Ask a freelance TV cameraman anything....
Discussion
Never trained on Steadis but still get put on the handhelds despite being in my 50s.
Everything hurts now lol
Constantly on the codeine.
Robots are creeping in and do a lot of news studio work that kept a lot of us employed back in the 90s.
Thankfully no robot steadis or handhelds.......yet
Everything hurts now lol
Constantly on the codeine.
Robots are creeping in and do a lot of news studio work that kept a lot of us employed back in the 90s.
Thankfully no robot steadis or handhelds.......yet
StevieBee said:
Why are TV cameras so large when it seems you can get broadcast quality footage from far smaller bits of kit these days (such as DSLRs, etc).
Lots of stuff is shot on Dslrs , ardman films for exampleLots of stuff for smaller "prosumer" cameras are used for content nowadays, especially stuff on smaller channels.
Also TV cameras usually have much better and varied lenses, with much more control options and much bigger and better sensors so this requires bigger casing, weight can also help steady the camera . Then you have the different recording media the cameras use, some are quite legacy and older but are the standard that has been adopted
57 Chevy said:
Why are so many news reports shot where the reporter is out of focus. Rule of thirds composition but with centre focus on. It drives me nuts. Surely these aren't using a proper cameraman.
Lol. One of my bugbears too. Standards have been falling for years, even at the BBC.Quite often the presenters are self shooting. They set up the shot and either set the focus to the background or leave it on auto but don't stand in the centre of frame.
Lack of experience and dumbing down.
I stopped doing news when they expected me to do sound as well.
Now it's one man bands with cheap cameras or self shooting journos.
Proper TV cameras are far better at capturing pictures in all conditions and can take many lenses.
Also as basic operation is all manual and falls to fingers and thumbs, not complicated menus, they are easy to use in experienced hands.
I work on mainly live stuff and a camera not only has to be zoomed, focused and framed on shot, it has to have outputs for talk back (listening and talking to director/producer), autocue as well as power for ancillaries such as lights, somewhere to place your camera script and the ability to see the programme output and the other camera's shots.
These tend to sit on big gas pedastals that allow you to move across studio floor as well as raise or lower the height of the camera.
Others sit on 'dollies' that sit on tracks that allow a second person 'a grip' to push the camera or even be tracked by the cameraman themselves.
If I am working at say a festival or music gig and I'm on a camera a good 50m or more from the stage, I can have a 100x lens that can be doubled to 200x, so that even from that far I can get a facial close up of the singer.
You are constantly focusing and making slight movements as the singer only has to move millimeters to come out of your miniscule depth of field.
Nightmare if it's a rapper
Lack of experience and dumbing down.
I stopped doing news when they expected me to do sound as well.
Now it's one man bands with cheap cameras or self shooting journos.
Proper TV cameras are far better at capturing pictures in all conditions and can take many lenses.
Also as basic operation is all manual and falls to fingers and thumbs, not complicated menus, they are easy to use in experienced hands.
I work on mainly live stuff and a camera not only has to be zoomed, focused and framed on shot, it has to have outputs for talk back (listening and talking to director/producer), autocue as well as power for ancillaries such as lights, somewhere to place your camera script and the ability to see the programme output and the other camera's shots.
These tend to sit on big gas pedastals that allow you to move across studio floor as well as raise or lower the height of the camera.
Others sit on 'dollies' that sit on tracks that allow a second person 'a grip' to push the camera or even be tracked by the cameraman themselves.
If I am working at say a festival or music gig and I'm on a camera a good 50m or more from the stage, I can have a 100x lens that can be doubled to 200x, so that even from that far I can get a facial close up of the singer.
You are constantly focusing and making slight movements as the singer only has to move millimeters to come out of your miniscule depth of field.
Nightmare if it's a rapper
Getting into the business now is hard. Rates are either no better than I was getting 15 years ago or worse and everyone is freelance.
Means new graduates every year willing to work for less.
The industry is a bit of a mess.
The lucky ones are the guys in their 60s/70s now who got paid well when staffers for ITN/ITV/BBC, got great redundancy packages and pensions yet still got the odd freelance job to top it all up plus houses all paid off.
I'll be there soon enough but with no staff pension and no house paid off lol.
I'm sure it's the same in other businesses, the ol who you know not what you know. Guess I'm lucky enough to have had a great time during the start and surge of satellite TV and have met many along the way that still have my number and give me a call from time to time.
Means new graduates every year willing to work for less.
The industry is a bit of a mess.
The lucky ones are the guys in their 60s/70s now who got paid well when staffers for ITN/ITV/BBC, got great redundancy packages and pensions yet still got the odd freelance job to top it all up plus houses all paid off.
I'll be there soon enough but with no staff pension and no house paid off lol.
I'm sure it's the same in other businesses, the ol who you know not what you know. Guess I'm lucky enough to have had a great time during the start and surge of satellite TV and have met many along the way that still have my number and give me a call from time to time.
andy_s said:
Why don't we see truly skilled camera work like back in the eighties on Top of the Pops, you know, that zoom in/zoom out, shake it all about stuff. The place is going to the dugs.
I'm just a bit too young to have worked on Top of the Pops but have worked on many music shows from live stuff on MTV in the 90s to CDUK/SMTV in the early 2000s. That had plenty of zooming in and out
if you do a job at the tennis say for example (substitute with live concert if needed) , are you one of the cameramen who'd deliberately home in on one of the ladies in the crowd trying to get an upskirt/tits shot , or do you all do that ? and its just those in the gallery who decide which images to stream.
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