One Camera Sitcoms and Dramas

[dawsongirl]

This has been driving me nuts for a long time...how exactly are these things shot? Say, take a convo between 2 people. The camera is one one person, then cuts to the other, and back and forth. The camera doesn't pan, it's just a cut. How do they shoot that with only one camera? Seems like they'd have to have one person say a line, pause, move the camera, other person talks, pause, move the camera.... That seems like it would take forever.

I'm so confused.

[Ant-Lox]

The Bernie Mac show is one camera right? .... I remember hearing that .... what other shows are one camera?

[dawsongirl]

One person says ALL of their lines for the conversation, and then the other person says all of their lines. Then they are edited together.
Ahh...thanks.

Seems like it would be easier to have one camera on one person and another on the other person, so that you could get the reaction the actor is getting at that moment, but it seems to have worked all these years like it is.

[dawsongirl]

The Bernie Mac show is one camera right? .... I remember hearing that .... what other shows are one camera?
My Name is Earl is I'm pretty sure.

[gidgetgrape]

Gidget was shot with one camera.

[dawsongirl]

The trouble with that is keeping the other camera out of the picture. If something is filmed like that, you don't get the perspective of the characters.
Ah...good point.

[PanamaMike]

Two camera set-ups involve an additional camera crew and the need for more lights (and more lighting time). Both add to the budget of the show. While there are times when two (or even multiple) cameras are used, the most common way is to film the wide master shot, move in for actor A's close up, then turn around for actor B's close up (and yes, sometimes it does take forever).