History Main / ThreeCameras

The talent will usually be individually miked, either with boom mics (movie-style for a sitcom or soap opera) or with lavalier mics (the ubiquitous clip-on mics used in news and talk shows). Cameras are usually equipped with tally lights, which are lights indicating the currently active camera as selected by the video mixer in the control room; these are used both by camera operators (to know when the camera is live) and talent (to know which camera to face and/or avoid, depending on stage directions). Sets are similar to theatrical sets and are often designed to be easily broken down and rebuilt quickly, and for some low-budget productions may consist of little more than chairs, tables, curtains, lighting effects (especially stencils or "gobos") and perhaps an audience. The overall production has a fairly simple rhythm to it, with each camera used in alternation to pick up angles that another camera can't reach.

[[caption-width-right:350:Desi Arnaz demonstrates the Three Cameras technique to viewers of ''Series/ILoveLucy: [[CompilationMovie The Movie]]''.]]

* The talent, who perform on a set (either real or virtual via greenscreen) in a sound studio;
* The studio crew, including one or more camera operators and a floor director to relay signals from the control room to the talent;
* And the control room crew, including the director, who quarterbacks the whole thing, and people to manage the sound and video mixers and the recording equipment. The interesting thing is that in many (though not all) studio setups, the control room crew cannot necessarily see or hear everything going on in the studio -- everything is done entirely from the camera's POV.

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[[quoteright:350:[[{{I Love Lucy}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Desi_Three_Cameras_8863.png]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Desi Arnaz demonstrates the ThreeCameras technique to viewers of ''ILoveLucy: [[CompilationMovie The Movie]]''.]]