Multi-camera network interviews have been the staple of my career for the past twenty years or so.
Who was responsible for the recent NBC Today Show Lauer Obama one-on-one interview? I don’t like to come on a message board and criticize people’s work but… Here we have what seems to be the most important sit-down of the month and someone totally hacked it together.
The “A†camera composure on the President wasn’t great but wasn’t really bad. I wouldn’t have said anything if the rest of the show matched. But the “B†camera on Lauer was a little miss-matched in colour and detail and the framing was totally miss-matched. Not only did the angle look a little funny compared to the “A†cam but the headroom seemed off, and the shot was either to close or too far (can’t remember) and the 4:3 safe area was butchered at times, cutting Lauer off on one side.
My real complaint is pointed at the “C†camera. First of all, I don’t know what type of cam they used but switching from “cam-A†to “cam-C†made cam-C seem like a toy straight out of a Cracker Jack box. No detail and really low chroma compared to cam-A.
When I hear certain operators claim (even at the net level) that they can match small-chip, low-sampling prosumer-cams to the big cams, I have to wonder if they truly know what they are talking about in this regard.
Cam-C was set up on a jib or some consumer track system or a microphone boom, I really don’t know but man, I haven’t seen something so amateurish looking for such high-level interview in a long time. In the first place there was no need to use cam-c so much. It really distracted from concentrating on what the President had to say. Furthermore it was wobbly, shaky with low detail and the operator had no regard for the 4:3 safe zone that NBC used for their SD center-cut feed which is still probably viewed by over 65 percent of people watching morning network news.
This sit-down reminded me of the old days of 1980 when I got my start at community cable television. Sometimes during rolling on a program, we used to practice things that may have looked kind of amateurish. The only difference is that we would of never pulled off such a stunt for the “interview of the month.†Never!
My advise to the people responsible for this.
1)) Don’t attempt using something if you have no clue on how to use it. Talking about the wobbly jib or whatever amateur device they attempted to use with cam c.
2)) If you know the show will end up center cut for the SD feed, use common sense and frame appropriately.
3)) Don’t fool the producer with saying you can match a small-chip low sampling toy camera to a full size full sampling camera when in fact you can’t. It’s one thing to use the odd shot were the majority of people won’t be too distracted but make sure you tell the producer that cam-c cannot be matched to cam-a and cam-c should be used accordingly. If you told the producer – then all blame is out of your hands.
I say to the producers at NBC.
This segment looked like a crew practising using new methods.
I know money is short but do not practice new things on air, on the most important sit-down of the month. Not only was it a disgrace to your viewers, staff and freelancers but also, it’s a disgrace to the President. Jesus!
If you don’t have a proper tool or properly trained person to do something, then don’t attempt doing it, Jesus that was awful! (talking about the c-cam and all the motion sickness affiliated with it)