Unit 23: Multi-Camera Techniques

Multi-camera techniques are mainly used in Live shows, like Sports, Concerts & Chat or Game shows. This is so that the viewer's get the full feel that the show wants you to get. The 3 main shows use multi-camera for these reasons:

• Sports- Wrestling for example, multi-camera is used so you can get a view from all 4 sides of the ring, they can cut to the crowd to give a feeling of the atmosphere and have a camera at the announcers table so it can cut to them if they need to say something or to show their reaction if something happens.
• Concerts- All live concerts use multi-camera so you can have a view of every member of the band together or single shots of the members of the group if they are doing solos or just to get a close-up of them, there's also a camera on the crowd so you can get the atmosphere feeling and it makes it almost feel like you are there.
• Chat/Game Shows- Celebrity Juice for example uses multi-camera so you can have a crowd shot, have a view of the entire stage, have a single shot on Keith (The host), then have 2 cameras for both teams and have cameras to get single shots of the team members.

 A basic studio production layout looks like this:

This shows a basic interview with multi-camera techniques, Camera 1 shows an over the shoulder shot of the host. Camera 2 shows both the guest and the host. Camera 3 shows an over the shoulder shot of the guest.

 Advantages of using multi-camera techniques are the audience can feel as though they are more involved in the action which can give them a sense of excitement and thrill. Another being that a multi-camera set up can be cheaper to make. This is because there is less editing as the editing can sometimes be done live by flicking from camera to camera which also means that multi-camera saves a lot of time and effort.



Here is an example of Multi-Camera being used at a live concert:
Fozzy @ Bloodstock Festival 2013

Multi-camera is used at concerts to get the full feel of the show, from being on stage with the band, to being in the crowd. They do this by having a camera set up in or behind the crowd to give the experience of being at the concert, then there is another behind the band which kind of gives a backstage feel. There are other cameras that are used on single members of the band there are 2 reasons for this, the first, so if there's a solo the camera can be set on that camera, the other reason is simply so that it isn't a continuous view of the entire band and it can have a variety of shots with the different band members.