A lot of churches start live-streaming with a single camera. That's fine to start. But too often, live-streaming ministries languish with a single static shot or a single camera operator for years. Ideally, both of these would be a temporary situations.
Once your church decides to upgrade, you may be tempted to add another camera and call it good. Two is much better than one, but if you have the money, should you stop there? On the opposite end of the equation, can you have too many cameras? Assuming you have enough inputs on your switcher, enough camera operators, and enough budget, is there a point at which, there are just too many cameras?
Multiple cameras offer more information for the viewer. In your church's live-stream, this can translate into increased engagement for the online congregation. You can show context with wide shots and details with close-ups. The more cameras you have, the easier this becomes.
As you're deciding on the number of cameras to use, you may have some grandiose plans. Maybe you want a jib to hover over the platform while the band is playing. Maybe you want a dolly to get a great shot of the back of the congregation as they worship. Those are all great, but first consider how much of the service you're planning to shoot. For example, if you aren't going to shoot worship, you don't need a dedicated camera for the drums.
If you're shooting video, you'll definitely shoot the sermon, so that's a great place to start the upgrade from one camera to more. Ask yourself, “How can we best cover the pastor?”
One tactic is to have two main shots (and thus two cameras) placed just to the left and just to the right of center. One shoots close and the other shoots wider. If your pastor likes to walk, the wider shot gives you more margin on either side. When your pastor gets back to the pulpit to read from the Bible, show a prop, or make a point, you can cut to a closer shot to show detail.
Having two cameras will vastly improve the perceived production quality of your live-stream. It puts your stream in different class. With two or more cameras, you can set up a better shot and switch to it while the camera that's live on maintains the current one.
Multiple cameras offer more information for the viewer. In your church’s live-stream, this can translate into increased engagement for the online congregation.
When you add worship into the mix, the two-camera, near follow and wide follow configuration can get predictable. That's when you may want to add a camera that gets much closer shots. With traditional worship, these may be shots of the pianist's fingers or the organist pulling out the stops. For contemporary worship, this may be shots of the guitars, or drums. Either way, adding a third camera can bring your online congregation into the sanctuary with a feeling of intimacy that they wouldn't get with one or two cameras alone.
Each additional camera shot will add more engagement to the experience of viewing online, but the returns will diminish to a certain degree. Perhaps you put a fourth camera in front of the front row of seats. That camera will add to the experience, but not as much as when you added the second or third cameras.
You could also use a camera or two to get reaction shots of the congregation during the message or worship and send those exclusively to the live-stream. This could add an even greater sense of connectedness for those who watch online, since they can't just look around and see people worshipping next to them.
Alternatively, you could add a camera off-axis. In my church, we have one about 30 degrees stage-right of center and forward about half-way to the stage from the near follow and wide follow cameras located toward the back of the room. Our pastor likes to use this camera, because it can get a close-up, to talk directly to our other two campuses, and our online congregation.
That's four or five cameras in a fairly large room, and that's enough for most churches. Should you want to add more, this is when I'd add the special cameras like the jib, dolly, etc. All of the basics are covered, so use these special shots as garnish for the regular shots.
It's possible to over use special shots, though. Always consider who is watching, on what devices and what adding a shot takes away as well as adds to the experience. In the case of a jib shot, you're adding a dynamic shot that's very visually interesting, a point of view that people don't normally see through their eyes, except on an amusement park ride. Like a ride, though, too much can cause the viewer to become disoriented and perhaps even cause a little motion sickness. It's best to resist the temptation to use this shot as your main shot, adding others to it. Instead, primarily use the other shots with a jib shot as garnish, adding flavor and interest, without letting it become overwhelming.
As you're adding in cameras, one of the most important things to remember is the 180 Rule. Each shot creates an imaginary line that runs parallel to the front of the lens and through the middle of the subject. If the next shot is taken from anywhere within the 180 degree arc of that line, there's no problem. When you start taking shot from behind this line and pointed back across it, the viewers, especially those not in the room (your streaming audience), can get confused. This is especially the case when the subject is looking to one side in one shot and the next shot creates the illusion that they've instantaneously turned in the opposite direction.
The reason this is important to the number of cameras you have in your sanctuary is that at some point, you may be tempted to add cameras on the other side of the 180-degree line from your main cameras. If they're pointed in the same direction, this isn't a problem. A drum camera pointed toward the back of the platform won't be as confusing as a camera pointed from the back of the stage forward.
There's obviously a limit to how many cameras you can add that offer a new and different angle, but don't cause a jump cut and aren't on the opposite side of the 180 degree line.
Also, don't forget that each camera that you add can come at the cost of needing another operator. You can add one or two static cameras, but if you have half a dozen, you won't get as much use out of that number as you would if you had as many operators to run them.
When I'm directing, I ask myself, “what does taking this shot do to help those watching?” With static cameras, unless something has substantively changed in the shot, too often the answer is “not a lot.”
So, can you have too few cameras? I think that one is too few. Depending on the size of your auditorium or sanctuary, adding four to six cameras can substantially add to the online experience of your streaming audience. At some point though, you run out of new shots that are necessary. Unlike live sports, or a large concert in an arena, the amount of space you have to cover, with few exceptions, is much smaller. As a result, the sweet spot for most churches is probably four to eight cameras. Any more would be rarely used and could begin to distract.
Remember too, that if your online congregation is watching on phones or tablets, those wider, context shots will show fewer details than they would on a television or larger screen. As you're adding cameras, having one for the purpose of an occasional wide shot is one thing --- a good thing. However, planning on putting an expensive camera in the balcony so that it can only take wide shots, may be a waste of resources.
It can be difficult to find the right balance between too few cameras that bore the viewer and so many that you're wasting money because you don't use them all. If you decide what shots you want --- the shots that will help the viewers more fully experience the service, and what parts of the service you'll be live-streaming (if you don't live-stream the whole thing), you'll be able to strike the right balance.
