with the photographers and illustrators and answers queries. The news editor also keeps the editor and the chief sub-editor informed on how the work is progressing. ” [1] 

Through my own research of how a news room is set up I established that it’s usually a multi camera shoot using one or more cameras. In a news room they would use a CGI camera as they would use it for the blue screen for the background of the presenters and also for the weather. It’s important for the news room to have all the monitors on for the presenters especially for the sports or weather, for highlights so they can keep talking to the video to see what they are doing.

To get one of the best stories for any journalist they would have to go undercover in some parts of the world whether they are covering war stories or a prohibited area. For example undercover reporting is a journalist posing as someone friendly to the community, like Humphrey Hawksley. A well experienced news reporter working for the BBC for reporting all over the world’s current affair stories. He has reported all over Asia, one of the stories he covered was in the Philippines was the violence and torture. After reporting this he had received death threats himself, so this shows, to get the best stories what pressure and conditions you would have to go through.

“Undercover reporting from Zimbabwe is a risky business. Add to the mix a close encounter with one of President Mugabe’s most feared supporters and, as Ian Pannell discovered, it becomes a brief glimpse of the terror that many people in the country are living through.” [2] 

As from the quote above Ian Panell is faced with a close encounter with President Mugabe as he was covering the most powerful man in Zimbabwe. Reporters will do anything to make the stories over dramatic for the viewers no matter what conditions and situations they are put through.

Also in the beginning of the second semester we had to get into teams of three to four as we had to pitch our idea for a two minute VT, for the second years entertainment show called “According to man”. A four part series for men, it’s a magazine style show that focuses on all men interests, the show has continuous structure of two inserts and guests on each show. For our part as first years we had to produce a two to three minute section that will fit in with their show.

As the show is comical and the look they are going for is a ‘Top Gear’ style and will be using tongue and cheek humour. For this to be a winning insert my team and I went for the fitness route for men, as all men like to be fit and this will go with the show well. Our idea was called ‘Flex Those Pecks’. Flex those pecks is approximately a three minute VT that forces on men bodies and how psychical in shape they really are and during their day to day lifestyle.

They were impressed with the idea but it was too vague. As we also had done research that contained facts and figures to go with the idea. We didn’t have a power point presentation to show more in detailed information of what flex those pecks was all about, by not having a power point to present, clearly let us down but we had positive feedback that will taken on for future pitches to come.

The winning pitch was ‘Hang Over Cures’. For this we had one guest presenter to talk to our guests that had been drunk that night before and filmed so we can play this in our insert, the thirty seconded VT showed two of our guest getting drunk the night before. They would have to try two different hang over cures and then the two guests will be in the studio to see if it had made any difference to them within the twenty four hours. It clearly showed that Charles’s hang over cure didn’t’ work and Charlie’s did take an affect.

“The unique quality of an electronic camera is its ability to produce a picture that can be instantly transmitted. Multi – camera coverage entails a production technique which involves a number of people perfecting their individual contribution in a production group simultaneously as the event is transmitted. To coordinate such a group activity, it is essential to plan a d have some measure of rehearsal before transmission or rely on standard production conventions which are understood by everyone involved.” [3] 

We all had our specific roles within the production to make it run smoothly we all had tutorials enabling us to be prepared as this was an important piece for the second years as they will be using our insert for their magazine show. One of the roles that I had taken upon in the production was ‘Autocue’. Autocue is a teleprompter that is connected to two or more cameras in the studio where it allows the presenters to read off the autocue as they were looking straight at the camera.

The way the autocue works it prompts the presenter or speaker in front of the camera with visual text of a script, this is similar by using cue cards. The two way mirror in front of the lens of the camera reflective on the screen by a video monitor where the script is, and the presenter’s eyes are on the two way mirror where they are reading it from. Television technologically has evolved over the years from having cardboard cue cards to having autocue from the camera to have it in various fonts, colours and languages.

“Today’s television prompters have evolved from the 1955 autocue as flat screen computer driven units that displays text using all the benefits of scalable true type fonts in any language or colour, including Hindi, Chinese or Japanese.” [4] 

I felt confident using the autocue as it’s very simple to use, as you would need to keep in time with the presenter and how fast he or she speaks. Setting up the autocue was fairly simple as it’s done on the computer with autocue software which is in a script format and I could make changes to it as when the camera is rolling, which I had to do in last few minutes by adding the shows web address. The autocue program allows you to copy and paste text from any word processing program to the prompter has all of the features that you will need to do a successful video shoot.

When reviewing the final show on its own and how it adapted to the ‘According to Man’, it fitted well with their show as their main target audience. However when reviewing the full series of According to Man it contrasted the show well; yet the presenter for our insert looked more childish than to be serving to drinks and didn’t quite fit into the men magazine show. Furthermore the camera work was inadequate in some parts and the lighting of the studio was too bright, but the VT that we filmed them getting drunk the night before really fitted well with our insert as the audience could understand the concept as it were a little experiment.

Overall I thought this insert went well as we worked professionally and gained vast skills from the first production we had done and adapted new ideas into making it an original three minute piece. This gave me a better understanding of what people in the industry are looking for as we just had to produce a three minute insert for a particular show and how they will change parts of your script and ideas to make it fit their show.

Finally multiple camera setups is a way of shooting films and television programs, such as sitcoms like ‘Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, only Fools and Horses’ and many more. Multi camera filming was set up to capture the multiple shots in a single take without having to start and stop the action. This would also reduce the time spent on editing the footage as the some programs that are to be shown in a short time. It is also an essential for shows like daily soap operas from saving editing time, scenes may be shot far more quickly as there is no requirement for the show to re-light and the set-up of alternating camera angles for the scene to be shot again from different position. This also reduces the difficulty of tracking continuity issues that crop up when the scene is reshot from the different angles. It is also fundamental for live television such as news reporting.

Most sitcoms are normally 30 minutes long, it is necessary that the plot line to be quite tight. Winning plots will naturally fall within a family or workplace setting or some mixture of the two. Within this setting, there are two parts to the storylines in which you can call part A and part B. Part A of the storyline would be the main plot of the sitcom. The A story would usually run right through the show and won’t come to an end until the final scene. The B storyline is the second part of the sitcom. It would depend on how many characters you would have in the cast; there can be other side line stories such as C, D, and so on. If you throw in a hook or plot twist and you have a show.

For example ‘Friends’ and ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ is a more long established looking sitcom usually shot in front of a studio audience. In most cases you will see four cameras shooting a scene simultaneously, giving the producers four possible angles and possibly using a crane camera. The way the sitcom would we set up is that you have four cameras two on either side or usually wide shots two in the middle a close up and some cases a crane. As sitcoms with a live audience they have different locations within the studio to set the each scene like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.