20/05/2025
Not all Live cuts are the same.
What you do at Church on Sunday, isn’t necessarily going to work for a Brandon Lake Concert, Bruno Mars or Beyoncé.
As a director, the goal isn’t to “be like someone else” it’s to build the best capture of the environment you’re in.
How to build a Capture
1. Positions
Tripods, Easy Rigs, Steadicams, Jibs, Robotics, Cable Cams. All of these determine your flow, from camera to camera, movement to movement. Close, Wide, Emotions and Environment. Choose wisely
2. Lensing
The lenses you use will directly affect the story you can tell. Cinema, Broadcast, Depth of Field, Focus, Color. If a camera can’t get tight enough or wide enough, that’ll limit what you want to focus on.
3. Operators
Your cut will start with the skill level of your operators. That doesn’t mean that your cut won’t be good. You’re not hearing me. Sometimes LESS is MORE. If operators are more advanced, then we can do more. Determine the skill level of your team whether they are paid professionals or volunteers, and that will give you a baseline for coaching and direction.
4. Pace
The pace of your cut is determined by the story you’re wanting to tell. You could use 1 camera the entire time and tell a story from a certain perspective or you could use 5 cameras and tell a completely different story. You can match energy without cutting, through camera movements or you can cut around to also increase the pace. I like to live in between where ops are able to move quickly and cut.
Let me know what I missed and your take on how you build a live cut.
©️ sheppard
