Chapter 24 — Quiz

Twenty-four questions to check that the one-take discipline stuck. Mix of multiple choice, true/false (with justification), short answer, and "what's wrong here?" perception questions. Answer from memory first; the key and a "review by question" map are at the end.

Multiple choice

1. What single fact most distinguishes event coverage from every other kind of shoot? - A) Events are always shot in low light - B) There is no second take — the event happens once and can't be re-run - C) Events require the most expensive cameras - D) Events must always be streamed live

2. In a three-camera event setup, the "master" camera is: - A) A tight close-up that follows the emotion - B) A roaming handheld camera for reactions - C) A locked, safe wide of the whole scene that never stops or reframes - D) Whichever camera the director is watching at the moment

3. Which of these must be matched across all your cameras or the angles won't cut together? - A) Brand and model of camera - B) Frame rate, shutter, white balance, and exposure - C) The price of each camera - D) The tripod height only

4. A switcher is: - A) A device that turns cameras on and off remotely - B) A device (hardware or software) that takes multiple live inputs and lets you cut/dissolve between them in real time, sending out one selected feed - C) The person who carries the cameras - D) A type of microphone used at events

5. The program feed is: - A) The schedule of the event - B) The single selected output of a switcher — the "live cut" the audience sees at any instant - C) The list of camera settings - D) The audio from the venue's board

6. You are switching a live stream. What is the professional habit that makes a missed live cut recoverable? - A) Streaming at the highest possible bitrate - B) Using two switchers at once - C) Recording every camera's isolated (ISO) angle in full, in addition to the live program - D) Apologizing to viewers in the chat

7. In the live-streaming signal chain, which link do beginners most often fail to check, causing the stream to stutter and drop? - A) The camera's resolution - B) The upload (upstream internet) speed relative to the chosen bitrate - C) The color of the cables - D) The platform's logo

8. Why are wedding ceremonies almost always cut in post rather than switched live? - A) Because switchers are illegal at weddings - B) Because quality and safety beat immediacy — there's no need to be live, and you never risk a missed live cut on an unrepeatable day - C) Because weddings don't have audio - D) Because you can only use one camera at a wedding

9. A board feed at an event is: - A) A wooden platform the cameras sit on - B) A direct copy of the venue's mixed audio, taken from the sound desk — clean and close, free of room echo - C) The Wi-Fi password for the venue - D) A type of gimbal

10. The scratch/room mic on every camera at an event does two jobs. They are: - A) Lighting and exposure - B) Backup audio (if the board feed fails) and the sync reference (common sound to align the angles) - C) Zoom and focus - D) Streaming and recording

11. Keeping all your cameras on one side of the 180-degree line at an event prevents: - A) The batteries from draining - B) Screen direction from flipping when you cut between angles (the speaker appearing to jump sides) - C) The audio from echoing - D) The stream from dropping

12. "Roll early, stop late, never chase" means: - A) Arrive at the venue early and leave late - B) Start recording before a moment begins and hold after it ends; don't whip the camera at off-side action — that's the other camera's job - C) Roll the camera on the floor for a low angle - D) Chase the subject with a gimbal for energy

True / False — justify your answer in one sentence

13. True or false: If you record every camera's full ISO angle, you can switch live and still recover from a missed cut in post.

14. True or false: Auto white balance is fine for multicam because all modern cameras read color the same way.

15. True or false: When streaming, if the event is going out live there's no reason to also record it locally.

16. True or false: A single camera is sufficient to cover a wedding ceremony as long as the operator is experienced and moves quickly.

17. True or false: A frame-rate mismatch between two cameras can always be fully fixed in the edit.

18. True or false: The best audio at most large events is usually already being made by the venue's AV team, and your job is often to take a copy of it rather than re-record it from across the room.

Short answer

19. Name the three pillars of the event mindset in a phrase each.

20. Explain the core trade-off between switching live and cutting in post, in two sentences (one advantage each).

21. You're covering a conference talk. Name the "fourth camera" beginners forget and why it's essential.

22. Why does taking a board feed count as achieving "maximum proximity" for your audio, even though you never place a microphone yourself?

What's wrong here? (perception)

23. A videographer covers a gala with two beautiful cameras but sets both to auto white balance and auto exposure "so they adjust to the room." In the edit, every cut between the two angles flashes a slightly different color and brightness. Name the mistake and the specific fix.

24. A described plan: "We'll stream the keynote over the conference Wi-Fi at the highest bitrate the camera outputs, straight to the platform. No need to record locally — it's already going out live." List at least three problems with this plan and the fix for each.

Rapid fire (mixed)

25. On a switcher, the preview (PVW) monitor exists so you can: - A) See what already aired a minute ago - B) Line up and check the next angle before you take it to program - C) Watch the audience - D) Read the stream's chat

26. The roamer camera (CAM C) is allowed to move, reframe, and even be briefly caught out of focus. Why is that acceptable? - A) Because reactions don't need to be sharp - B) Because the master (A) and tight (B) are holding safe frames, so C is free to take risks - C) Because nobody will watch that footage - D) Because gimbals never fail

27. True or false: You need a dedicated hardware switcher to do multicam at all. Justify your answer.

28. True or false: At an event, it is smarter to fix a one-stop-dark exposure than to chase a hum in the audio. Justify using the triage order.

29. In one sentence: why is a single clean, continuous audio track laid under your picture cuts what makes a multicam edit feel like one event rather than three videos?

30. What's wrong here? A described wedding edit: the couple say their vows, and the video cuts between the wide and the tight every half-second throughout — never holding on either face for more than a beat. The couple say it feels "frantic" and they can't feel the moment. Name the mistake and the fix.

Answer Key

Show the answer key and explanations **1. B** — Event coverage offers exactly one pass; the moment can't be stopped, re-staged, or re-run. That single fact drives all the redundancy and planning. **2. C** — The master is a locked, safe wide that never stops or reframes; it's the guaranteed usable record that frees every other camera to take risks. **3. B** — Frame rate, shutter, white balance, and exposure must match, or cuts between angles flash and stutter (a frame-rate mismatch can't even be fully fixed). **4. B** — A switcher takes multiple live inputs and lets you cut/dissolve between them in real time, outputting one selected feed. **5. B** — The program feed (PGM) is the switcher's selected output — the live cut the audience sees at any instant. **6. C** — Recording every ISO (isolated) angle in full means a live switching mistake is fixable in post, because you still have every angle. **7. B** — Upload (upstream) speed is usually far smaller than download; if it doesn't comfortably exceed your bitrate, the stream stutters and drops. Test it beforehand. **8. B** — Weddings prize quality and safety over immediacy; recording every angle in full lets you cut at leisure with no chance of "missing" the shot. **9. B** — A board feed is a direct, clean copy of the venue's mixed audio from the sound desk, free of room echo and distance. **10. B** — The scratch mic is both the backup (if the board feed dies) and the sync reference (its common room sound aligns the multicam angles). **11. B** — Keeping every camera on one side of the 180° line stops screen direction from flipping on a cut, which would make the subject appear to jump sides. **12. B** — Roll before the moment and hold after; don't chase off-side action (that's the second camera's job) — moments don't announce themselves. **13. True** — ISO angles are the safety net; a missed live cut can be re-cut afterward because every angle was recorded in full. **14. False** — Different cameras' auto white balance drifts differently, so the same stage ends up different colors across angles; set a shared *manual* white balance. **15. False** — The stream can drop at any moment; a local recording of the program can't be taken by a bad connection, so you always record locally too. **16. False** — One camera can only be on one face, but a ceremony's emotion jumps between two people and includes the unrepeatable kiss; a locked wide plus a tight is the minimum. **17. False** — A frame-rate mismatch changes motion cadence and often can't be fully fixed; match frame rate on every camera before you roll. **18. True** — At most large events the venue's board already has close mics on the speakers; taking a board feed borrows those ideal positions — the cleanest source in the building. **19.** A written **run-of-show** with must-gets marked; **redundancy** everywhere (two cameras, two audio paths, spare power/cards); **roll early, stop late, never chase.** **20.** Switching live gives you a finished deliverable the instant the event ends (immediacy) but a missed cut is permanent; cutting in post gives you every angle in full to choose from with hindsight (safety/quality) but requires storage and an edit afterward. **21.** The **slides / presentation feed** — a talk is useless if the viewer can't read the content, so capture the slide feed directly or hold a clean locked shot of the screen to cut to. **22.** Because the venue already placed microphones right on the speakers and instruments; the board feed hands you the sound from those close mics, so you're borrowing the best mic positions in the building without placing anything yourself. **23.** The mistake is leaving both cameras on **auto** white balance and exposure, which drift independently, so the two angles never match and every cut flashes. The fix: set **manual** white balance to one shared value and match exposure (judged on the waveform) across both cameras before rolling. **24.** Problems and fixes: (1) *Conference Wi-Fi is saturated/throttled* → test the real upload beforehand and prefer a wired connection, with a cellular backup. (2) *Highest bitrate the camera outputs will likely exceed the upload* → set the bitrate to what the connection reliably sustains, with headroom. (3) *No local recording* → always record the program locally to disk, so a dropped stream doesn't erase the event. (Bonus: no mention of captions/accessibility or a backup path — add live captions and a redundant internet path.) **25. B** — The preview (PVW) shows the angle you're about to cut to, so you line it up and check it before taking it to program. The live rhythm is "preview it, then take it." **26. B** — The master and tight are holding safe, usable frames, so the roamer is free to move and take risks; if C misses, A and B still have the moment. That's the whole point of assigning a safety. **27. False** — A switcher is a *function,* not a required box: you can switch with free software (OBS Studio) or a phone app, or skip switching entirely and simply record every camera's full angle to cut in post — no switcher at all. **28. False** — Audio outranks light in the triage order (Ch.18) because bad audio loses viewers fast and often can't be fixed, while a one-stop exposure error is usually recoverable in post. Chase the hum first. **29.** Because the unbroken audio carries the moment continuously while the picture changes, so no matter which angle you cut to, the event *sounds* whole — the sound hides the seams and binds the angles into one experience (Theme 2). **30.** The mistake is over-cutting — cutting so fast that no shot breathes, which shatters exactly the emotion the coverage existed to catch. The fix: cut *on* the emotion and then *hold* — let the tight on a face play long enough to feel it; stillness and patience in the cut are what let the moment land.

Review by question

Which section to revisit for each question - **Q1, 12** → §24.1 The event mindset (one take; roll early/stop late) - **Q2, 3, 11, 23, 26, 30** → §24.2 Multicamera coverage and angles (roles; matching; the line; cut on emotion) - **Q4, 5, 6, 8, 13, 25, 27** → §24.3 Switching live vs multicam in post (switcher, program/preview, ISO) - **Q7, 15, 24** → §24.4 Live streaming: the signal chain (upload, bitrate, local backup) - **Q16, 21** → §24.5 Weddings and conferences: the playbook - **Q9, 10, 18, 22, 29** → §24.6 Audio for events (the board feed; audio as spine) - **Q14, 17** → §24.2 (matching cameras — white balance and frame rate) - **Q19, 20, 28** → §24.1 / §24.3 / triage (the mindset; the live/post trade-off; audio priority)