Videographers are also called shooters or camera operators. But whatever you call them, video editing experts record images and sound to tape, disk or other medium such as film. We also record live, but often back up the program to recordable medium.
Sometimes video production professionals work with a director, who may or may not be the client. But clients generally rely on the videographer to literally call the shots, as too many cooks spoil the meal. I’ve seen some instances when a client will literally stand next to the videographer and tell them what to do. During a live performance, this can be very distracting, especially if the client is inexperienced at directing.
If we’re shooting a live event with multiple cameras, this type of job is called a live, switched shoot. During this time the director will sit in front of monitors that are showing them the shot that is coming from each camera. They’ll also have a monitor that shows which camera is being recorded to the master or going out live to the audience.
The director will have a switcher available that will enable him or her to switch between shots and record them to a master tape and/or go out live to the audience. Sometimes there will be a dedicated person on the switcher, but other times it will be the director does both jobs, calling out the shots and doing the switching themselves.
While a shot is on the screen, the director will tell one of the videographers that they need a tight shot of something and then will tell them they are going to their camera in say, five seconds. So the videographer needs nimble and has to be ready to do the shot when the director needs them. Otherwise, there will be an awkward moment in the production and we’ll see a sloppy shot.
Often a director or a videographer putting together the shoot for the client will hire well trained event videographers who are nimble, follow instructions well, and have a great eye for capturing the moment. Live shoots are the most difficult, because you can never redo a live moment, as opposed to a staged one. When we do our live, switched shoots, we have our video production experts record everything they shoot on tape or a chip now-a-days, so that we can re-edit the master with good shots they got but weren’t recorded to the master.
So as you can see, there is a lot involved in video editing on a live, switched shoot.
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