Posts tagged today

CIRCUS: Studio Camera’s

0

Our second to last Circus session today, and it was defiantly one of the most interesting, Studio Camera’s. Heres what I wrote about it in my Circus Report:

Studio Cameras are in some respects simplified versions of PSC cameras, as they don’t have the ability to record directly or capture sound. Studio Cameras are operated by a single operator in the studio and a secondary racking operator in the gallery. The racking operator is responsible for the exposure, white / black balance and the colours. If each camera operator had these controls, the picture wouldn’t be as consistent as if it was operated remotely by one.

We were trained on the Sony HXC100 HD Camera’s, with four being mounted on Vinten Pedestals and the fifth on a non-pressurised Pedestal. The operation of the zoom and focus has moved from the camera body (PSC) to two wired remotes on the pan and tilt handles of the Pedestal, with the exception of number 5, which is designed to be used as a hand held and its pedestal, is only a place to keep it when not in use.

Camera 5 also has a Wide Angle, which again changes the perspective of the studio for the viewer, with this lens the studio looks larger than, when it is viewed with one of the other 4 camera’s which all have the same narrower lens. Graham Reed2 also went through a great deal on perspective and depth of field and how it can greatly effect an images composition. The great example he used was a line of tree’s and showed how using different focal lengths you could make the trees look closer together (narrow angle) or further apart (wide angle), than they truly were.

CIRCUS: Location Camera

0

Another day, Another Operational skill, this time we were learning about Location Camera’s which is also know as Electronic News Gathering (ENG), which is also know as Personal Single Camera (PSC). This type of shooting is completely different to studio work, and requires a different mindset, for example with PSC you have to remember to add 30-seconds of Bars & Tone to the beginning of every tape you shoot with. Another thing before every shoot, is its best to check the back focus and time code is set-up correctly.

Without Time Code, editing the shot footage, is near impossible, especially when you are trying to sync up two different shots of the same pice of action up. For theses sorts of cuts to be smooth, the Time Code also needs to be synced between all the cameras that are recording.

Working with Rolly today has been interesting and light hearted session, we used a simple interview set-up to practice recoding to a Location Camera, for this simple shoot we teamed up with the location Sound Group.

CIRCUS: Studio Gallery

0

Today, we moved onto the next part of our Production Skills Circus, this time we looked at the workings of the Studio / Production Gallery. This included looking at what the role of the Director, PA, VM operator and Other Production Roles do, during a live or as-live multi-cam shoot.

Looking at these roles and listening into to talkback of some recently recorded shows, gave me a look at how teams work together and how much is actually scripted, including all camera shots, tracks, how long the presenter talks and more. Listening to the talkback also gave a clear indication to myself and the group, how much teamwork is actually involved in creating the final show the viewer watches.

CIRCUS: Lighting

0

Today we started the BOP (Broadcast Operations) Circus, which is designed to teach us the basic in many operational roles. Today, my group started on Lighting with Graham Jaggers, an industry professional Lighting Director.

With lighting already being my specialist subject, after transferring from a theatre environment, I found I was only looking out for the differences between live theatre and live broadcast. The main difference i found was the huge requirement for Backlight, this isn’t such a requirement in theatre world.

Other little tips and tricks I have picked up from today, include:

  • 3 Point Lighting / The importance of shadows
  • How to use a Pantograph
  • The idea of bouncing a hard light of something white to create a large soft light
Go to Top