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The multiple-camera setup, multiple-camera mode of production, multi-camera or simply multicam is a method of filmmaking, television production and video production. Several cameras—either film cameras or professional video cameras—are employed on the set and simultaneously record or broadcast a scene. It is often contrasted with a single-camera setup, which uses one camera.
Drawbacks include a less optimized lighting setup that needs to provide a compromise for all camera angles and less flexibility in putting the necessary equipment on scene, such as microphone booms and lighting rigs. These can be efficiently hidden from just one camera, but can be more complicated to set up, and their placement may be inferior in a multiple-camera setup. Another drawback is in the usage of recording capacity, as a four-camera setup may use (depending on the cameras involved) up to four times as much film (or digital storage space) per take compared with a single-camera setup.
A multiple-camera setup will require all cameras to be Synchronization to assist with editing and to avoid cameras running at different scan rates, with the primary methods being SMPTE timecode and Genlock.
Multiple cameras can take different shots of a live situation as the action unfolds chronologically, and are suitable for shows which require a live audience. For this reason, multiple camera productions can be filmed or taped much faster than single camera. Single-camera productions are shot in takes and various setups with components of the action repeated several times and out of sequence; the action is not enacted chronologically, so it is unsuitable for viewing by a live audience.
In multiple-camera television, the director creates a line cut by instructing the technical director (vision mixer in UK terminology) to switch between the feeds from the individual cameras. This is either transmitted live or recorded. In the case of sitcoms with , this line cut is typically displayed to them on studio monitors. The line cut might be refined later in video editing, as often the output from all cameras is recorded, both separately and as a combined reference display called the q split (a technique known as "ISO" recording). The camera currently being recorded to the line cut is indicated by a tally light controlled by a camera control unit (CCU) on the camera as a reference both for the talent and the , and an additional tally light may be used to indicate to the camera operator that they are being ISO recorded.
A sitcom shot with a multiple-camera setup will require a different form of script from a single-camera setup.
The use of multiple video cameras to cover a scene goes back to the earliest days of television; three cameras were used to broadcast The Queen's Messenger in 1928, the first drama performed for television. The first drama performed for British television was Luigi Pirandello's play The Man With the Flower in His Mouth in 1930, using a single camera. The BBC routinely used multiple cameras for their live television shows from 1936 onward."Telecasting a Play", New York Times, March 10, 1940, p. 163.
Although some claim the multiple-camera setup was pioneered for television when producer and co-star Desi Arnaz, associate producer Al Simon, and cinematographer Karl Freund of Desilu Productions used it to film I Love Lucy in 1951, other producers had been using the technique for several years.Jon Krampner, "Myths and Mysteries Surround Pioneering of 3-Camera TV", Los Angeles Times, July 29, 1991.
According to Thomas Schatz, Jerry Fairbanks is the first to develop a 16mm multi-camera system to film a made-for-TV show when he used it to shoot the pilot episode of Public Prosecutor in 1947.Thomas Schatz, Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s, University of California Press, 1999, p. 436. . Fairbanks went on to film 26 episodes for a planned network premiere in September 1948, but it was pulled from the schedule, and the show did not air until 1951." Bristol-Myers Mulls 'Prosecutor' Series", Billboard, August 27, 1949, p. 10.Stanley Rubin, " A (Very) Personal History of the First Sponsored Film Series on National Television ", E-Media Studies, vol. 1, issue 1 (2008).
Assisted by producer-director Frank Telford, Fairbanks also used a multi-camera system to film Edgar Bergen's Silver Theater which aired in the 1949-50 season." Flight to the West?" Time, March 6, 1950. He continued working with this system for the pilot of Truth or Consequences in April 1950. When Al Simon joined Ralph Edwards Productions in producing Truth or Consequences several months later, he improved the system by substituting 35mm film for 16mm film and adding a more sophisticated intercom system.Jon Krampner, Myths and Mysteries Surround Pioneering of 3-Camera TV : Broadcasting: A popular belief is that Desi Arnaz created the technique for 'I Love Lucy' in 1951, but evidence of the system dates to 1947. Los Angeles Times, July 29, 1991
In 1949, Ray Culley of Cinécraft Productions, a sponsored film studio, filmed the first TV infomercial, Home Miracles for the 1950s, for Vitamix using the technique.But wait! There's more.' Papa Bernard and the first TV Infomercial." ACADEMIA Letters Culley also used the technique for three made-for-television TV series featuring Louise Winslow, a pioneer in sewing, cooking, and craft "how-to" programs on daytime television - Adventures in Sewing (1950), Food Is Fun (1950), and Kitchen Chats (1950).Copies of many Louise Winslow TV programs are posted on the Hagley Library web site A 1950 article in Printers' Ink, "Three-Camera Technique used to shoot TV film", discussed Cinécraft's innovative production style.Dodge Barnum, "Three-Camera Technique Used To Shoot TV Film,' Printers' Ink, 1950 In 1966, the studio made a film, "Cinécraft, Inc. Multi-camera Filming Technique Demonstration", showing how the technique works and describing rear screen projection and teleprompters, other innovative technologies of the era A copy of the film is posted on the Hagley Library website
In the late 1970s, Garry Marshall was credited with adding the fourth camera (known then as the "X" Camera, and occasionally today known as the "D" Camera) to the multi-camera set-up for his series Mork & Mindy. Actor Robin Williams could not stay on his marks due to his physically active improvisations during shooting, so Marshall had them add the fourth camera just to stay on Williams so they would have more than just the master shot of the actor. Soon after, many productions followed suit and now having four cameras (A, B, C and X/D) is the norm for multi-camera situation comedies.
Sitcoms shot with the multiple camera setup include nearly all of Lucille Ball's TV series, as well as Mary Kay and Johnny, Our Miss Brooks, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, Three's Company, Cheers, The Cosby Show, Full House, Seinfeld, Family Matters, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Mad About You, Friends, The Drew Carey Show, Frasier, Will & Grace, Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly, Last Man Standing, Mom, 2 Broke Girls, The Odd Couple, One Day at a Time, Man with a Plan, Carol's Second Act, and Bob Hearts Abishola. Many American sitcoms from the 1950s to the 1970s were shot using the single camera method, including The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver, The Andy Griffith Show, The Addams Family, The Munsters, Get Smart, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Gilligan's Island, Hogan's Heroes, and The Brady Bunch. The earliest seasons of Happy Days were filmed using a single-camera setup before the series transitioned to a multi-camera setup (which also occurred alongside its increase in popularity). These did not have a live studio audience, and by being shot single-camera, tightly edited sequences could be created, along with multiple locations and visual effects such as magical appearances and disappearances. Multiple-camera sitcoms were more simplified but have been compared to theatre work due to their similar setup and use of theatre-experienced actors and crew members.
While the multiple-camera format dominated American sitcom production from the 1970s to the 1990s, there has been a recent revival of the single-camera format with programs such as Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000–2024), Scrubs (2001–2010), Arrested Development (2003–2006, 2013–2019), The Office (2005–2013), My Name Is Earl (2005–2009), Everybody Hates Chris (2005–2009), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005–present), 30 Rock (2006–2013), Modern Family (2009–2020), The Middle (2009–2018), Community (2009–2015), Parks and Recreation (2009–2015), Raising Hope (2010–2014), Louie (2010–2015), Veep (2012–2019), The Goldbergs (2013–2023), Black-ish (2014–2022), Silicon Valley (2014–2019), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2019), Superstore (2015–2021), American Housewife (2016–2021), and Young Sheldon (2017–2024).
By the late 1990s, were left as the only TV drama made in the UK using multiple cameras. Television prime-time dramas are usually shot using a single-camera setup.
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