Hi all,
Hope everyone's making it ok through all of the snowy weather out east.
Here's one perhaps for Allan...when Andy has talked of the making of TAGS,
he has always mentioned the "One Camera Technique" which was utilized to give
TAGS more of a "movie feel," as opposed to the "Three Camera Technique," which
most live audience sitcoms had/have. My question is: Is it one 'physical'
camera
or one camera shot?
A thought occurred to me last night when viewing an episode,
that, if there was indeed only one camera, not only would the same scene be
re-acted
again and again, if necessary (for the extra shots), focusing on, say, Barn,
when it
had focused on Andy in the first run-though. Not only that, but the
timing..the pacing
would be so critical that even the slightest give or take in momentum would
make the
scenes on each filmstrip 'out of sync' with one another.
That's looking at it from a 'side by side' standpoint, if the filmed scenes
were
aligned physically in editing. Perhaps the film editor did his/her magic in
that sense, sewing the bits together,
with the aid of the other talented folks, to make sure that all was well.
Probably many of us have noticed that Barn's hair goes from neat to messed up
to
neat again, in the famous "Preamble Scene" between Andy and Barn. That
probably indicates
that a separate scene was shot of Barn, or maybe a 'patch' take was filmed, in
order to
fix either technical (e.g. lighting/sound) or acting (lines) problems.
Of course, that
doesn't answer the initial question of whether the 'one' camera(s) was/were
running
simultaneously or rather one running and then set up in a different position
and run
again for the other shot. I can think of two scenes in which it might've been
two
cameras, due to audio-visual duplication. That occurred in "The Rock" and "The
Mayberry Band".
In "The Rock," during Barn's speech/lecture to the prisoners ("Here at the
Rock..."),
Gomer is looking at Barn with wonder, and then Andy does a little double take,
as he leans
on the railing separating the jail section from the desk/main floor section of
the Courthouse.
That double take is seen first: in closeup shot, and then behind Barn as he
strolls in
front of the jail cells. In "The Mayberry Band," during the scene in which
Barn and Andy
are with the Mayor by the park bench, watching the band play, there is a line
(can't think
of which one exactly) that is also duplicated (I think Andy speaks it). Maybe
sometimes
there was only one camera, and then multiple?
I'm about bushed from all this typing (glad Aunt Bee's cousin gave us an
electric one!) - has anyone else
noticed or maybe figured out this question?
Many thanks, and happy motoring!
Over and Under,
Clyde "Barn"
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