Cameras
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Good quality cameras and their location can make a significant difference. Wilma Theater, for instance, makes ‘a really nice three-camera, well-edited capture of the live performance, and we share that for two weeks after the show closes’. Larger setups might, as Australian Theatre Live did, include: ‘six operated cameras plus four fixed, so minimum 10 cameras. I think, with Platée … we had a crane in there as well for the opening sequence, and quite a few of the other bigger things’. The Young-Howze Theater Journal, a theatre criticism blog posted on Tumblr, has focused on digital and online theatre since 2020; their review of Second Stage Theater’s “Between Riverside and Crazy”, written by Stephen Adly Guirgus, mentioned the cameras used to record the show for League of Live Streaming Theatre (LOLST): ‘LOLST uses 7 “Pan Tilt Zoom” cameras (PTZ) that are hung from the existing lighting grid of the theater. They are likes security cameras you see in the casinos but now they’re 4K, can zoom in without any graininess, work great in low light, and have computer presents that can be automated like lighting cues. Jess let us know that these were the exact same kind of cameras that the NFL uses to broadcast their games’. These are obviously professional-grade cameras that many smaller, fringe, or new theatres cannot afford. However, consider the quality of the streaming platform you plan to use. If the online streaming service can only go up to 4K, which is the high quality standard for online video as of 2024, you can focus your efforts on acquiring this type of webcam, and consider strategic placement of these devices. For starting theatre makers, Grant Knutson of Minion Productions recommended:
Main cameras: Canon vixia XA50, Canon vixia G70, with a Rode shotgun mic always attached.
Smaller cameras: multiple generations of DJI Osmo Pocket.
Streaming Board: ATEM Mini Pro.
Mafrotto video tripods (one is a monopod).
Knutson and other companies have used GoPros, which are portable, lightweight webcam-based devices that are designed to withstand a lot of stress from active outdoor shots like first-person capture of extreme sports. As mentioned in Televisual Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2023 production of All’s Well That Ends Well integrated GoPros onto the actors’ bodies as an experiment to capture unique angles for some streams of the show. Matthew Jameson of The Space uses these cameras in their theatre’s set-up:
A10 Blackmagic Mini mixing desk which has room for four cameras
A Canon brand 4K quality camera, which we use as a sort of dynamic camera to track movement and get close-ups
A couple of Go Pros which we set about to get decent, static, wide shots
Jameson said that different types of cameras allowed different options for moving with performers or capturing more traditional pieces. ‘Because we have a very high turnover of shows, we have to adapt them with like quite a lot to whatever staging requirements the companies have. Because we have flexible seating, we have flexible staging’. Webcams and smartphone cameras offer the option of mobility and flexible space arrangements, while larger cinematic cameras might be harder to move.
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