Basic Betacam Camerawork, 3rd Edition

Invisible technique

The basic principles of camerawork

There are a number of basic visual conventions used by the majority of cameramen operating broadcast camera/recorders. Many of these standard camera techniques were developed in the early part of the twentieth century when the first film-makers had to experiment and invent the grammar of editing, shot-size and the variety of camera movements that are now standard. The ability to find ways of shooting subjects and then editing the shots together without distracting the audience was learnt by the commercial cinema over a number of years. The guiding concept was the need to persuade the audience that they were watching continuous action in ‘real’ time. This required the mechanics of film-making ...