Patrick writes ...
It is by coincidence that I was recently researching into the television production company ‘DesiLu’, for material as a part of a presentation. This was reflected by Gordon’s short article in the last edition of the Newspage highlighting the use of multiple cameras for the recording of the 1950’s production ‘I Love Lucy’.
We didn’t have a TV at home as a youngster, and I was invited to a neighbour’s house to see the series ‘Robin Hood’ starring Richard Green. What followed was ‘I Love Lucy’ a sit-com, starring the dizzy and zany comedienne, Lucille Ball.
However, this comedienne was a tough cookie, and the co-owner of the production Desi-Lu company which made it. In the early fifties, in America, television broadcast was centred around New York and networking to the rest of the states had not been developed. Television was ‘live’ from a studio and broadcast to the local area.
Videotape recording did not exist. So to get a production recorded and send to the networks, a device a ‘Kinescope’ was used. This device is described as Kinescope, shortened to kine, is a recording of a television programme on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. It sounds a bit Heath Robinson a cine camera facing a monitor screen and recording it so it could be sent to other broadcasters and transmitted. From the start, Lucille Ball did not want use the studios in New York for ‘I Love Lucy’, and she set up studios in Los Angeles .
Her second demand was that the show should be filmed on three camera 35mm cine cameras rather than the blurry Kinescope. This resulted in a much higher quality of a cine-tele image for broad cast. Essentially, the half hour sit-com was performed and filmed with a live audience.
‘The action in each weekly episode of I Love Lucy takes place on three basic sets erected more or less permanently on Stage 2. The sets, which represent the apartment of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball), consist of kitchen, living room, and a third room which is dressed as required. The sets adjoin one another and are, in fact “intercommunicating,” so that action, such as a player entering the living room from the kitchen door, becomes a natural thing; and when the continuity of such action is to be picked up by the cameras, they are merely moved before the adjoining set and filming is resumed in a matter of seconds, as will be described later in more detail. Beyond this three-set arrangement is still another set representing the nightclub where Ricky Ricardo is employed as entertainer.
Here the orchestra is assembled for every show, whether or not it is to be used in the picture filmed that evening.' PHOTO: All lighting is from overhead, with units so mounted they can be changed with a minimum of time and effort. The show is filmed with three Mitchell 35mm BNC cameras, all shooting simultaneously. Camera (1) in centre makes all the long shots, while closeups are filmed by cameras (2) and (3) at either side. Besides floor marks and memorised instructions, technical staff also is monitored by script clerk via intercom phone system as show progresses. Retakes are rare and time between setups averages but a minute and a half. So that makes interesting reading. This describes the method which filming sit-com with a live audience developed.
As video broadcast cameras with better mixing facilities became available, for in studio productions this became the norm. However for the cinema a single camera is used by convention. The resulting look of the film is different and a more creative mindset comes into play. Retakes and duplication of shots is a waste of both production time and in the edit suite. Production companies are time and material economic. One camera used correctly for making films is the right discipline to follow. -
My experience of employing up-to four cameras is for simultaneous productions such as shows and concerts at the Bedworth Civic Hall. The four synced cameras material was loaded into a software, which had the facility of selecting any of four view ports and edit in real time. It was easy and quite fascinating. -