Multi-cam was a bust. It sucked. We sucked. Everything sucked.
I have already outlined the script-writing process of our multi-cam experiment. That part went well. However, the script did not translate to filming, which probably means it wasn’t a very good script.
The first issue we had when shooting was purely fatigue. We have been working with the same people for weeks, and we have been working on the same project for weeks. To be honest, we are sick of it, and want it done. When we met on Monday to film, it was early, and it was going to be a full day. The general feeling within the group was that we couldn’t be bothered, but that we had to. This led to us being lazy. We didn’t really care about the camera set-up. We didn’t problem solve when there were problems, we worked around them. We were terrible actors.
Logistically, the shoot was a nightmare. We booked three cameras, which Paul said was fine but the techs said was not. They let us have them but were muttering away about how terrible Paul is (just kidding but you probably got an email). The room we booked was small, and so the cameras were set up relatively close to each other. We only had one camera operator, so she panned and zoomed with one camera as the others were just left rolling. The projector didn’t work, so we had to use a laptop for our slides (central to pretty much every joke in the script) and do close ups later.
This week, I spent some time at the Neighbours studio. I watched a full day of filming on set, and got to see how the professionals do it. Firstly, their sets are stagnant (obviously) and are used for dozens of scenes a week. This means that the cameras (neighbours has two) are wheeled into positions already marked on the floor and don’t really move much. When they do move, it’s all been done before so they know exactly where to go. They film a mid-shot, a wide angle, and then generally two close ups (one on each face) since most scenes involve two characters. They are incredibly efficient, shooting five or six episodes a week.
Looking at Neighbours, I can see that any successful multi-cam show would require a similar set-up. Even though we were shooting comedy, the angles would stay similar (maybe a few less closeups), as would the reusable sets. I don’t want to blame our failure purely on set up, because we clearly did a bad job as well, but it definitely played a role.
This is misleading – none of us were that happy
If we were to do the multi-cam thing again, these are the things I would do differently:
- Set up a proper set
- Rehearse and work out camera positions and angles
- Rehearse, and then rejig the script
- Not do it at all, it is painful and a dying format anyway