How many cameras does this video require?

[johnneumann]

Hi Guys,

This is an odd question ... probably completely amateurish, but, heck, that's me - an amateur who's only made simple home videos and edits on my Kron.

I want to make a promo video that models this video:

http://www.frankkernsuccess.com/

(You only need to watch the first thirty second or so to get the gist.)

If any of you have an experienced eagle eye for editing ... can you take a look at this and tell me: was this done with one camera or two? On one hand, it could easily be done with one camera ... a wide angle shot which could be zoomed in during editing for the illusion of two cameras. It's a pretty static studio set.

On the other hand, there's no image degradation when the shot zooms in, so it could very well be two cameras. (I know you can zoom in oh-so-slightly with little degradation ... but the zoom level on this video is substantial.)

And the reason I can't really tell is because the speaker is making perfect eye contact at every single point with the camera, so I'm back to suspecting it's one camera.

If I wanted to make a video just like this, with the visual variety that comes from the two zoom levels, do I need to buy another camera? Or can this be done with just one? I'd like to save the bucks of another camera, of course, but I want the image variety that this guy gets.

By the way, the guy sells the same videos as DVDs, so it's not just YouTube quality video all the time. It has to hold up to being played back on a DVD player.

-JOHN

[johnneumann]

Help ... someone smarter than me? .... anyone ?

-JOHN

[flvideo]

I would say probably 2 cameras. I don't like the jump from a medium shot to a close shot. It looks like a jumped edit to me. But thats just me. I f I used 2 cameras I'd use a different angle for the second camera and use a transition between. Though I'd seldom use 2 cameras with a single talent on screen. I would rather see a gradual zoom but again thats me. If you wanted to put the second camera close on the board when he was writing that would be good to hi-lite what he is writing. Thats my 2 cents. Bob...

[johnneumann]

Thanks for the reply, Bob. That's what I suspected too ... two cameras ...

I wonder if there's a trick to getting a talent to know which camera to look into when the cams are right next to each other like that, or if the editor edits for which camera he's making eye contact with.

Thanks again.

JOHN

[BobFoster]

I'm guessing just one camera. I used to do similar educational presentations with one camera. For variety we would do cut aways to a different angle. The camera was mounted on a tripod on a dolly. The talent was reading from a teleprompter. At specific points, the talent would stop and we would reposition the camera to a different angle and the change the zoom or not. The talent would go back to the last sentence and do it over while looking and the previous camera location and then do a "head turn" on the new sentence to look at the camera at the new location. It would be seamless after editing the shot at the end of the "head turn" sentence and keep it from looking like one looong continuous shot. More time consuming but the result was of a more expensive looking multi-camera production and a little less boring. However that was back in time when production and editing was done with an actual purpose.

[johnneumann]

Thanks, Bob. Your post made me go back and look at the video again a little more closely and "listen" for the cuts instead of just looking for them. I can see how your one-camera method would work for someone that owns only one cam and wants to save money. It's hard to imagine that's what's going on here because all of this guys sentences flow together too well. It's possible, but I can't hear any "break" in his talking where the edits would be.

Two cameras is more likely, I'm guessing ... but I'm still left wondering how he comes to look like he's still making eye contact with the camera regardless of which one is on. (And the switches are frequent, too!) Perhaps when two cameras are within twelve inches of each other (and far enough away from the talent) the viewer can't discern if he's looking off at one or the other? Both cameras shoot what looks like eye contact?

Either that, or the talent actually switches his eyes back and forth between the two cameras and that's what the editor later bases his cuts on ... which shot has the eye contact. The talent is actually directing the edits during the shoot.

Seems like a pain-in-the-ass way to make a movie, but the end result does have the visual variety to keep it interesting.

-JOHN

[BobFoster]

If the talent was using a teleprompter or cue cards, it would be very easy to simply record two versions at different focal lengths and edit back and forth between them. Again, one camera. Although the example uses variety with two focal lengths, it looks stupid the way it was done. Just my opinion.

[ChrisStone]

I do what Bob said all the time. Use one camera and shoot two takes of the same thing at different focal points. I usually put 10 frames of cross fade in between cuts to soften the "jump cuts".

[jeffphilips]

Since this was shot in HD, isn;t it possible just to shoot it with one camera and then use the zoom effect for the closeup without losing quality? I have do this is sd, but was very limited to how much I could use the zoom effect because the picture quality drops off rather quickly in sd when using the zoom effect.

[johnneumann]

Hi Jeff,

I don't own a HD cam, so I don't know how much zoom is possible. I just know this fellow sells these videos on DVDs, so it would have to translate to a HDTV, not just YouTube.

Either way, I got some great ideas here and I'm itchin' to get onto making this promo video.

I just ordered a backdrop stand and some muslins yesterday. Wish they were already here.

-JOHN