Floor manager is to the left out in front of the camera.  An actress is laying on the bed.  The villain is holding scissors which is the instrument of death.  During the shoot, the villain will bring the scissors down to the girl’s body but because the male actor is holding the blades in his hand they will not touch the actress.  Also the camera will not see that the scissors will be struck down but to the far side, away from the camera and any scissor blades will never touch the actress.  Television is often times an illusion.

Actors are waiting for camera person to line up the shot.  Note that the Ampex camera has not one but three fixed lenses.  A turret handle at the back of the camera was used to rotate the correct lens in front of the vidicon tube.  The taking lens is the bottom lens.

Our student TV productions seemed to improve in visual and script quality with the addition of set prop pieces. This was especially true for doors and windows. Both doors and windows seemed to force directors to break away from always placing cameras down stage. The problem with doors and windows is they limit the camera movement. The opening of a door which is in front of a camera might convey that the audience is now entering a previous private space. The shutting of a door might convey feelings of closure, rejection, refusal, privacy and many other symbolic possibilities. When used properly, doors and window can offer depth cues.

Doors are most often positioned away from existing studio walls.  In other words the only way to put the doors up was to anchor them to the lighting grid, pipe grid on the ceiling.  This would require a staff member and about ten to twenty minutes.  We used C clamps on long boards and nailed one end of the board on the top of the door frame and the C clamp would be attached to the overhead lighting grid.  We would kick the bottom of the door frame around until the door opened and closed properly.  The bottom of the door frame was kept from sliding by the weight of the whole wall into which the door had been placed.

Shooting through a window makes the audience feel like they are intruding into a private living space.  Obviously the audience is outside the room looking in, as seen in the shot above.  The director might use this “trick” to put into the viewing audience a subconscious feeling.  One possible feeling might be to put the audiance in the position of peering into a private life of someone.  Another feeling might be to place the audience as outsiders to the life of the person we see inside the room.  A window is also very good depth cue.  The frame of the window is obviously quite close to the camera and the talent is a distance away.  For the viewer, this tends to impart a three dimensional presentation.

Just look at the picture above the bed.  It is simply priceless.  That picture alone imparts a mood of being sad or angry.  A good director uses a number of “tricks” to put the audience into a mood.  The lighting in this scene is high contrast.  There is absolutely no fill light being used in this shot.  Fill light tends to convey happiness.  The light in the shot above conveys harshness.  So in this one shot the director has used two “tricks”.

Dr. Sova, in this image, is showing students an example of over the shoulder shot. This where the camera is looking over the shoulder of talent to view what talent is holding. In this case, talent is holding a book. A couple of things are happening with this type of shot. If the back of the talent’s head is in the corner of the shot, then a dept cue is provided. The head would be closer to the camera and the book is further away. Looking over talent’s shoulder might be putting the audience into the position of peering into a private moment. The book might be a diary. It could be a picture of a loved one. We do not normally look over peoples shoulders to see what they are doing or looking at. This is usually considered bad manners but for a director, this shot might further the script in some way.  Also, the object which talent is holding should/must be important in some way otherwise, why take the time to do this over the shoulder shot?

1981 production.

1981 production.