Chapter 4:

1. Chapter 4: Video Camera Operations

2. Vocabulary: • Arc: Moving the camera in a curved truck around the set, while it remains fixed on the main object in the shot. • Arc Left: Arcing left. • Arc Right: Arcing right. • Close-Up (CU): Includes a person from the top of the head to just below the shoulders. Also called Narrow Angle Shot. • Depth of Field (DOF): Distance between the minimum object distance and the furthest point from the camera that a subject can be positioned while remaining in focus. • Dolly: Physically moving the camera, its tripod, and dolly perpendicularly toward or away from the set. • Dolly In: Smoothly pushing the camera directly forward toward the set. • Dolly Out: Pulling the camera backward while facing the set.

3. Vocabulary (Continued): • Establishing Shot: Specific shot of extreme long shot that is used to tell the audience where and when the program takes place. • Extreme Close-Up (ECU/XCU): Shot of an object that is so magnified that only a specific part of the object fills the screen. • Extreme Long Shot (ELS/XLS): Biggest shot a camera can capture of the subject matter. Also called Wide Angle (WA) Shot. • Four Shot: Shot that captures four items. • Great Depth of Field: When a camera’s depth of field is as large as possible, but also keeps all the items in the image in focus while zooming. • Group Shot: Shot that incorporates any number of items about four. • Head Room: Space from the top of a person’s head to the top of the screen. • High Angle Shot: Shot created by the shooting the talent with the camera high in the air, pointing down at an angle.

4. Vocabulary (Continued): • Long Shot (LS): Shot that captures a subject from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet and does not include many of the surrounding details. • Low Angle Shot: Shot created by placing the camera anywhere from slightly to greatly below the eye level of the talent and pointing it upward. • Macro: Lens setting that allows the operator to focus on an object that is very close to the camera. • Medium Close-Up (MCU): Shot that frames a subject from the top of the head to a line just below the chest. • Medium Long Shot (MLS): Shot that includes the top of a person’s head to a line just above or below the knee. • Medium Shot (MS): Shot that captures a subject from the top of the head to a line just above or below the belt or waistline. Also called Mid Shot. • Mid Shot: See Medium Shot.

5. Vocabulary (Continued): • Minimum Object Distance (MOD): Closest an object can be to the camera and still be in focus. • Narrow Angle Shot: See Close-Up. • Nose Room: Space from the tip of a person’s nose to side edge of the frame. • Over-the-Shoulder Shot (OSS): Shot in which the backside of one person’s head and shoulder are in the foreground of the shot, while a full-face shot of the other person in the conversation is in the background. • Pan: Moving only the camera to scan the set horizontally while the dolly and tripod stay stationary. • Pan Left: Panning to the left. • Pan Right: Panning to the right. • Pedestal: Raising or lowering the camera on the pedestal of a tripod, while facing the set and the tripod and dolly remain stationary.

6. Vocabulary (Continued): • Pedestal Down: Pedestaling down. • Pedestal Up: Pedestaling up. • Pre-Focus: Three step process to focus a zoom lens. • Profile Shot: Shot in which the talent’s face is displayed in profile. • Pull Focus: See Rack Focus. • Rack Focus: Process of changing focus on a camera while that camera is hot. Also called Pull Focus. • Reaction Shot: Shot that captures one person’s face reacting to what another person is saying or doing. • Rule of Thirds: Divides the screen into thirds horizontally and vertically. Almost all of the important information included in every shot is located at one of the four intersections of the horizontal and vertical lines.

7. Vocabulary (Continued): • Selective Depth of Field: Technique of choosing to have a shallow depth of field in a shot or scene. • Shallow Depth of Field: Depth of field technique that moves the audience’s attention to the one portion of the picture that is in focus. • Shot: Individual picture taken by the camera in the process of capturing the program footage. • Shot Sheet: A numerical listing of each shot to be captured by each camera in a multi-camera shot. Developed for each camera. • Three Shot: Shot that frames three items. • Tilt: Pointing only the front of the camera (lens) vertically up or down while the dolly and tripod remain stationary. • Tilt Down: Tilting down. • Tilt Up: Tilting up.

8. Vocabulary (Continued): • Truck: Moving the camera, its tripod, and dolly to the left or right in a motion that is parallel to the set. • Truck Left: Trucking to the left. • Truck Right: Trucking to the right. • Two Shot: Shot that includes two items of primary importance. • Wide Angle Shot (WA): See Extreme Long Shot (ELS/XLS).

9. Other Notes: • Three steps to pre-focus a zoom lens: 1) Zoom in on the furthest object that must be in focus. 2) Focus the camera on that object. 3) Zoom the lens back out. • Camera’s depth of field should be as large as possible to avoid the image from going in and out of focus during camera movements. • When shooting, talent should be positioned so that their eyes are 1/3 of the way down from the top of the screen. • In broadcast television, important people and objects in a shot are slightly left or right of the center. • The director creates a shot sheet. He reviews the script before the shoot and plans each of the camera shots. Each shot is assigned a sequential number, which are given to each camera with brief descriptions.

10. Other Notes (Continued): • Directors periodically return to an establishing shot during a scene to reinforce the location and to prevent confusion. • An over-the-shoulder shot would likely be used in a two-person conversation. • Tilting the camera up makes the audience feel respect, inferiority and possibly fear for the character. • Tilting the camera down causes the audience to feel superior, weakness or insignificant to the character. • A neutral feeling for the character is portrayed when the camera is placed at the talent’s eye level. • A pan from left to right is more pleasing than one from right to left.

11. Other Notes (Continued): • Using shallow depth of field, selective depth of field, rack focus, and pull focus moves the audience’s attention to the one portion of the picture that is in focus. • Depth of field is affected by aperture, focal length, and subject to camera distance. • Camera directions are always given from the camera operator’s point of view. • News sets are constructed on raised platforms to ensure that the seated newscasters are eye level with the cameras. • A shot should never be framed so that the edge of the picture cuts at a joint of the human body.