Understanding the features of single camera productions

Understanding the Features of Single Camera Productions 

A Single Camera production is piece of media which is filmed with a single camera, this is usually low budget productions like music videos, tv episodes etc. They also typically have a lot of editing during the filming with multiple different characters having conversations. 

The protagonist family of The Simpsons

There are four different formats for TV Drama's, these include single drama's, series's, serials and soaps. A single drama used to be a common staple for television channels, however, times have changed and it is usually quite rare to see single dramas on air. A single drama typically uses a one-off story, this is a story which is shown in its entirety in one sitting and usually has a subject matter which the producers would make appropriate for television audiences and most of the time they are based off an true story. For example, 2009's Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold is a 90 minute drama which is based off a true story and is shown in its entirety in the 90 minutes. A series is a programme that is usually broadcasted either daily or weekly, a series is where the same characters are used and tell a basic plot and sometimes tell a different story each episode. series's are don't have a fixed length and they are usually divided into multiple different series's. While there is no actual defined length the TV industry does typically favour longer television series's over single dramas. For example, The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom which shows a satirical depiction of working-class life, represented by the Simpson family with each episode being based on a different storyline in the fictional town of Springfield.

Promotional Poster for Fish Tank

A single drama is usually broadcasted only once, it typically provides a presentation of real life and is often based on issues that are more relatable and appropriate for a television audience. For example, Fish tank was a single drama based on Mia Williams, who is a volatile and socially isolated 15 year old female. She lives with her single mother and her mother's new boyfriend becomes attracted to Mia and proceeds to engage in sexual intercourse with her. 

A soap/soap opera, is a type of serial drama on television or radio that examines the lives of many characters, usually focusing on emotional relationships and their day to day live and what goes on. An example of a soap is Hollyoaks, Hollyoaks is a British soap opera which is set in a fictional suburb called Hollyoaks and each episode follows the day to day life of the villagers.

Ending on the opening sequence of Hollyoaks

In a single camera there's a variety of narrative form to consider as well. Narrative form is the structure in which the movie tells a story, narratives appears throughout media and society, they can be found in comics, books, novels, television shows and even commercials. While they may also appear frequently in fiction films they do appear in all basic types of films. A Narrative is an account of a string of events that occur in a space and time, they don't unfold randomly but instead they unfold as an ordered series of different events that are connects by the logic of cause and affect. This logic ties together the character traits, goals , obstacles and actions.

Promotional Poster for Wolf of Wall Street

Linear structures typically start the story at the beginning and tell the consecutive events up until the finale, most linear narratives set the tone and theme of the story and then follow it up with rising action which can the lead to the stories climax which then is followed up by the falling action or the finale. For example, the film Wolf of Wall Street follows an order of events that builds up into a finale.

Non-Linear structures displays the events of the story out of chronological order or in other ways where the narrative doesn't follow the direct pattern of the events that are featured, such as distinctive plot lines or narrating another story within the main story plot line. For example, the film 4321 doesn't follow a constructed sequence which is set at the start and makes it way to the end. The Film instead follows it's own sequence but at the finale it still makes sense to the audience. 

Film poster for 4321

A single strand usually has one set storyline, this indicates that within the single strand the narrative would be focusing more on a particular person (protagonist) and would mainly be focusing on them throughout the whole thing. This helps the audience to be able to focus on the protagonist as the story would be built around the protagonist from beginning to end, making it easier to follow. An example of a single strand narrative would be

A multi-stand narrative is when a narrative film has several storylines and plots within one particular narrative and it'll focus on different types of people rather then one particular person. The entire point of a multi-strand narrative is so that the audience are able to see all of the different types of characters within the narrative.

Bird's eye-view shot of Hawkeye from the Avengers Film

There are a number of different techniques within single camera productions, for example there's a bird's-eye view, a bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object from above, it gives of the perspective as if the observer were a bird and is often used in the making of scenes that require a bird's eye-view to cover as much ground in one shot of the camera as possible. As seen in the image provided the bird's eye-view shot of Hawkeye  shows the audience more then what a normal person would see in that scene and shows it in the perspective of a more unique angle.

Another technique is a close-up. A close-up shows little to no background and concentrates on either a specific person or a specific detail of mise en scene. Typically in a close-up everything else in the background would be blurry as the shot magnifies the object and helps show the importance of whatever is main focus of the close-up shot without having to tell the audience through words. In normal day to day life we usually don't like people getting too close to our faces, the only people who will probably ever get that close to your face would be family members or your spouse, so if the close up shot is ever that of a face it makes it a very intimate shot and depending on the director they would use a close-up to either make the audience feel comfortable or very uncomfortable. As seen in the captioned image, the close-up shot there is used to make the audience see the negative emotion on the males face as he sheds a tear and is close to breaking down which may have not been obvious to the audience if the shot was further away.

Extreme close-up shot of the Young Magneto

Extreme close-up's are akin of close-up's except that an extreme close-up is typically a shot that has been magnified to a point beyond what the human eye would ever be able to experience. For example, as seen in the captioned image there's an extreme close-up shot of Magneto from the film Days of Future Past, the shot only shows his eyes and his battle scar above his left eye and half of his nose, with no background detail whatsoever. An extreme close-up is naturally a very artificial shot and is usually used for dramatic effect. Typically the tight focus required means that extra care must be taken when setting up and lighting the shot, even the slightest camera shake or error in make up is very noticeable.

Medium Shot of Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games

Medium shot is another technique within single camera productions, a medium shot will usually show a figure from the knees and waist up and is usually used within dialogue scenes or when some detailed action is required. The background detail on these shots are minimal at best, this probably because the location would have been established earlier in the scene so the audience would already know where they are and would at this point rather focus on the dialogue and interaction between characters. As seen in the example image it shows Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games in a medium shot, the shot is focused on above her waist with the background slightly blurred out to put more emphasis on Katniss herself as the scene already established the background at the start and the main focus of the scene is Katniss herself and her actions with her bow.

A dolly shot is when a camera is placed on a moving vehicle and moves alongside the action going on in the scene, the vehicle usually follows a moving figure or object. More complicated dolly shots will involve a track being laid on set for the camera to follow, you may find the camera to be mounted on a car, plane or event a trolley. A dolly shot is quite a good way of portraying movement, the journey of a character for instance or for moving from a long shot to a close-up, gradually focuses the audiences on the specific object or character that the scene is based on.

References

https://www.slideshare.net/rdtwilson/single-camera-production-19068571

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-camera_setup

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_film

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_television_drama

https://prezi.com/z8ifjvhncb7m/unit-22-single-camera-techniques/