The multiple-camera setup, multiple-camera mode of production, multi-camera or simply multicam is a method of filmmaking and video production. Several cameras—either film or professional video cameras—are employed on the set and simultaneously record or broadcast a scene. It is often contrasted with single-camera setup, which uses one camera.
Generally, the two outer cameras shoot close-up shots or "crosses" of the two most active characters on the set at any given time, while the central camera or cameras shoot a wider master shot to capture the overall action and establish the geography of the room. In this way, multiple shots are obtained in a single take without having to start and stop the action. This is more efficient for programs that are to be shown a short time after being shot as it reduces the time spent in film or video editing. It is also a virtual necessity for regular, high-output shows like daily soap operas. Apart from saving editing time, scenes may be shot far more quickly as there is no need for re-lighting and the set-up of alternative camera angles for the scene to be shot again from the different angle. It also reduces the complexity of tracking continuity issues that crop up when the scene is reshot from the different angles. It is an essential part of live television.
Drawbacks include a less optimized lighting which needs to provide a compromise for all camera angles and less flexibility in putting the necessary equipment on scene, such as microphone booms and lighting rigs. These can be efficiently hidden from just one camera but can be more complicated to set up and their placement may be inferior in a multiple-camera setup. Another drawback is in film usage—a four-camera setup will use (depending on the cameras involved) up to four times as much film (or storage space for digital) per take, compared with a single-camera setup.
While shooting, the director and assistant director create a line cut by instructing the technical director (or vision mixer in UK terminology) to switch between the feeds from the individual cameras. In the case of sitcoms with studio audiences, this line cut is typically displayed to them on studio monitors. The line cut might be refined later in editing, as often the output from all cameras is recorded, both separately and as a combined reference display called the q split. The camera currently being recorded to the line cut is indicated by a tally light controlled by a camera control unit (CCU) on the camera as a reference both for the actors and the camera operators.
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you have to have an understanding of the concept of 'art'. To me, art
is showing something to someone in a new way. A farmer sees a painter
has set up his easel on the edge of the road and is painting a picture
of the farmer's barn. The farmer looks over the painter's shoulder and
says 'Wow, I never realized that barn was so pretty!' The artist is
showing the farmer a barn he's seen every day of his life, but he's
never seen it in that way. That's the purpose of art (in my view).
A photograph is just another way of showing someone something. It's
useful, or at least very interesting, to understand how another person
sees it. The artist might be trying to get a message across and he
wonders of the viewer of the picture got it. Or there might be things
about the picture that the artist didn't even realize, because he was
thinking about something else.
I took a photography course in college, and of course there was a book
to read, an anthology of essays written by various photographers over
the last century and a half. The forward of the book made it clear that
the editor didn't believe there was a whole lot to be learned by
READING about photography. If you could explain a photograph entirely
in words, the photograph itself is useless! Its like the old saying (I
don't know where it came from): Writing about music is like dancing
about architecture.
But having other people critique your photographs can be very useful,
especially when you're just starting out. You want to know how well
you're sharing your vision. Are you making things too obvious? Are you
just repeating a cliche? Do your photographs make people smile, or
wonder, or inspire yearnings in them?
Photography is a -language-. It's meant to -say- things. In order to
use it to communicate, you need to have some understanding of how your
photos are seen by others, that's what Weston meant about understanding
your fellow man.</span>
