Unit 21: Understand The Features of Single Camera ProductionEthan McLaughlin

Tracy Cullen

Introduction

As the name suggests a single camera production is a production that only has one camera, every time a new shot or angle is needed the camera is moved and things like focus and lighting have to be adjusted.

Say for example there is a scene where two characters are talking, this image shows how that scene would be set up in a single camera production:

The camera would be set up to get coverage of one actor’s angle, this would typically be and over the shoulder shot, the actors would run through the whole scene several times. Once the crew are sure they have everything they need for that angle they would move camera and cover the other actor. The scene would be played out again in full, once they get everything for this angle they move again; typically this would be to a master shot where you can see both actors in the one shot. After they get all the angles they need, close ups/ cutaways would be shot if needed.

In the following essay I will discuss the features of 4 single camera productions, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Dark Knight. I will take about their formats, their narrative structure and their technical elements.

Breaking BadFormat:“Breaking Bad” is a series, it has different episodes that all revolve around the same characters in the same world and time period “Breaking Bad” also has a mixture of quite a few different genres. It is a crime drama because it deals with Walter White and his associates, all of them being criminals. It is a thriller because it has an exciting, interesting story with suspense coming from whether Walter will be caught by the police or be killed due to his actions. It’s an action show because it has action sequences like car chases, gunfights and regular fights throughout the show, it also has some hints of a black comedy, with occasional jokes during dark and serious moments. Contemporary western are TV shows or films that have American settings, use Old West themes and settings like the anti-hero, open desert landscapes and gunfights, they also takes place in the American west. “Breaking Bad” has a antihero, Walter white, has a lot of scenes that take place within a desert, an example being where Walter and Jesse cook crystal meth, the show also has several gunfights, one in the episode “To'hajiilee” for example. “Breaking Bad” also takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is in the American WestNarrative Structure:“Breaking Bad” has a mixture of both a linear and nonlinear, its linear because Walter White’s story mostly takes place in chorological order, however there is occasional non linearity in the show, showing events that take place in the future or took place in the past, an example of the nonlinear story would be in season 2 where they show the aftermath of a plane crash at the beginning of several episodes, but the plane crash does not happen until the final episode of the season. In terms of realism “Breaking Bad” has a very realist narrative, the events, characters and stories that featured in the show are very realistic, I think the reason for the shows realism is to help the audience empathize and feel for the characters, as the more realistic characters and setting makes the story and the show as a whole more believable. The show is often credited for its scientific accuracy, this is an example of the shows realism, it had a science supervisor who looked over the scripts, provided dialogue and drew chemical structures which would be used as props. “Breaking Bad” also has an opened ended structure, some episodes and seasons end on cliff hangers an example of a cliff hanger would be the mid-season finale of season 5, where one of Walter’s family members discovers his criminal behavior. It is also closed ended in the sense that we see the entire story throughout the series, yes there is an open ended structure in lots of individual episodes however there are no loose ends by the final episode. Technical elements: Camera:Breaking bad uses, a simple single camera set up for its episodes, in fact it has won awards for this, in 2008 it won the primetime emmy award for outstanding single-camera picture editing, however the show occasionally uses shots from unconventional angles, there are kind of like POV’s. Here are a few examples of these shots:

These of shots give an interesting and unique look and feel to some scenes. Another great example of Breaking Bad’s camera work is the various tracking shots and panning shots the show uses, a fantastic example is in the episode “Crawl Space” where the camera slowly pans out to reveal the entire room, I feel like it emphasises that Walter White is at his lowest as he is the smallest thing in the shot.

Other than these unique shots, “Breaking Bad” also makes use of basic/ standard camera angles:

Close Up: Long Shot:

Extreme close up: low angle:

Editing:“Breaking bad” often uses montages during the scenes where Walter and Jesse are cooking crystal meth, an example of one of these montages would be in the season 5 episode “Hazard Pay” Another example of a montage is in the episode “Gliding Over All” where we see lots of inmates in different prisons getting killed. Another editing technique that “Breaking Bad” uses is match cuts, which is a technical term for when an editor cuts from one scene to a completely different scene but there are objects that match, a fantastic example of this is in crystal blue persuasion montage. https://vimeo.com/142930781

Game of ThronesFormat:

“Game of Thornes” is a series, so it is the same as “Breaking Bad”, it has different episodes,all of which focus on the same main characters in the same world, the fictional continent of Westeros. Similar to “Breaking Bad”, the show has a mixture of several genres, including, fantasy drama, thriller and romance. “Game of Thrones” is a fantasy drama because it has various fantasy elements such as magic, the supernatural and it has a somewhat medieval setting and feel to it. It’s a drama because It is a romance because it deals with the relationships between different characters for the example Eddard and Catelyn and Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo. It is also a thriller because it has a very suspenseful story, one of the biggest strings to the “Game of Thrones” bow is the fact that any character can die at any time, this causes a lot of suspense because there is the possibility that your favorite character could die.Narrative Structure:Game of thrones mostly has a linear narrative meaning the events take place in chronological order, however, similar to Breaking Bad it is occasionally non-linear using flash backs. For example, in the beginning of season 5 we see something that happened to a character when they were a child, another example of a flashback was in the end of season 6, where we see the birth of a main character and that reveals something that will be very important to the story in future. I think that in most aspects “Game of Thrones” is very realistic, brutally realistic. The world, the characters, the stories, and even the deaths all feel real. The show however can also have an anti-realist feel. This feel comes from the more fantastical elements of the show, for example magic and sorcery is used quite a lot in the story. Another element like this in the show is the various species and races that are in the show, such as dragons, giants and the white walkers (which are essentially ice zombies)

Technical elements:Camera:The camera work on “Game of Thrones” is mostly pretty standard, it uses basic shots to tell its stories, however, the show has also had its more unique shots. These are the basic shots:Close Up: Extreme close up:

Along with these basic shots “Game of Thrones” also uses it camera angles to emphasise how a character is feeling, the type of character they are or how they feel about another character, for example, these 2 angles:

This angle shows how Catelyn Stark feels about Jon Snow, she is literally looking down on him. It shows that she doesn’t think of him the same way she would look at her other children.

Wide Shot:

Another example of this use of angles is this scene:

The character, Ser Gregor Clegane, is shot at a low angle which helps empathizes his massive size and overwhelming power, the shot gives of the feel of how Ser Gregor is seen by everyone else “Game of Thrones” also has a lot of shots that have camera movement, including hand held shots, pans and tilts, and long unbroken takes. These are usually used in action scenes like battles and wars; they help give the scene a sense of scope and magnitude. Here are some examples:

Ariel/ crane shot:

Pan shot/ unbroken take:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dawdUBRFuYI.

Handheld:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftPa5km_T9A

Building a scene:Building a scene requires the filmmakers to find the appropriate settings and costumes which fit with the story, it also has to be filmed in the correct way, “Game of Thrones” is very good at building a scene. I’m going to use the red wedding as an example of how the show can build a scene very well. The setting and the costumes of the scene are very appropriate to the overall story because “Game of Thrones” is set in a medieval time. The church were the events take place feels real, the way It looks and the atmosphere it gives off is fantastic and really puts you in the world, the costumes also

contribute to this atmosphere, the character’s wear things like doublets and leather jerkins as they also fit within the medieval time period. I said before that it has to be filmed well in order to effectively build a scene, this scene looks amazing, I believe this look comes down to the lighting of the scene, the entire church is lit by candlelight and this gives the scene a beautiful look, with harsh lighting that gives off the feel that something is wrong.

It’s Always Sunny in PhiladelphiaFormat:“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” is a series, so it is the same as “Game of Thrones” and “Breaking Bad”, it has different episodes, and they all focus on 5 main characters, and all the episode take place in or around Philadelphia. In terms of genre, the show is a sitcom and a black comedy. A sitcom, or situational comedy is a genre of comedy that is centered on a fixed set of characters, where the comedy comes from the group of characters getting into different comedic situations, in “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” the characters are referred to as “The Gang”. The show is also a dark comedy, meaning that the jokes are about serious or taboo topics for example, in one episode “The Gang” pretends to be mentally challenged in order to qualify for welfare, and another episode has one of the characters dress up in black face.

Narrative Structure:As with most shows, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” has a mixture of linear and nonlinear storytelling, its linear because most of the gang’s antics take place in chronological order, there is occasionally nonlinearity in the show, which comes from things like flash backs, an example of these flashbacks would be in an episode where the gang tries to piece together what happened the previous night. “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” has events in its stories that wouldn’t/ couldn’t happen in the real world, for example in one episode, a character hides naked in a sofa in order to eavesdrop on someone, however, it portrays these events relatively realistically, with people reacting appropriately to what has happened, so I think the show realistically unrealistic. As the show has a running time of between 20-25 minutes, most of the episodes are closed, meaning that all loose ends and story threads are tied up. There have been several episodes however that have been split into 2 parts, for example “The High School Reunion Part 1 and 2”

Technical elements:“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” is shot mostly handheld, which I think is interesting and gives the show its own unique look and feel. As with every show, Always Sunny has basic camera angles and shots.

Two shot: Wide Shot:

An interesting example of camera work is an episode where it is meant to look like one long unbroken shot

There are also several editing techniques used throughout the show, for example

Montage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBe23nl4wlAShot Reverse Shot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ1lc6KASWg

The Dark Knight Format:“The Dark Knight” is a 2008 feature length film directed by Christopher Nolan, the film follows the titular dark knight as he attempts to take down organised crime in Gotham city and tries to stop the crazed criminal mastermind known as the Joker. “The Dark Knight” is a mixture of several genres. It’s an action film because it has a lot of action moments like fight scenes, car chases and gun fights. It’s a thriller because it has an exciting story that also has a lot of suspenseful moments; a fantastic example would be the scenes where the Jokers ask people “wanna know how I got these scars?” The Dark Knight Is also a neo noir film, which means that the plot revolves around mystery and crime, In the film, Batman fights crime and the main plot deals with the actions of criminals, the mystery element of The Dark Knight comes from not knowing who the joker really is, where he came from and why he commits the terrible crimes Narrative Structure:“The Dark Knight” has a very linear storyline, meaning that the plot of the film takes place in chronological order. Even though this film has some unrealistic elements, like the fact a billionaire dresses up like a bat and punches people, they are all portrayed realistically. The Dark Knight has what is known as “gritty realism” meaning that it’s possible that the films events could take place in our modern world. This is due to the fact that everything in the film is grounded in at least some semblance of reality, Batmans gadgets, the batsuit and the batmobile are explained as being military technology, the storylines are also inspired by real world events, be that terrorism, or corrupt police officers. The films action also stays physically believable, so all these factors mean that The Dark Knight is a mix of both anti realist and realist narrative. in terms of the films ending, it’s definitely open, there is lots of potential for more stories to be told in that world after the credits begin scrolling. Technical elements: camera work of The Dark Knight is quite standard, basic shots are used during the film, including:

Close Up:

Mid Shot:

Over The Shoulder:

Wide Shot:

Editing: The Dark Knight uses an editing technique called cross-cutting; this is when the film cuts to show different events happening at the same time, it’s used in The Dark Knight in the scene where the joker attempts to kill judge Surillo, Harvey Dent, and Commissioner Loeb.