Chapter 4: Fundamentals of Camerawork and Shot Composition
The Role of Camerawork
A television program is a series of video images synchronized to a series
of audio clips. Described this way, it is easy to understand why
camerawork is such a fundamental part of producing TV programs.
One of the first steps in designing a TV program that motivates your
audience to think, feel, or do what you want them to do, is to decide:
• What to shoot;
• How to shoot it;
• When and where to shoot it;
• How to sequence the various shots; and
• How to transition between the shots.
Camerawork is the first place you decide what to include and what to
exclude from your “TV reality” (i.e. your program). So, as you make the
above decisions, you’ll also be choosing what NOT to shoot, what angles
and perspectives NOT to include, which relationships you will NOT
establish through your shot sequence.
Different Realities: The Human Eye vs. the Camera Lens
Before we talk about how to shoot, it is important to realize the differences
between the “reality” we see with our eyes and the “reality” that the
camera sees. In television, we see only what the camera lens shows us,
only when it shows it to us, and only how it shows it to us.
HUMAN EYE
CAMERA LENS
Active, easily stimulated by
movement
Static, must stage movement and
move camera to follow action
Wide field of view, can focus on many
objects at once, non-selective
Narrow field of view, emphasis naturally given to objects placed in center
Peripheral vision makes objects
appear closer than they are
Tunnelvision, creates exaggeration of
space between objects
3-dimensional space
Everything appears flattened to two
dimensions
Sees detail and subtle differences
Lacks resolution to show finest details
and subtlest differences
Extensive contrast range (10,000:1),
information within contrast range is
easily discerned
Limited contrast range (20-30:1),
detailed information is lost in dark or
bright areas
Adapted from: Progressive Video Programming, by Jeffrey Glasser, Stephen Gach,
Pamela Levine
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This chart of differences may seem interesting but somewhat trivial as you
read it; but when actually start making TV programs these differences will
become very real and significant for you. The tunnelvision effect and the
apparent flattening of space will affect how you arrange the set, the
cameras, and the lighting. The limited contrast range will require you to
spend a lot more time thinking about and dealing with lighting. You will
find yourself becoming a composer painting shots with video, the TV
screen will be your canvas. The artist in you will emerge. So, too, will the
critic. For you will become a more active and observant TV viewer, and
also much more aware of the constructed nature of television “reality.”
Basic Camera Operation
In learning how to compose the video portion of your program, two
aspects need to be addressed: The mechanical aspect of operating
cameras, and the subjective aspect of composing a story with camera
shots. For the purposes of this manual, we are going to address each
aspect separately.
The appearance of an image seen through a camera lens depends on two
things:
1) the focal length of the lens
2) the physical position of the camera relative to the subject.
Focal Length, Zoom Lenses, and Lens Movements:
The longer the focal length (Telephoto), the larger the image appears; the
shorter the focal length (Wide-angle), the smaller the image. A zoom lens
is a lens with variable focal lengths from Wide-angle to Telephoto.
Zooming in:
Is the process of changing the focal length from a Wideangle (W) shot to a close-up or Telephoto (T) shot.
Zooming out: Is the process of going from a close-up or Telephoto (T)
shot to a Wide-Angle (W) shot.
Focusing:
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Most of us know that focusing means adjusting a lens to
give its sharpest resolution of an image. But did you know
that there is ONE correct way to focus a zoom lens?
Always begin by zooming the lens in on the subject as far
as it will go, and then set the focus so that the image is at
its sharpest. As long as the actual distance between the
camera and the subject doesn’t change, the subject will
stay in focus as you zoom in or out.
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Physical Camera Location and Camera Movements
Besides changing the focal length, the whole camera can be moved to
change the appearance of a subject.
* Pan Left or
Right:
While keeping the tripod/dolly still, swivel the camera
lens horizontally to the left or right. In order to "see
more right," the cameraperson will be directed to pan
right. Pans should generally be executed very slowly.
Follow Pan: Pan to keep a moving subject within the
frame.
Swish Pan: A very fast pan that blurs the background.
* Tilt Up or
Down:
While keeping the tripod/dolly still, move the camera
lens up or down. In order to "see more down," the
cameraperson will be directed to tilt down.
* Dolly In or
Out:
Move the whole camera and tripod/dolly closer to or
farther from the subject.
* Truck (or
Track) Left
or Right:
Move the whole camera and tripod/dolly to the left or
right.
* Arc:
Truck and Dolly the camera at the same time, moving
in a semi-circular arc around the subject.
* Pedestal
Up or
Down:
Crank the center post of the tripod up or down. Note:
Usually, the lens should be at eye level with the talent.
And, for maximum stability, first extend the tripod legs
to gain extra height before raising the pedestal.
One Last Word on Lens and Camera Movements
Lens and camera movements that are not done smoothly, naturally, or
without an obvious reason, will call attention to themselves. In many
cases, this will detract from the content of the show, except when the
jarring effect of a fast zoom is part of the message (as in Wayne’s World).
The most prized camerapersons are those who execute camera and lens
movements without calling the viewer’s attention to the fact that there ever
was a cameraperson between them and their view of “reality.”
For this reason, it is important when starting out to practice your camera
work every chance you get, and to make an effort to get those chances.
Seek out other producers, volunteer for shoots, or shoot your own
program. Public Access is the perfect environment to learn by doing; it’s
OK to make mistakes and learn from them. The sooner you master the
mechanical aspects of running cameras, the sooner you’ll be able to focus
(excuse the pun!) on the real fun stuff, composing with the camera!
Types of Shots
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Now let’s start composing your television program using the fundamental
video building blocks: The camera shots. To ease communication
between producers, directors, writers, and camerapersons, the TV
industry has developed a language to describe the kind of shot desired at
each particular instant. You would do well to learn this language if you
you want to fit right in with other crews at CCTV, crews in other Access
centers, or crews in commercial or Public TV stations.
While the terms Long, Medium, and Close-up are frequently used, some
people prefer to use more precise descriptions like “knee,” “waist,” and
“head and shoulders.”
* Long Shot:
(LS)
Shows entire body and
some of the surroundings.
Often used at the start of a
program or a segment of a
program to orient the viewer
to where the talent is
located. Imparts little or no
emotional impact.
* Medium Shot:
(MS)
"Waist shot." Generally
includes the upper half of
the body, cutting the person
off near the waist. Provides
a little more sense of
intimacy with the talent, and
is a "bread and butter" shot
for interviews.
* Close-Up:
(CU)
"Head and shoulders" shot.
Provides an even greater
sense of intimacy and
emphasis than the Medium
Shot. When focused on
objects, can help viewers
see details they might
otherwise miss. Another
commonly used shot for
“talking heads” interviews.
* Extreme
Close-Up:
(ECU)
For even more dramatic
effect, this tight shot frames
only part of the face. It tells
the viewer that what is being
said is very important or
emotional, and therefore this
shot should be reserved for
situations of deep emotion
or high intensity.
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* Establishing or Same as the long shot or
even wider, this shot is often
Wide Shot:
used at the start of a
(ES)
program or program segment to establish its setting
and context. Similarly, it is
often used at the end of a
program or right before a
break to let the viewer know
that the end is coming.
* Two Shot:
A Medium Shot that frames
two persons, instead of the
usual one.
A shot that focuses on one
* Over-theShoulder Shot: subject by looking over the
shoulder of another person
(O/S)
who is facing the subject.
Sometimes called a "ShotReverse-Shot."
Composition Techniques
As a Public Access producer, you are NOT bound by the same constraints
that apply to professional commercial producers, and therefore have a
terrific opportunity to experiment with new approaches to new subject
matter. At the same time and in most cases, you are still trying to impact
an audience whose expectations have been largely shaped by the
practices of commercial TV producers. As a Public Access producer,
therefore, you would do well to master the composition techniques
described below that the commercial pro’s use; and then in the course of
your own productions, decide whether the goals and audiences you are
trying to reach would best be served by these techniques or by using your
own methods. Mastery of the conventional methods also ensures that you
will fit right in as a cameraperson at any station or production house,
commercial or Public Access.
The advantages of using conventional composition in your programs
include:
• Emphasis is placed where it is wanted;
• The viewer's visual expectations are fulfilled;
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•
•
Feelings of balance and three-dimensional depth are conveyed;
Continuity between different cameras is assured.
Here are some composition concepts and techniques you should master:
* Head Room: Is the space between the top of the
subject's head and the top of the
frame. A well-framed shot puts the
subject's eyes about 1/3 of the way
down the frame, leaving Head Room of
about 10% at the top of the frame.
However, more Head Room is OK for
Long Shots, and less or no Head
Room is OK for Extreme Close-Ups.
* Nose Room: Is the space in front a person who is
speaking towards one edge of the
frame. For example, when a subject is
conversing with someone seated
beside them, they will be looking
towards one edge of the frame instead
of straight ahead to the camera. In this
instance, framing should emphasize
both the subject and the fact that there
is someone or something of interest
outside the frame. Put the subject offcenter and add some Nose Room or
"Talking Space" in the side of the
frame to which they are looking.
Which of these looks good to
you?
* Lead Room: Is similar to Nose Room, but applies
when the subject is moving towards
one edge of the frame. Put the subject
off-center, by adding some Lead Room
in the side of the frame towards which
they are moving. A wider angle shot
allows for slower, smoother movement.
Which of these looks good to
you?
* Balance and Most perfectly centered shots are static
the Rule of and boring. Balance is created by
setting points of visual interest off
Thirds:
against each other, thereby
heightening the viewer's interest.
Imagine the frame divided horizontally
and vertically into thirds. If major
points of interest are placed at the
points where the lines intersect, the
result is more pleasing to the eye than
if a perfectly symmetrical arrangement
were composed.
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A TV picture is two-dimensional; but
* Depth
Composition: the good selection and framing of
props in the foreground and background can lend a three-dimensional
quality to the picture. The arrangement, or blocking, of talent can help
create depth. Put them at varying
distances to the camera; nothing is
deadlier than a line of people all the
same distance from the camera. With
two people, an Over-the-Shoulder Shot
gives more depth than a face-to-face
profile shot. A feeling of depth can
also be achieved by placing cameras
at an angle to the subject.
* Safe Title
Area:
Every TV set will crop an image
differently. In order that every viewer
will be able to see the important
information in your show, you should
not to put any vital information (titles or
graphics, for example) near the edge
of the screen but only within the inner
90% of the screen area, or “safe title
area.” (This is another good reason
for having “Head Room;” otherwise,
some people’s TV sets will cut off the
tops of your talents’ heads!)
Let the Rule of Thirds be Your Friend When Zooming In or Out
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Camera Movement
We’ve been discussing camera shots as if they were static shots, but that
doesn’t have to be the case. Moving camera shots can be executed on-line,
and these movements would be considered part of your arsenal of
fundamental video building blocks from which to construct your program.
All of the mechanical operations of running cameras discussed earlier
(zooming, focusing, panning, tilting, dollying, etc.) have subjective aspects,
too. In other words, they carry meaning, impacting how the viewer “reads”
or inteprets your TV program. Let’s look at them again.
Lens Movement: Zooming and Focusing
Our eyes have no movement equivalent to the zoom; instead, zooming
tends to evoke in us the sensation of physically moving closer to or farther
from the subject.
Zoom In:
In drawing us closer to the subject, zooming in tells the
viewer “pay attention, what follows is important;”
zoom ins are often used when a subject becomes
emotional or to emphasize what is being said.
Zoom Out:
For similar reasons, on-line zoom outs are used very
sparingly, usually to signal the close of a segment or a
show; otherwise, the viewer might interpret them to
mean “don’t pay attention, what follows isn’t important.”
Adjusting focus is one technique used to transition, also called segue
(pronounced SEG-WAY), between different parts of a program, or to shift
the viewer’s attention between different subjects in the same scene.
Rack Focus: To adjust the camera’s focus from a blurry shot of the
subject to a sharp image of the subject, or vice-versa.
Often used to segue between different scenes (either in
different locations, different realities, or the same
location at a different time) by blurring out the first shot,
then racking from a blurry to a sharp image of the
second shot.
Pull Focus: To move from focusing on a background object or
person to focusing on a foreground subject, or viceversa. TV dramas use this technique fairly often to shift
the viewer’s attention between different people in the
same scene, playing up their differences while at the
same establishing a relationship between them.
Camera Movement:
Panning:
As with any camera movement, panning is one way of
introducing the sense of movement into your program.
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Tilting:
Because the lens is in essence the viewer’s eye, tilting
the lens up or down gives the viewer a sense of looking
up or down at someone or something. Tilts are
therefore used to emphasize the height or power of a
person or object, relative to the viewer. And perfoming
the tilt on-line reinforces the psychological impact that
much more!
To achieve the impression of a very powerful subject,
the camera lens - instead of being placed at eye-level
with the talent - is placed well below them and tilted up
at a steep angle, giving the viewer the sense of looking
up at an imposing subject. Similarly, to enhance the
sense of a subject’s weakness or powerlessness, the
camera lens is placed well above the subject’s eye and
tilted down at them.
Tilting can also be used for dramatic effect, such as tilting
from a shot of a gun down to the wounded person.
Trucking &
Dollying:
Trucking or dollying are camera movements that are
often used to reveal the three-dimensionality of a
stationary subject. They convey a sense of exploration
and discovery.
Dollying and zooming are both methods used to bring the
subject closer or farther away, yet physically moving the
camera and changing the focal length of a lens produce
very different visual effects. Try them out and see the
difference. Dollying in at a wide angle will retain the
sense of the subject in relation to the background; the
background focus is not altered, either. Zooming in blurs
the background, creating the sense that the subject is far
away from the background. The director or
cameraperson should determine which effect best fits the
needs of the program.
Finally, let’s remember that:
• You should have an obvious reason for moving the cameras, if you
want the viewer to be paying attention to the subect instead of your
mysterious camerawork.
• Similarly, camera movements that are not done smoothly or naturally
will call attention to themselves. In many cases, this will detract from
the content of the show, except when the jarring effect is part of the
message.
• The most prized camerapersons are those who execute camera
movements without calling the viewer’s attention to the fact that there
ever was a cameraperson between them and their view of “reality.”
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Transitions
We’ve said that still and moving camera shots are the video building
blocks of your program. But just as having a pile of bricks doesn’t by itself
make a house, so too does the television creator have to arrange these
building blocks into some kind of order that is interesting, compelling, and
logical. The goal, remember, is to compile a program (from beginning to
middle to end) that keeps your viewer interested and motivates them to
think, feel, or do what you wanted. In a live shoot, that is the director’s
responsibility. In an edited program, it is the editor’s responsibility.
In either case, this person has to be thinking about:
• what sequence to assemble the shots in;
• and what visual bridges or transitions to use to get from each shot to
the next one;
all the while maintaining program continuity. Let’s look at a couple of
examples.
Example 1
Suppose you videotaped a 3 ½ hour lecture, and wanted to condense it to
a one-hour program. If you simply edited one sequence after another,
deleting portions that you felt were unnecessary, you might create jump
cuts at the points where two sequences were edited together. (A jump cut
occurs when continuity is broken; a video jump cut looks like a sudden
change in the location of the subject in the frame.) Assuming that you
didn’t want jump cuts, you might cover it over with a cut-away. Having
anticipated the jump-cut problem, you would have recorded many
audience reaction shots, shots of the lecturer’s hands, etc. You would
then perform a video only insert edit over the jump cut, not only sparing
the viewer the disruption, but providing more information about the
environment of the lecture as well.
Example 2
Suppose you wanted to record a child falling asleep and having a dream.
You might intentionally lose (or rack) focus as the child falls asleep to
indicate that a new reality, the dream, is about to take place. At the next
edit point, you gradually resolve (or rack) the focus back to the first shot
within the dream sequence. In this case, the lens movement and
transition carried the important information: Namely, that we were
entering a different reality.
From both these examples we can see that is important for the
cameraperson to anticipate the needs of the editor. And, indeed, these
concerns should have been first raised during pre-production and
incorporated into the script, storyboard, and shot sheet.
Common Types of Transitions and Cover Shots
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Let’s review some of the techniques professionals have developed to
segue between different segments of a program. You, of course, could
develop your own techniques.
* Cut:
The most common transition in television, generally used
to show the same scene from a different angle. It is the
instantaneous and complete replacement of one shot with
another.
* Dissolve:
After the cut, the most commonly used transition in
television. It is the simultaneous fading out of one shot
and fading into the next, and is often used to signal a
change in time or location. This effect is accomplished in
the Studio using a Special Effects Generator (SEG).
* Fade:
A dissolve to or from black (or another color), sometimes
used to simulate the passage of time. Fades may
executed during the shoot by the cameraperson adjusting
the Iris, or in post-production by the editor using the SEG.
* Wipe:
The simultaneous push off the screen of one scene by
the next one. It is the most eye-catching, and hence least
used, transition in television. Generally, wipes are
reserved for instances when it is the wipe itself that is
carrying the information; for example, to signal a dream
sequence.
The manual readjustment of the focus, blurring the
picture. Can be used to both end one scene and begin
the next one.
To move from focusing on a background object or person
to focusing on a foreground subject, or vice-versa. TV
dramas often use this technique to shift the viewer’s
attention between different people in the same scene,
playing up their differences while at the same establishing
a relationship between them.
* Defocus (Lose
or Rack
Focus):
* Pull Focus:
* Establishing
Shot:
A wide view which orients the viewer to where the action
is taking place. Often used whenever there is a change
in location.
* Cut-away:
A single shot inserted into a scene to add more
information. Usually refers to a shot of something being
talked about but not actually on the set. (You can never
shoot too many of these or too many “reaction shots.”)
* Cut-in:
Similar to a cut-away, but refers to a close-up of
something on the set.
* Reaction Shot:
A shot of someone reacting to what is being said or what
action is happening on set.
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