Michael Reeder

Single Camera Drama

Unit 22

Single Camera Techniques

Format
Single Camera Techniques
The basis of single camera techniques is that
only a single camera is used, this means
shooting one scene with the same camera in
many different locations as shown on the left.
The image shows the floor plan of a generic
single camera drama, they would move the
camera around to capture such shots like the
over the shoulder shot but you never cross
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singl
over to behind the actors as this breaks the
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180 degree rule which I will explain later on.
An example of a single camera drama is
Sherlock on BBC. Sherlock is based on a detective and is more suited for a single
camera as it adds to the mysterious effect that the series gives.

Multi Camera Techniques

A multi camera setup is different from a
single camera setup in one key way; a multi
camera setup uses many cameras to shoot
many different shots at once. This is very
beneficial as it saves time when shooting as
you dont have to film the scene from many
different angles like you would with a single
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi
camera. Having a multi camera setup also
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helps with continuity as the same scene is
shot from many different angles and there is
no need to repeat the scene to shoot another angle and risk the chance that it wont
be the same as the last shot of that same scene. How I Met Your Mother is an
example of a multi camera series, this follows the story of how the main character
Ted Mosby met his childrens mother. Most of this is shot on TV sets which means
there is plenty of room to have many cameras as there is only 3 walls on a TV set,
there is always no 4th wall as the is for the crew to film and sometimes for an
audience to sit. Being on a TV set allows you to have many cameras and this allows
How I Met Your Mother to be filmed quickly and very professionally as multi camera
setups gives a more professional quality. A single camera setup on the other hand is
less professional as it allows a lot of room for error because the same scene has to
repeat by filming from many different angles.

Series and Single

Michael Reeder

Single Camera Drama

Unit 22

There are two different types of TV drama, either a

series or a single drama. A series is where there
are many episodes of the same TV program and a
single where there is only one episode of that TV
program. A series will usually run for a few months
and it will take
that time to
resolve the
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cultu
key plot
re/tvandradio/tv-and-radiowhereas a
reviews/11349469/Cyberbullysingle will one
review-tense-and-topical.html
episode which
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will be resolved by the end of that episode. An
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scru
example of a long running series is Scrubs, a
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typical series for scrubs would be around 20
half hour episodes running one every week for
about 5 months over the Christmas period. Unlike Scrubs, Cyberbully is a single
episode which ran for an hour and it was resolved by the end.