Simple Video Techniques - How Does It Work?

[Kevin Kwak]

New to the video hobby. When you watch a clip like in a movie, there are two persons have a discussion. During their face to face discussion, the camera captures one person while he talks and suddenly, the camera is capturing the listener. Very common...almost in every movie.

What I like to know is: How does this technique work?
Are there TWO cameras capturing? Don't know how one camera could capture both face without panning the camera left and right.

Thanks.

[Don Bloom]

could be 2 cameras or multiple takes. of course it could be both. Movies and TV news magazines do this as a matter of course.

Hope that answers your question.
Don B

[Dylan Couper]

Yep, with only one camera, it's very common to shoot reaction shots after, and then cut them into the edit. If it is truly a live event, they have multiple cameras.

[Bill Pryor]

Unless it's a live show or some other type of multicamera shoot like a sitcom, you simply shoot a reverse angle of everything. On those types of things, I usually shoot a fairly wide shot of the two people talking from over one person's shoulder, then do a medium shot and then a closeup of the same thing of the first person talking; then reverse the angle and do it again.

[Charles Papert]

Specifically, in movies and episodic television, this type of shot is considered a reverse and is generally shot separately even if two cameras are available. The reason for this is usually due to lighting concerns. To light a single person usually requires tying up with lights and stands the real estate that would otherwise be occupied by the other person. On a looser, "documentary" feeling movie, it may be an acceptable compromise to shoot both sides at once. If the shots are designed as "over the shoulders", it's usually very difficult to hide one camera from the other.

[Darko Flajpan]

When I do interviews, i ussually first shoot "talking" person, then politly ask journalist and that person just to sit a liitle bit more and talk. Then I do wide shot, over shoulders shot, some details (hands, face close up), and then journalist asking the question and listening. Works fine for me.