Many video companies will tell you they need two cameras to do a shoot well and charge you for the extra camera hire and the extra camera person.
For us, the one or two cameras decision is always taken on creative and filmic reasons rather than cost (we own two broadcast quality cameras).
So when will we bring in an extra camera operator and use two cameras?
There tends to be five situations:
At an event when we want to capture all the speeches and also the atmosphere in the room; shots of the audience, a wide shot of the hall, different angles of the speaker.
For a significant interview where we use a second camera to cover edits points and to add dramatic energy.
Our 2x C300 cameras filming an interview.
For a demonstration where it’s much more practical to film the activity in one continuous take rather than film the close-ups and detail afterwards. Filming with two cameras clearly helps speed up the filming and avoids continuity errors creeping in.
A filmed scene involving more than one person. A good example of this would be a training film scenario which is best acted out in real time.
A two or three person interview where we always want to cover the participants in both wide shots and close up.
