'ENG' good practice camera work, help please

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Drcoffee

Well-known member
Hi there,

I'm used to fairly staged shoots like music videos and corporates. But I've been asked to do a job in a more ENG (electronic news gathering) style. With a 2/3 chip dvcam Sony DSR-570. I'm familiar with the smaller cameras, Sony z1, hvx200 etc.

What are the common practices for this kind of work?

With focusing? Without being able to zoom in, focus, then zoom back out? Is focusing also usually all done on manual this 2/3 chip camera?

Do you have to ride the iris as well, (on manual). Do you often keep on the zebras?

If you could point me towards any good write ups for this kind of News style, and its quirks, I'd be really grateful.

Kind regards
Jon
 
ENG shoots usually require sequencing your shots to tell the story. A series of wide, medium and close-ups (not necessarily in that order) conveying action and reaction to the 'event' being covered.

You might find some info at NPPA's website. Good luck!
 
Drcoffee said:
With focusing? Without being able to zoom in, focus, then zoom back out? Is focusing also usually all done on manual this 2/3 chip camera?
Click to expand...
You seem very uptight about focus. Autofocus creates more problems that it solves.
What's stopping you from setting your focus?

The ENG style doesn't preclude the ability to set focus. If the producer wants one continuous take then you're best bet is to set the lens to full wide and move the camera to change the framing. Full wide gives you the largest depth of field. If you need to zoom in dial in your focus as quickly as possible.
 
Most good 2/3 lenses hold focus through the zoom range I think. So to get easy focus you can always zoom in really close, set focus and then zoom back out.

davide
 
Drcoffee, you have an excellent source for this info available to you. Turn on the TV and watch the news, not for the subject but for the technique and the style. Watch the interviews with on-camera talent, watch the clips of the scene, then see how they paste them together.

Everyone has given you good advice, now couple this with the visual resources I just mentioned and you will be on your way.
 
I wouldn't stress too much. If are good with a camera, you are good with a camera be it an HVX or a shoulder-mounted 2/3" broadcast camera.

Seriously, zooming in and setting your focus takes all of two seconds. Perhaps we could be more specific if we knew exactly what you are filming.
 
For focus i always when i have a chance zoom in and grab focus then zoom back out while my reporter is preparing the interview, I like to keep the shoot on the interviewee . and then a few wide shots, establishing shoots (if at a coffee shop get shots of the shop and exterior) !! Get as much B-Roll as you can get !! this is needed if you need to do a zoom mid shoot.

Just keep alert and don't worry about shooting to much its always better to get to much footage when ENG.

I have got some of my best stuff when there was nothing going on, so i always keep the camera rolling if i have a feeling something might happen.

About the iris, I was told once by NBC to keep as much as you can on auto. But there are times you are shooting and the lighting changes a lot i will put it on manual to keep it from jumping around.
 
When I shot ENG it was manual everything. Auto focus can hunt and do funky things (like focus on the wall directly behind your talent instead of on your talent) and auto iris can change when you don't want it to (like when clouds roll in/out). Sometimes I did use the "push-button" auto iris to get me in the ball park then tweaked it from. Zebras are your friends (I don't think I ever turned them off). I also kept the zoom in manual 99% of the time as well. If I needed to quickly check focus, zoom in on something in the distance, or re-frame a shot the ring was always faster than the servo. Speaking of zooming, a piece of advice I got early on was, "zoom with your feet, not with your hands." If you need a tighter shot get physically closer to the subject. If you can't get physically close enough then use the camera zoom.


-A
 
Cheers guys, food for thought. It was going to be a 'news feature' type of video. Cut aways, simple lit interviews, of the cuff interviews, no script. Time and accuracy was of the essence etc.



Its fair enough watching news features, but you won't learn about what's around the edges of the screen i.e reflectors, sound set-ups, and camera techniques. So this info is great.
 
Having just finished up 8 months shooting news (small market on the Delmarva Peninsula), the notion of what's around the edges of the screen is kinda funny to me.

99% of the time, it's just you, the camera, and whatever you're shooting. No reflectors, maybe an onboard light, and a lav or stick mic shoved in the subject's face. ENG's all about making stuff look good without any kind of "production value," and doing it all QUICK. It all comes down to composition, and making the images tell the story.

I highly recommend everyone try shooting for television news for at least a couple months. It gives you a whole new perspective on things.
 
If you have a reporter or producer w/you sometimes they can come in handy holding a reflector. :D

The bulk of my ENG shooting came working as the in house guy for CART (the open wheel racing series that the IRL split from and recently re-united with) and I pretty much personified the one-man-band. Not knowing how long I'd be away from "base camp" at each race I carried as much gear on me as I could. This typically included 3-4 30min BSP tapes, 2-3 different mic flags, wireless stick mic, 1-2 wireless lav's, spare mic batteries, 2 XLRs in case the wireless was screwy (which can be common at race tracks), fold up reflector, headphones, sharpie, pen, notepad, gaffe tape, walkie talkie, cell phone, spare camera battery (not a camcorder sized battery but a big, Anton Bauer brick), tripod, and a full sized BetaSP camera. Oh, those were the days.


-A
 
What is this "field producer" of which you speak?

And reporters holding something besides their notepad or the stick mic (which is ohhhh so heavy and such a hassle?) Rubbish! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
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