Ideas

Here are some examples of Multi-camera products that I found though my research.

- Concert/Gig
- Game-show
- Debate
- Soaps
- Cooking
- Daytime
- TV
- Tabletop Show
- Video Games
- Panel Show
- Video Podcast
- Ads

Though the examples above in combination with my own interests and ideas, the following are some directions I feel I could take my product and why I had these Ideas. Most of these come form some place of passion as I hope my personal connection to the type of product I make would help motivate me throughout the creative process.

- Teaching and playing D&D
This I thought about after finding that Podcasts and Game-shows where both commonly recorded using Multi-camera setups. This combined with my personal love of Dungeons & Dragons and live shows relating to it such as Critical Role (which is also recorded in Multi-camera) lead to me wanting to also create a live D&D show. The problem was that most of my friends didn't know the game, but a handful where willing to, or even longing to in some cases, learn. I thought I might be able to kill two birds with one stone by recording me teaching the new players how to play D&D. Unfortunately this needs a lot of kit to be brought in and can get very long and not that interesting early on, especially in character creation.

- Live table games (Uno, CAH, Superfight, Werewolf)
This came into my head much the same way D&D did. Loving shows such as the Totalbiscuit's Co-Optional Lounge and Polygon's Overboard and finding that Game-shows are commonplace in the Multi-camera market lead me to make one myself. I have plenty of friends who enjoy good quality tabletop and card games, especially with the influx of new and interesting ones in the last decade. The difficulties this proposes are finding a game sutible to play as well as getting equipment into position to record it, such as into a birds eye view of the board.

- Cooking/Baking show
This idea I liked because several of my friends enjoy baking and cooking and I though it would be good to record us baking something together as a kind of show similar to My Drunk Kitchen by Hannah Heart or other cooking shows. The multiple cameras would be used to show the food and the different processes as the food was being made while still having shots of us to fall back on. Unfortunately this is logistically the most difficult as we's have to find somewhere to do it, get all the ingredients, and make sure the camera, cast, and crew are safe in the kitchen.

- Murder mystery (techy)
Another idea inspired by the drama my friend was planning to do was a Murder mystery show similar to a short film. I had the thought that it could be more tech based and maybe use some of the props and editing techniques of my FMP. Unfortunately this would be very technically difficult not only in production and editing but also in creating a short story that I feel is compelling in that space of time.

- Podcast
Podcasts are incredibly simple to make and are fun, especially since I have friends I can easily talk to about all sorts of topics with. They're incredibly diverse and I can direct them in any direction I would want, possibly even incorporating elements of what I've thought about above to make it more interesting. Unfortunately they can be incredibly long and are often left unedited because of the exponential amount of editing required as something gets longer.


Examples:

- Teaching and playing D&D

Critical Role is a live D&D game run by Matt Mercer and played by several other people, all of which have some level of experience in voice acting. Critical Role itself is almost unquestionably the most popular D&D based show online currently. It mainly uses 3 locked cameras in Medium Close Up, showing the players in two sets of 3 and Matt by himself. These are all shown simultaneously so the audience can see all their reactions and play without missing anything. Sometimes this is replaced by a close up on the table itself mostly to either show the combat or to show objects on the table, such as at the end of Campaign 1 when they show the hand kit-bashed model of Vecna, their final enemy. The setup is simple and allows easy livestreaming with little live editing needed. Their use of multicamera I feel has multiple uses. The first is to show all the emotion that's happening. It makes it easy for people to watch their favourite characters or catch all the interesting moments. Secondly it lends itself to something without a script or set idea of direction as there's no worry of things that might be missed. It requires less editing and helps reduce the workload of something that goes on for multiple hours a session.

- Live table games (Uno, CAH, Superfight, Werewolf)

Overboard is a small show that showcases various board and card games, the presenters playing a couple games depending on how long the game is. In this particular episode they have Jacob Batalon, known for his role in the MCU Spiderman films, is a guest, playing with the rest of the presenters. In this episode there are 3 different cameras. One is locked off showing a Medium Wide shot of everyone straight on. Another is the same shot type from a different angle, a little bit to the left of the first camera. The final one is a close up of the players faces, panning between them depending on who's talking. I feel the use of multicamera is used to emphasise the emotions and excitement of the game. They switch to the most relevant or emotional players or change framing to complement a joke or funny moment.