Any Tips for Shooting Two Cameras at Once?

[Peter Moretti]

Due to various constraints, I'm going to be in a situation where shooting two cameras is going to make everyone's life a lot easier. The idea is to shoot both close ups at once.

I know this is not ideal, but it is done. John Seale and Sindey Lumet both have used two cameras or more in very nice dramatic work.

My locations are:

INT. DINING ROOM (which can be either day or night)

EXT. GRASSY FIELD - DAY

INT. UNDERGROUND GARAGE - NIGHT (The garage has sodium vapors, which is going to be a problem all by itself, LOL!)


Thank you for any assistance!!!

 

[Marc Wielage]

Make sure both cameras have external timecode boxes feeding both code and genlock sync so they're absolutely in sync with each other, preferably jammed to the master timecode from the sound department. And the usual rules for multicam apply: avoid shooting in two directions at the same time, and avoid shooting a wide shot and a tight close up at the same time. A 2-shot and a close up from the same direction can work fine.

 

[Peter Moretti]

Thanks Marc, I really appreciate it!

 

[ericyoung]

Make sure both cameras have external timecode boxes feeding both code and genlock sync so they're absolutely in sync with each other, preferably jammed to the master timecode from the sound department. And the usual rules for multicam apply: avoid shooting in two directions at the same time, and avoid shooting a wide shot and a tight close up at the same time. A 2-shot and a close up from the same direction can work fine.

Hi Marc

Can you elaborate on these "multi cam rules" - why don't those examples work? I'm not clear on what you mean.

We see intercuts over the shoulders in two directions on two people talking all the time, and they seem to work fine! In fact some directors use this on purpose on improvised dialogue.

How does a 2-shot and a close up from the same direction work fine, but we should avoid shooting a wide shot and a tight close up at the same time?
Do you mean that a wide and tight close up are too big a change in framing? Ie Would a wide shot and medium shot work, or a closeup and tight closeup?

Thanks
Eric

 

[Mark K.]

+1 for not shooting both directions at the same time (if you can avoid it), it's just a whole lot of work to light finessed shots in both directions at the same time. If you can instead grab your mids and C/Us of one side of the conversation at the same time, I find that's where multicam really shines. That way you can tweak your lighting to improve the reverse shot.

 

[ericyoung]

+1 for not shooting both directions at the same time (if you can avoid it), it's just a whole lot of work to light finessed shots in both directions at the same time. If you can instead grab your mids and C/Us of one side of the conversation at the same time, I find that's where multicam really shines. That way you can tweak your lighting to improve the reverse shot.

Sometimes it's better for performance though, and the director decides that's more important than perfect lighting.

 

[Peter Moretti]

That's the situation that I'm confronting. Thanks much everyone for your input.

 

[Steve Conry]

+1 Marc, would love to hear more explanation behind your standard multi cam rules. Specifically why a wide and a CU should be avoided. Curious what your experience there has been.

Thanks!

Steve

 

[Björn Benckert]

We do it almost all the time. My advice is to keep one as your A- cam and make sure you get what is needed with that one and then use the B-cam to pick up closeup using a longer lens and shoot slightly of angle. I think to shot dialog and use two cameras and do 2 "over the shoulder cameras" at once is quite difficult. Then your lights and cameras will simply be in the way for each other but we done that aswell. But normally one on dolly/tripod and one that is handheld and more movable. Normally we sync the cameras but or TC jam them but a lot of times we just hit the start TC button on the two cameras at once. that gives you a sync that is just a couple of frames off which is quite simple to offset in the edit if you clap your hands or such on the first take infront of both cameras.

To me it's odd that people can come to set and have like 10 lenses and only one camera. Now when it's all digital a second camera body does not cost much and the amount of extra footage you get and cutaway possibilities and such it's just nuts to stand there and only record on one camera and have to cover all the angles with that camera. Having two makes things twice as good. And in the edit it's so nice to know that there is always an extra different framing that is perfectly in sync with what you got. For VFX shoot's it's fantastic. as it's possible to improve 3D track from two cameras and that the SFX stuff can be covered in with two framings and such.

But it's important to bring in extra staff. but normally you only need one more camera operator. As the second cam can be small and on shoulder and it does not matter to much if it's not in focus 100% of the time and such.

 

[Dave Blackham]

You could even do this from a 3D Side by Side rig if your in a tight space.

 

[Robert Ruffo New]

I say light for one, as though you were only shooting one, then try to place a B Cam if/when you can. if you try to light for both at once there will often be too many compromises.

In practice our most useful b-Cams were going for close-usp while A was much wider or on a dolly. Both wide is much harder.

Basically, we see our B-Cam as a "get what you can CAM" - and sometimes it has provided useful food for the edit monster.

 

[Peter Strietmann]

Also don't forget to back it up with a common slate. Never know, sometimes TC drifts or other issues occur that effect the TC. If you can go with 3 cameras, two tights and a wide or medium.

 

[Serge Tsipis]

I agree to what Björn says.
Don't think that multicam staged shots should be treated with some sort of different rules at all. The only restriction might be lighting. But really, I can hardly remember the time rolling one camera.

Doing figure 8/reverse shots is fine. Pairing wide + CU works great. Especialy if you take talent's eye-line into the account. E.g. you can put your CU cam closer to "what he's looking at" and get emotionally closer to the character simply cutting from wide.

It's also a good idea to have two similar monitors mounted side by side.

 

[Nick Morrison]

If you can go with 3 cameras, two tights and a wide or medium.

This can be a very productive setup. For comedy, and improvised material it's very useful. If you look at "This is 40" outtakes, there are sometimes 5 cameras rolling. Pineapple Express regularly had 4 cameras - the American Cinematographer article on this film changed my entire approach to comedy and inspired the workflow on a number of my pilots (I used to work in comedy and with improvisers regularly).

 

[Peter Moretti]

We do it almost all the time. My advice is to keep one as your A- cam and make sure you get what is needed with that one and then use the B-cam to pick up closeup using a longer lens and shoot slightly of angle. I think to shot dialog and use two cameras and do 2 "over the shoulder cameras" at once is quite difficult. Then your lights and cameras will simply be in the way for each other but we done that aswell. But normally one on dolly/tripod and one that is handheld and more movable. Normally we sync the cameras but or TC jam them but a lot of times we just hit the start TC button on the two cameras at once. that gives you a sync that is just a couple of frames off which is quite simple to offset in the edit if you clap your hands or such on the first take infront of both cameras.

To me it's odd that people can come to set and have like 10 lenses and only one camera. Now when it's all digital a second camera body does not cost much and the amount of extra footage you get and cutaway possibilities and such it's just nuts to stand there and only record on one camera and have to cover all the angles with that camera. Having two makes things twice as good. And in the edit it's so nice to know that there is always an extra different framing that is perfectly in sync with what you got. For VFX shoot's it's fantastic. as it's possible to improve 3D track from two cameras and that the SFX stuff can be covered in with two framings and such.

But it's important to bring in extra staff. but normally you only need one more camera operator. As the second cam can be small and on shoulder and it does not matter to much if it's not in focus 100% of the time and such.

Bjorn,

In this day and age is having the other camera in the shot as horrible as it used to be? I wonder if you'd agree since you have such a strong visual effects background.

If the shot is locked down and there is no action that can even partially occlude the other camera, one could shoot a clean plate w/o out the camera there and then use that plate to matte out the camera. Two big if's in the beginning of the sentence and some extra work before rolling, but under the right circumstances, it seems pretty doable.