advantages and disadvantages of single camera productions and its techinques

1. Unit 20: Single Camera Techniques
The single camera technique is used way more lately, especially in big budget movie and
series productions. Most of the famous directors tend to shoot certain scenes or even entire
movies in single camera, or sometimes they just stitch some of their multi camera work
together to make it look like single camera.
The single camera production is a style of production where only one camera is filming a
scene at a time, they are well planned, storyboarded and for each scene they require a lot of
takes and editing.
In modern tv series and movies, the single camera production makes certain framing and
angles of shooting possible, for example:
Extreme Long Shot: used to show a large amount of landscape around the character(s).,
which would generally be used when the focus would be to show distance or being alone.
Medium Shot: ideally used when the subject is speaking or delivering information and the
fine detail isn’t needed. Also used when people are gesturing with their arms.
Close-up Shot: they typically contain just the face and the shoulders of a subject, with a little
room for the head above, these shots are the most common of all as they can convey a real
sense of emotion and help the audience to connect with the subject.
Bird’s eye view shot: it’s an elevated view of an object from above, with a perspective as
though the observer were a bird, often used in the making of blueprints, floor plans and
maps.
Extreme close-up: this shot frames a subject very closely, often so much so that the outer
portions of the subject are cut off by the edges of the frame.
Point of view shot: is a film angle that shows what character is looking at in the first person.
It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at
something, and a shot showing the character’s reaction.
Over the shoulder: is when the camera is positioned behind one character and facing
another, so the shoulder and the back of the one character are facing the audience.
Shot reverse shot: is a filmtechnique where one character is shown looking at another
character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.
180-degree rule: is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a
character and another character or object within a scene. By keeping the camera on one
side of an imaginary axis between two characters, the first character is always frame right of
the second character.
Rule of thirds: is a concept in cinematography in which the frame is divided into nine
imaginary sections. This creates reference points which act guides for framing the image.
Eye level: refers to when the level of your camera is placed at the same height as the eyes of
the character in your frame. An eye level camera angle does not require the viewer to see
the eyes of the actor, nor does the actor need to look directly into the camera for a shot to
be considered eye level.
High angle: is a cinematic technique where the camera looks down on the subject from a
high angle and the point of focus often gets “swallowed up”. They can make the subject
seem vulnerable or powerless when applied with the correct mood, setting, and effects.
Low angle: is a shot from a camera angle positioned low on the vertical axis, anywhere
below the eye line, looking up. Sometimes, it is even directly below the subject’s feet.

2. Psychologically the effect of the low-angle shot is that it makes the subject look strong and
powerful.
Dutch tilt: is a type of camera shot which involves setting the camera at the angle on its roll
axis so that the shot is composed with vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame, or
so that the horizon line of the shot is not parallel with the bottom of the camera frame.
A scene that has been shot in single camera, especially a fight scene or a dialogue, needs to
be edited together to give the audience a sense of continuity, where a scene is edited so
that the scene transitions properly and doesn’t leave the audience confused and lost,
there’s no such “rule” that tells when and how to edit a certain scene, but there are
conventions that would make it more fluid to watch, however these conventions are not
always followed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aycGYu_8Hhw
In the movie Hunger (2008), there is a 24 minutes long dialogue shot, which starts with an
extreme long medium shot take that keeps running without cutting for 15 minutes straight,
having in the frame Michael Fassbender and LiamCunningham talking to each other at a
table. The audience is not looking for a cut, because they already are able to understand the
dialogue and what’s going on with the scene, only after 15 minutes the camera cuts on an
extreme close-up on Michael Fassbender’s hand lighting up a cigarette, switching

3. immediately to a close-up on Michael Fassbender’s face, with another 4 minutes long take
with him delivering a monologue, then the scene takes the a classic switch to a normal shot-
reverse-shot technique, until it ends with another extreme close-up on Michael
Fassbender’s hands putting out a cigarette.
The single camera also helps to make certain types of shot easier or possible, like for
example:
Establishing shot: it sets up the context for the scene ahead, designed to inform the
audience where the action will be taking place. It shows the relationship between people
and objects, and establishes the scene’s geography.
Master shot: is a filmrecording of an entire dramatized scene, start to finish, from a camera
angle that keeps all the players in view. It is often a long shot and can sometimes perform a
double function as an establishing shot.
Tracking shot: is any shot where the camera follows backward, forward or moves alongside
the subject being recorded. In cinematography, the term refers to a shot in which the
camera is mounted in a dolly that is then placed on rails.
Cuts ins: A shot that presents material in a scene in greater detail, usually through a close-up
shot. A cut-in isolates and emphasizes an element of the mise-en-scene for dramatic or
informational value. Each progressive movement through the shot sequence, from long shot
to close-up, constitutes a form of cut-in.
Cuts away: a shot that “cuts away” from the main action to any shot that adds visual
information, and then returns to the original shot with new meaning. Imagery shown in a
cutaway can occur anywhere in relation to your scene, and have no strict geographical
requirement.

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4PkBCD4mdY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM0wP07wD2g
The most famous scene of the movie Pulp Fiction (1994), opens with a tracking shot which
also establishes the tone and the location we’re seeing, following the two protagonists
entering a building, the camera doesn’t cut until Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta enter
the building, only then we see a bird’s eye shot pointing from above the hall room of the
building they entered and with a wide angled-lens we never lose sight on the twos, after
that we have another tracking shot but this time long a corridor while Samuel L. Jackson and
John Travolta are walking through it and talking in the meanwhile, and even when the two
protagonists stop to deliver more important dialogues, the camera doesn’t cut in in any
time even if the times where they stop in the middle of this corridor are numerous.
Only after a couple of minutes of tracking the camera cuts to a symmetric close up with the
back of both actors’ head talking, and cuts in with an extreme close-up on a door locker
opening. Only then the scene cuts finally to a master-establishing shot until it takes the
shape of a regular shot-reverse-shot between the various characters talking. But between
them there are cuts in and cuts away using close-ups and extreme close-ups, when the
scene gets more intense dramatically the format of the camera angles becomes a regular
over the shoulder dialogue set-up, and when Samuel L. Jackson delivers his monologue, as it
gets to the end of it the camera tends to cut less and less and it also comes to a close-up eye
level shot on Samuel L. Jackson’s face ending his monologue.

5. Single camera productions are much more cost effective, this because you require less
equipment, and the number of members of the staff to operate it will be reduced which will
help saving costs in wage. Costs can also be reduced in terms of the facilities required to
transport and store larger (and heavier) quantities of equipment. In this way productions
will require much less space than a more complicated multi-camera setup.
By having only one camera you don’t need to worry about additional cameras appearing in
shot, or additional setup time to achieve suitable lighting. Another additional advantages of
single-camera dramatic production are that scenes don’t have to be shot in sequence, in
fact, seldom does a script’s chronological sequence represent the most efficient shooting
order. The final sequence of scenes is arranged during editing. In this instance it is not
always essential to have to have all actors available at any one time.
The director has more control over each and every shot when filming in single camera, using
exciting and stylised camera angles with much tighter budgets. The lighting for each shot is
individual and therefore controlled and appropriate for each shot, the footage can be shot
in clusters so that cast and crew are not hanging around, multiple run-throughs can help
actors get into character.
However single camera production has its limitations, which could be time consuming
because the director is filming one angle at a time which will take us to have multiple
individual takes to allow a variety of camera angles in the final edit, and it also takes longer
in both production and post production to assemble a suitable sequence, this requires the
production to be careful during the staging and framing so in the post production continuity
and careful matching can be ensured. This can be challenging for the actors who have to
replicate the same actions over and over again in the most similar way possible, and by
doing various shots some reactions could be less natural which will impact on the flow of
the piece, with the help of lights and tripods the director can ensure continuity in lighting
and stability of the shot, while in the editing the eyelines or actions have to match and be
timed. Due to the length of film sometimes this single camera production can be even more
expensive than a multi camera one, also because continuity errors are so often and the
action filmed can start and stop continuously which might me aggravating and appear
stunted.

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwFe79nlBT8
In the music video called LUNEDI’ by Salmo, there is a mental-physical fight scene between a
homeless man and an inner demon, the scene shot entirely in single camera (because of the
different angle takes) required the two actors to perform the fighting choreography various
time to achieve a smooth result, by starting the fighting alternating medium shots with
medium-close-ups and over the shoulder shots to make the choreography seem solid.
Halfway through the fighting the rhythm of it changes drastically when the open
environment switches to the homeless pushing the demon against a shop window by a wall
where the shots become over the back instead of over the back, and they get mixed with
point of view shots from both of the actors with three different medium shots alternating
with the others, ending the music video with a medium close-up transitioning in a high angle
shot to finish.
Some camera movement in single camera production make certain camera movements
easier, this with the help of equipment like shoulder mount, Steadicam, snorricam,
tracks/dolly, crane/jib, tripod, etc… like:
Dollying/trucking/tracking: refers to the camera movement when a camera is mounted on a
dolly, where the camera moves towards, way from, or alongside your subject, which can be
an actor, location setting, product, etc.

7. Zooming: refers to the technique of changing the focal length of a zoom lens during a shot.
The technique allows a change from close-up to wide shot (or vice versa) during a shot,
giving a cinematographic degree of freedom.
Dolly zoom or “trombone shot”: it’s the effect achieved by zooming a zoom lens to adjust
the angle of view while the camera dollies toward or away from the subject in such a way as
to keep the subject the same size in the frame throughout.
Focus pulling: refers to the act of changing the lens’s focus distance setting in
correspondence to a moving subject’s physical distance from the focal place, or the
changing distance between a stationary object and a moving camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esqi8Ql5Ssc
In the TV Series Narcos there is a scene of a dialogue over the phone between Horatio
Carrillo and Pablo Escobar, the difference between the two parts is that the scenes with
Pablo are filmed handholding while the scenes with Horatio are filmed with the camera
mounted on a piece of equipment like a dolly/track. While the cinematographer follows
Pablo talking on the phone, he has to continuously reframe and zoom in or out to build
tension during the scene until it cuts to a low close-up to end the scene, the scene with
Horatio instead is just a simple continuous dollying in the from a medium shot to a medium
close-up just by tracking towards Horatio and not cutting from start to end.