LAA  
MULTI-CAMERA 
 

David Owusu 

Narrative Format:  
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - Will father leaves - 
https://youtu.be/PI4Mv8R0mE0  
 
“Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” is a sitcom television series that started 
streaming live on the 10th of September 1990 and the final episode 

 
  

that was streamed was on the 20th May 1996. The Fresh Prince of 
Bel-Air implements funny comedy that highlights a young kid “will 
smith” who came from a poor party of America but moved to his 
aunties house as his mum thought the environment around his old 
house was too dangerous, so now Will lives in a mansion with his 
auntie.  

As the same as the series “friends” and “the big bang theory” fresh 
prince of bel air has a live on-air audience you can see this in the 
link below when Carlton runs around the whole set. 

https://youtu.be/PI4Mv8R0mE0  

This means everything can be recorded such as they laugh in the 

background, all this is not edited in, so the laughs you hear are 
actually people watching on air. The use of natural diegetic sound 
adds to the scene atmosphere so this makes other viewers know 
that the directors or editors just added laughs wherever the scene 
got interesting. This makes the whole scene and series more 
naturalistic. This is also effective because normally when the live 
audience laugh will normally be when the viewers will laugh.  

In Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, they run a multi-camera set up which can 

be seen in the image below.  

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A - will 

B - will uncle  

C1 - use to get a view of will looking towards his uncle 

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C2 - use the angle to catch both A and B in a shot, so a closer 

version of C3 

C3 - master angle (wide shot) of the whole scene so you’re able to 
see everything within the scene 

C4 - use to get a view of will uncle looking towards him 

In  the  first  couple  of  seconds,  camera  4  is  in  use  as  it  pans  over 
from  will’s  auntie  to  the  centre  stage  with  his  father.  This  helps 
transition  the  movement  of  another  character  entering  rather  than 
have  a  static  wide  shot  of  the  whole  set.  This  also  helps  focus  the 
audience's  attention  to  whoever  walks  in.  After  this, it then pans to 
back  to  will  auntie  leaving  and  then  locks  onto  his  father  as  he’s 
standing,  by  this  locking onto will uncle it then shows the audience 
that  something  is  about  to  be  said.  It then flickers from camera 1 to 
camera  4  as  will  uncle  and  father  are  speaking  this  is  just  to  show 
each  of  their  facial  expressions  even  though  it’s  not  a  close-up, 
after  this,  it  then  switches  to  camera  3  which  is  the  master  shot 
(wide  shot)  of  the  whole  set.  This  then  shows  the  atmosphere 
between  all  the  cast  on  the  set  which  is  will  father  and  uncle, it’s a 
tense  atmosphere  as  will  father  is  trying  to  leave  him  again. 
In-camera  3  views  you’re  also  allowed  to  see  the  whole  set  so the 
props  and  other  items  that  are  around  and  behind  the  cast. 
Continuing,  at  1  minute  and  40  seconds  camera  2  is  in  use  as  will 
father  is  about  to  leave,  the  camera  is  a  sort  of  over  the  shoulder 
but  can  still  see  will  face,  the  reason  the  director  might  have  done 
this  is  so  we  can  see  from  will  perspective  his father leaving as if it 

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was  from  camera  4  it  wouldn’t  be  as  effective and camera 3 would 

look too boring as it’s coming to an emotional part of the episode.  

Multi-cam  is  one  of  the  most  efficient  ways  of  filming  during  a 
sitcom,  most  sitcoms  use  Multicam  production.  The  most 
production  crew  will  also  be  familiar  with  multi-cam  so  if  you  have 
to  switch  production  crew  it  won’t  be  bad  as  multi-cam  in  a  sitcom 
is  well  known.  The  reason  multi-cam  is  used  in  the  fresh  prince of 
bel-air  is  that if they used single-cam it just won’t look professional, 
also  all  the  footage  is  replying  on  that  one  camera  so  if  that 
camera  fails  dies  or  something  bad  happens  then  all  the  footage 
will  be  ruined  and  that  episode  will  either  have  to  be  cancelled  or 
reshot.  Although  Multicam  gives  the  director  less  control  over 
shots  it  also  makes  sense  faster  to  shoot  and  is  less  expensive  as 
you  will  have  to  take  more  shots  in  different  angles  and  move 
around. So it’s just more suitable to use a multi-cam.  

Overall,  sitcoms  like  the  fresh  prince  of  bel-air  will  always  use 
Multicam  is  it’s  the  most  suitable  thing  to  use  although  they’re 
downfalls  to  using  Multicam  such  as  the  positioning,  the  camera 
crew  will  have  to  think  where  to  put  the  cameras  as  they  have  an 
audience  behind  them  who  wouldn’t  want  to  get  distracted  by  a 
camera  crew  so  they’re  lots  of  thought  on  what  has  to  be  done 
when using Multicam.  

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Narrative  format  -  EastEnders  Jay  Brown  Argues  with  Phill 

Mitchell and Billy Mitchell 

https://youtu.be/IrdARzfkQjU 

Eastenders  is  a  very  popular  UK  pre-production  Tv  program  which 

is  broadcasted  across  the  UK.  Eastenders  contains  and  raises  lots 
of  different  feelings  and  towards  the  audience  however  the  main 
subject  is  forced  on  the  drama  within  the  scenes  of  each  episode. 
As  for  “the  fresh  prince  of  bel  air”  they’re  a  range  of  different 
cameras  set  up  for  the  multicam  production.  This  is  so  they  can 
capture  every  angle  and  every  facial  expression  shown  by  each 
cast  on  set.  This  also  cuts  down  on  filming  time  by  using  multiple 
cameras  to  help  capture  every  single  camera  angle needed, some 
camera  angles  may  not  be  used  but  are  just  good  to  have.  They 
also  need  to  use  multicam  production  as  this  is  a  weekly  program 
that  is  streamed  so  they  have  to  make sure everything is recorded 
and  every  shot  is  up  to  good  enough  quality  to  be  edited  to  be 
broadcasted.  

In  this  scene,  we  have  3  characters  within  this  scene.  The  camera 
starts  off  with  an  over  the  shoulder  shot  capturing  jay  brown  and 
Billy  mitchell.  The  reason  this  is  used  is  so  that you know who is in 
the  scene  whilst  billy mitchell is looking through letters. It then cuts 
multiple  times  between  camera  4,3  and  1  as  different  expressions 
need  to  be  captured  so  that  the  audience  can  get  a  feeling  of  the 

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atmosphere  and  can imagine how the characters on set feel in that 

moment  of  time.  In  this  scene  the  180  degree  rule  was  kept  and 
not  broken  at  any point in this scene, this is good because it keeps 
the  enjoyment  of  the  scene and if it is broken it may have an effect 
of losing the audience concentration and the feeling they’re in.  

Also  by  having  multicam  production  it  allows  the  audience  to  see 
everything  that  is  going  on  in  the  scene  from  the  facial expression 
of  each  character  to  the  body  language  of  each character which is 
very effective and better than using single camera production. 

The  use  of  multicam  production  allows the editors hired to edit the 

scene  more  efficiently  as  if  one  shot  is  not  the  best  the  editors 
have  however  more  cameras  to  choose  that  the  same  shot  that 
was  taken  at  the  time.  Also  by  using  multicam  production  it  allows 
the  editors  to  create  a  certain  atmosphere  for  example 
continuously changing and can raise intensity when needed.  

The camera setup that was most likely used: 

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Non-narrative: liverpool vs barcelona   

https://youtu.be/7HldRlTZj_g 

This champions league match took place at Anfield home to 

Liverpool Fc. This is an example of multicam production. Football is 
streamed around the whole world as it is a very liked sport. As it is 
streamed around the whole world the multicam production has to 
make sure they get the best views for people watching it on their 
TV. it also has to be up to high standards as most people watching 
it from home are paying and people don’t want to be paying for 
poor angles and such. Multicam is used a lot in football as they 
have to make sure they grab every important and good angle of 
football as some people like to analyse the game and maybe you 
may not be able to see certain action from certain angles. This is 

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why multicam is important as all angles in football needs to be 

seen as people are paying to see this. 

An advantage of using multicam production is that it gives you a 

live reaction and feeling as if you were in the stadium as well as 
hearing the commentators providing you information. If this was 
meant to be single cam production it wouldn’t have the same 
effect as the viewers will be restricted to watching from one angle. 
And also won’t be able to see all the action.  

Another reason why they use multicam is that it allows them to 
replay this match and stream it on platforms such as youtube.  

An example of multicam being used is in Tottenham vs Barcelona 

Fc. everytime a goal is scored the camera will switch to a closer 
view so you can see the players reaction, as this helps liven up the 
atmosphere. Another way multicam comes into use is when they 
replay the goals, the multicam production team shows a different 
perspective of the goal and the build up. This is very useful and 
important as this can be used to analyse football and also it’s a 
good thing to just see different angles of a goal. We get a range of 
high angles, low angles, eye level, and over the shoulder shots. 
Those are normally all the shots you will get in different football 
matches.  

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Here is an overview of anfield stadium and where all the cameras 

are placed. Some of the cameras may be placed in different 
positions due to the making of the stadium but it’s only slight 
changes that you won’t realise. They’re many cameras used in 
football stadiums as they’re many many different angles you can 
capture.  

Non-narrative: Meek Mill interview  

https://youtu.be/PZwH9TH1zUE 

Stephan Colbert who has his own youtube channel hosted an 
interview with an american rapper called ‘Meek Mill’. In this 
interview multicam production was used to film it. The use of 
multicam production is very useful as it allows all the viewers to 
see different perspective and angles of meek mill and stephan 

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colbert, you’re able to also see their reaction as oher cameras are 
more zoomed into than other for example here is an overhead 
view of what an interview multicam production set up would look 
like. 

Now I am going to show you the shots used in the youtube video.  

The benefits of using multicam is that 

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it gives the audience an immersive experience as the position of 

the cameras are set up and feels as if it’s aligned as if there’s an 
audience watching them.  

When stephan colbert introduced meek mill to his interview camra 

2 is in use to see both the guest and host which is a mid wide shot. 
Camera 1 and 3 is normally used when the guest or host is 
speaking individually because the focus is shifted to them and they 
want you to know that by only making him the main subject of the 
shot which you can clearly see.  

 
Multicam job roles  

Camera operators 

A camera operator or cameraman is in charge of all the camera, 

remote control and electronic cameras. They’re similar to 
cinematographers but the difference is that cinematographers 

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capture on the go and a camera operator rehearses it all before he 

or she presses the record.  

Boom operators  

A boom operator is a big part of the sound mixer. The boom 

operator is the person who holds a long pole which has a mic on 
the top that is used to pick up the dialogue spoken in a scene but 
without the microphone being seen on camera.  

Floor managers  

A floor manager is very important to the whole production crew, 

they're the one that makes sure that a tv production or any other 

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production goes according to plan and that everyone such as the 

presenters, camera crew, guest and audience knows exactly what 
they’re doing. Floor managers can also be known as assistant 
director.  

Presenter  

The presenter is the person who hosts a television program for 

example when I showed the stephan colbert interview stephan 
was the host as he is the main face of that tv show and is on it 
every single episode until he leaves or gets fired.  

Gallery roles  

Director  

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The director is straight forward, they're the person who calls all the 
shots, they’re the person who is in charge of everyone. The 
director is the person who gets to see what they like or don’t like 
on screen and what they want to change. They get to decide if 
they like all the camera angles that are being shot or what type of 
shots and feeling they want and are trying to create.  

Vision mixer  

A vision mixer is a device that is used to select between several 

different camera sources, this is then used to create a video with 
different angles of the same thing being shot. This is always used 
in multicam production and how they get all the shots in.  

Production assistant  

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The production assistant is the person who assists the producer or 
director. They’re the person who gets the crew, cast, and set ready 
for the shoot everyday for a shoot. They help the director get their 
information towards all the other people on set and off as the 
director is very busy and can’t be focusing on stuff like that.  

Sound mixer 

A sound mixer is the most important person in the sound recording 

crew when recording. This person goes over the sound to see if 
there’s any problems which they will be able to fix as if it’s a well 
paid production film they can’t effort for any errors in the audio. A 
sound mixer has to ensure the audio from the boom microphones 
is recorded at a very efficient level for every take. 

VT operator 

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The vt operator is a role which is used before shooting in the post 

production. Their role is to make sure all the tape recording 
equipment and other technical aspects are up to good standards. 
They have to make sure that the equipment they’re using are 
compatible with what the editors are going to use and that they 
don’t have to convert anything.  

 
 

 
 

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