NG
PS, re directors not calling shots, obviously this is only for tightly scripted shows, right? For anything else a Director would need to call a shot to make sure that the cameraman is ready for their shot to be taken, when reacting to stuff you didn't know was going to happen.
No -not just for tightly scripted shows. On many unscripted shows a director doesn't have to call every, or even most shots.
It depends how the team work. Quite often cameras, vision mixer and director will have a way of working that means you don't need to. If cameras know what shots they are expected to offer in a given scenario, and the vision mixer know that too, then there is no need to call. One thing that often happens is that a director briefs a camera to hold a shot until it is used, and then offer something else. Or a director may say "Watching 2" or "2's nice" - as a suggestion - but not a command - to the VM to keep an eye out for 2, or "If John looks at Jane, 5 would be good, but stay off it if he doesn't".
Of course there are times when you have to call shots, and direct cameras hard, either because you are in an unexpected situation OR you are working with a new crew, or one who aren't as experienced, but that isn't the case anywhere near as often as some inexperienced directors think.
In which case, surely they'd also have to make the "Ready" call which is more like an American director. So essentially the situation dictates the method used.
Not really - and in the UK we'd say "Coming to" rather than "Ready"- but the US style of calling every shot is very US. It really isn't needed or required in a lot of situations.
noggin
Founding member
PS, re directors not calling shots, obviously this is only for tightly scripted shows, right? For anything else a Director would need to call a shot to make sure that the cameraman is ready for their shot to be taken, when reacting to stuff you didn't know was going to happen.
No -not just for tightly scripted shows. On many unscripted shows a director doesn't have to call every, or even most shots.
It depends how the team work. Quite often cameras, vision mixer and director will have a way of working that means you don't need to. If cameras know what shots they are expected to offer in a given scenario, and the vision mixer know that too, then there is no need to call. One thing that often happens is that a director briefs a camera to hold a shot until it is used, and then offer something else. Or a director may say "Watching 2" or "2's nice" - as a suggestion - but not a command - to the VM to keep an eye out for 2, or "If John looks at Jane, 5 would be good, but stay off it if he doesn't".
Of course there are times when you have to call shots, and direct cameras hard, either because you are in an unexpected situation OR you are working with a new crew, or one who aren't as experienced, but that isn't the case anywhere near as often as some inexperienced directors think.
Quote:
In which case, surely they'd also have to make the "Ready" call which is more like an American director. So essentially the situation dictates the method used.
Not really - and in the UK we'd say "Coming to" rather than "Ready"- but the US style of calling every shot is very US. It really isn't needed or required in a lot of situations.
