Common Mistakes and Tips to Overcome Them In Multi-camera Live Shooting

Problem #1:

You are “locked” on a close up of the speaker and all of a sudden he darts stage right and leaves your “frame of reference”. 

Or you have just completed a zoom into a close up of your speaker and notice that he is not centered. 

Solution:

Pull back slowly on your zoom control and then move the camera head to make the adjustment as you slowly pull back.

Problem #2:

You notice you are badly out of focus on a close up or mid close up.

Solution:

Pull out slowly on your zoom control until the picture achieves focus.  Note:  Don’t do a “hair” pull back—it will look like a mistake—come on out with it so it will look like you meant to pull back on the shot. 

Problem #3:

The director switches to a shot and the cameraman was not ready—in fact he is pointing the camera at the sky or floor by accident.

Solution:

A good director always prepares his camera operators in advance, but occasionally problems will arise.  When this happens you can do two things:

a.  Tell you camera operator that is viewing the floor to slowly zoom back and pull back to a wide shot of the stage (try to make it look like you were trying to achieve an artsy type shot) or b. you can alert your other camera operator that you are coming back to him more quickly than you had planned.  Dissolve this shot so it will “blur” the mistake.

Problem #4:

When you as a camera operator cannot find your subject in the view finder.  You see him on stage but he is not visible in the view finder of the camera. 

Solution:

Never, never just “jerk” the camera head to “fish and find” your speaker.  Try to master the art of zooming and panning simultaneously to provide the view you are looking for.

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