'Creative' Camera Shots

Goodness, all those useless ranks.

I have told you before - BBC School Report is a project for pupils to participate in, and use their own initiative and skills to create a news programme. You shouldn't be on here asking for help - it's an unwritten rule that this forum isn't a place for lazy students and pupils to cheat their way to success.

EDIT: School Report is not assessed on the technical quality of the programme - the content is all that matters. If you can't think of any more "great" ideas for camera shots, then stick to what you have. You're not meant to be showing off your technical skills and your ability to be a Super Deputy Captain Major Lieutenant schoolboy, you are meant to be assisting the people taking part to get to completion.

We're not cheating Its more...that we don't want to try something that wouldn't be really used on the real news.

The real news would work within their means.

That statement sums up exactly why this thread is pointless.

You make me feel so old.................positively ancient.

Anyway, back on topic: creative camera shots. I assume you mean inside the news studio as opposed to out in the field, or is it both?

As it's the only channel I tend to watch, BBC World News have now gone slightly overboard in their new home, with creative camera shots ruling the day!

Many of them give true perspective to the size of the facility being used. Some of them, particularly when the larger news wall is in use, do add something to the story.

However, the shot which uses the three main screens to depict the three main stories of the day is a bizarre one, IMO. The camera has to pan out (is that even a term?) so much to capture the three screens, that the newscaster is lost in the whole thing and becomes a pinhead in the acres.

So, in my humble and inexperienced opinion, too much creativity is not always a good thing.

Fast forward to the weekend bulletins and all you see is a head shot of David Eades with the London sky behind him! In other words, the exact opposite.

Creativity is good when it is not outright contrived. Al Jazeera are very subtle in their use of multiple camera shots in their newscasts. Some would say that they miss opportunities to be creative. However, it's good to be reminded that it's The News we are watching, and not Treasure Hunt with Anneka Rice, where an active camera is essential!

To clarify what I mean, regional news programmes tend to get away with more basic but reliable shots. I suspect trying to make it too 'creative' would just mean you make it more complex and won't look as good as you probably won't have the appropriate skill levels and equipment to pull it off.

You should concentrate and making a really strong programme using just two or three static shots.

This topic has been moved from The Newsroom

I presume we have to wait until Neon is default before this thread is declared dead.

Can we talk about other "creative" shots here? One thing I like a lot is something they do on American sports broadcasts where you have a wider shot that shows the presenter and all the cameras around them to "set the scene" and they they cut to it. It's great for a TV nerd like me to see how things are set up.

And I can't find an example now unfortunately.

Here's a great shot though, zooming in from a helicopter to the ground, and then a camera on the ground zooming back out from the helicopter to the host. Love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NehypH0u4XY#t=2m05

I think such shots are more suited to America, where expansive cityscapes aren't few and far between. It's a nice shot, and it'd be nice to see shots of that ilk appear more frequently here.

You're probably right. could get away with that in London maybe

I really tried to find a shot where they show all the cameras and lights and whatnot but didn't get very far. Here's a good one but it's not on as "grand" a scale as I wanted (ie, in a full arena) it's just a little pan around:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bu-o8QpW44

10-15 seconds in.