Challenges of a Two Camera Shoot

When it comes to the number of cameras on a shoot, traditionally, movies are shot with one, while television shows are shot with four or five. Now that doesn't mean movies aren't shot with more cameras-- I think at one point, Cameron had five or six on Titanic and for special effects and stunts, there might be ten or more.

But when someone says "shooting film style" that means that it's mostly going to be shot with one camera. The difference is a film shoot can go 360 degrees. Whereas the normal television show, the cameras mostly make up the fourth wall, with the studio audience sitting behind them.

A great example of a television show doing "film style" is the sitcom "Scrubs." They decided at the get-go they wanted a "film style" sitcom, which is extremely rare. But you get very interesting lighting film style. So the comedy is shot as a feature-- one main camera (although sometimes they might do two or more). To contrast this-- for one episode, Scrubs shot it television style, with big flat lighting and the comparison is interesting.

Now many of the one hour dramas are shot film style, but because of the need for speed, multiple cameras are used. For instance, "24" shoots film style, with one camera on a dolly with a long lens (tasked with the mission to shoot "through" something to get a voyeuristic feel), and the other is usually handheld, wider lens near the actors.

On my films, I have mostly shot with one camera. Although for stunts and effects, we had as many as three. But for the last couple of projects, including "The Imposter," I decided to shoot two cameras almost the whole time (called "A Camera" and "B Camera.") This enabled me to get much more coverage-- which is great if you have to do a lot of takes. DP Ron Gonzalez and I had decided during prep that two cameras would be important.

The downsides are lighting and sound. You have to avoid the flatter lighting-- which is tempting and sound can be tricky. For instance, you've got a scene with two actors. Do you put A on the close up of the first actor while B gets a medium? This two camera technique is better for lighting, but worse for sound. Both cameras pointing the same direction, but whereas the close up the boom op can get nice and tight, now they have to pull back to allow for the medium coverage. Pointing the same direction is the most common use of a two camera film shoot.

But what if (as it happened in "The Imposter"), you're losing the sun and you have 8 minutes to get a two person scene in the can? Now we throw caution to the wind and A camera gets one coverage, while B camera gets the other actor. Exterior day this is okay. But in a lighting situation, you're going to have to work around a lot of boom shadows and such. Plus, now you're seeing twice the amount of background. As in the picture here, we shot A and B cameras, each one covering an actor. Exterior Day (overcast) made it a lot easier.

Over the last few years, I have become accustomed to the two camera film shoot and I like it. On "The Imposter", we ran the B camera probably 70 to 80% of the time that A was running. Most of the time it was pointing in the same direction. I just had a great sound mixer and boom op.

Cam Tech Specs For My Movies

For all the filmmaking geeks out there, here's what we used to make my films:

The Keyman -- Shot on 35mm film using the boat anchor Arri BL4 camera. Heavy, but effective. Remember, as opposed to the electronic world where three years ago is obsolete, the film camera's basic design hasn't changed in like 80 years. We rented our camera, grip and lighting from MPS Studios in Dallas.

As far as special equipment, we used a fisher 10 dolly (the most common in the film industry). I used a crane for the cometary scenes tat open and close the movie. To that point, in my corporate/commercial career, I had used a lot of remote cranes-- it was interesting to use the big cranes that can accommodate the operator and assistant camera on the head of the crane.

A Promise Kept/The Gunman -- For this movie, again we rented from MPS, but we were shooting in Austin. And again, shooting 35mm. Our main camera was the Arri 535 and boy was it nice. Here's a picture of me holding it out of a very small helicopter, shooting the aerial that makes the last shot of the movie. The crew put *two* safety lines on the camera, and *one* on me. Nice camera. On stunts, we sometimes had a B Camera, and it was the BL4. And for the big courthouse, exploding gut scene of Steve Krieger, we had a C Camera, and it was "the pencil sharpener", the Arri 3C.

Here is the 535 pointed towards the lovely Mimi Rogers, who was absolutely wonderful to work with. We had a nice G/L package from MPS in the form of a three-ton package with lots of HMI's. For special equipment, we had the dolly, and for three days, we used a steadicam.

Striking Range -- Back to Dallas, and again 35mm and renting from MPS, we went back to the BL4, but we ran it on a Steadicam almost the whole time. And Big George Neidsen got quite a workout. For some off speed shots, we rented the Arri 435, a MOS camera (seen here with Lou Diamond Phillips). We had both overcranked and undercranked effect shots. We circled a building at 2 frames a second (seen in the movie's opening) while coming out of that at times to slo-motion. I love that effect (which now is easy in Final Cut Pro to emulate.)

Before shooting began, I ran numbers on 35mm versus HD. It was going to cost more for film, but at that point (2005), HD still had a perceived lower value, especially among the foreign buyers. So I chose to stay with 35mm.

The Imposter -- I had shot two cameras for "Inspector Mom" on Lifetime and had really grown accustomed to shooting an A and B camera. Now, HD had come a long way. It was time to try it. I considered the Varicam, but with our budget, I don't think I could have swung the Pro35 adapter for using prime lenses-- which is critical in my opinion. So I talked with Ron Gonzalez, my Director of Photography and put it quite simple: One varicam, no bells or whistles or prime lenses, or two HVX200's with redrock adapters and primes? We both wanted the depth of field of the prime lenses. So that's what we did. And I ran an A and B camera almost the entire time and don't know that I'd do it any different in the future. Ron now has a Red, so I'll have to find a cheap second Red for the next movie.

My favorite camera out of what I used? Well, certainly, the one with the most bells and whistles is the Arri 535. The viewfinder had the Arri glow feature which was novel at the time. It was lighter than the BL4 which counts for something on a 12 hour day. But, even after preaching film over HD for many years, I loved shooting HD. The pictures were better than I thought and the work flow was MUCH easier. And I could shoot and shoot and shoot... With film, there's this pressure as soon as the motor cranks up on the camera. Every foot that flows through the gate is $$$. That pressure was gone for HD.

How Many Cameras?

Some people want to know how many cameras are used to shoot a movie. In Hollywood, bigger budgeted movies, especially action movies will use two or more-- maybe even up to 8 or 10 on a big money shot. But shooting something "film style" usually denotes one camera. Television will shoot four or five.

However, when we can afford it, I like to shoot with two cameras in my "film style." It makes lighting and sound a little more difficult (you have to make sure both shots are lit and boom shadows have fewer places to hide). "The Imposter" was shot with two almost all the way. On the set, it's usually called "A" cam and "B" cam. On lower budgets, the DP (Director of Photography) will operate the A camera. Ron Gonzalez did this. "B" camera was operated platoon style. Some was Co-Producer Courtney Price, some was me.

As a director, I really enjoy operating. It's not easy. And once I tried to direct a movie while operating the one and only A cam. That was a bad idea. But jumping in on B Camera now and then was great on Imposter.