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How to shoot on two angles using white background?
Hi all,
I want to see if I am missing a trick here…
If I want to do a white background auto-cued shoot on two angles – a close-up and a wide.
Obviously whichever angle isn’t going through the auto cue will break eye contact with the talent.
Is there a way around this other than using an ultra HD camera which allows you to seamlessly crop to a close-up angle in post?
I guess Another option would be to swap lenses and break the shoot down into wide and close, or to run the script twice one wide and one close.
Is there anything else that can be done?
Thanks,
Santiago.
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5 Replies
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By “auto-cue” do you mean with a teleprompter?
Your “other option” you mentioned would be the way that this is done 99% of the time… multiple takes with different focal lengths.
The other way to do it would be two different cameras with two different sync’d teleprompters, and your actor would have to turn from camera to camera on cue. But that would give you the sort of “newscast camera turn” look, which might not be desirable, depending on your project.
But yes, multiple takes with different focal lengths would be the way that this is virtually always done.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Great! Thank you – it’s nice to know the ‘proper’ way. Yes I autocue=teleprompter.
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Hey Santiago, this is something I do on a daily basis. A good trick, if you want to run both cameras in tandem for either a speedy workflow or syncing timecode, is to position them almost right next to each other. Have your long lens be the one with the teleprompter and your wide lens be the supplemental. That way when you cut wide, it is harder for the audience to see that the subject isn’t looking at the current camera.
Another option is to shoot both with a telephoto lens, having your wide shot just be a slightly wider angle, ie a 200 and a 300mm. This way, you position the cameras further back and again, the audience will have no idea that the subject is not look directly into the wider shot. This method can cause issues as then the subject is further away from the teleprompter.
Again, just make sure you position the cameras directly next to one another and experiment until you figure it out.
Best,
Derek Boettcher
Creative Management
BTH Media Group
https://bthmedia.com -
Hi Derek,
Thanks for your time in relying to this, much appreciated.
Using the wide shot as the ‘slightly off’ angle sounds a good idea.
For this shoot however the scripts are very simple and the presenter is very good, so I want to try and change lenses and use both the wide and close with the teleprompter.
Would you recommend shooting the whole script on close then shooting it again on wide or splitting the script into paragraphs and changing lenses as we go along? I think I will try both just in case but any advise from your wealth of experience would be fantastic.
Santiago.
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If you are going to shoot with 1 camera two angles, I would suggest taking and shooting the script from start to finish on both angles, and have them a line or two back if they mess up. For your job, it isn’t necessarily what makes it easy for you, but for the editor who has to piece it all together. Typically: The more coverage the better. (within reason)
Best,
Derek Boettcher
Creative Management
BTH Media Group
https://bthmedia.com
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