356 Video Digital Communication & Production
Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc.
Cheating is the common practice of moving
a subject between camera setups, usually to
increase working room, separate subject and
background, or find a better-looking background
altogether.
Careful cheating is invisible to viewers,
because the lack of true depth in video makes
subject-to-background distances hard to judge,
and the background “behind” a subject may not
appear in earlier shots.
When Cheating Is Legal
Goodheart-Willcox Publisher
A two-shot of subject and interviewer, avoiding the
windows.
Two-shot
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For the subject’s closeup, everything is cheated out
from the wall.
Subject’s closeup
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The interviewer is moved in front of a different wall for
her closeup.
Interviewer’s
closeup
In this example, a subject and an interviewer
are placed in the upper-left corner of a room, to
keep back and side windows out of the frame for
the master shot.
Because there is no room behind the subject
to add a rim light for his closeup, the entire setup
is “cheated” three feet out from the left wall.
From the camera’s new position, the move is
undetectable.
When it is time for the interviewer’s closeup,
she is cheated back and to the right (to avoid the
right-wall window) and completely re-lit.
Because viewers do not see the right wall in
the other shots, this cheat, too, is undetectable.