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Video Camera Placement |
With more teams getting better equipment (and more of it), some basic ideas seem to be getting overlooked. These mistakes are seen on various documentaries, video evidence on websites and even popular TV shows. These teams want to be viewed as "Serious" investigators, using scientific methods to document activity. The problem arises when the results of their efforts show a lack of common sense when approaching the matter. We're going to take a look at a few concerns that hopefully, when these are read by other teams, will eventually lead to better documentation of paranormal events.
The most important and (what seems to be the most) common mistake is the proper placement of cameras in order to obtain the best possible footage. If the focus of the investigation is on one particular area, especially at a particular time, then all available cameras should be set up and recording.
Other common mistakes include the following;
Let’s start with Proper Camera Placement
Figuring out where to place your cameras is not as simple as saying “Put one in this room and one in that room, since there’s activity in there”. If you’re expecting a specific form of activity, say, for example; a woman who pushes your blanket away from your feet when a married man sleeps in the bed, than you’ll want to cover that area with multiple angles. One camera angle is NEVER enough. Setting up multiple cameras to cover the same area will reduce the possibility of tampering or deliberate faking of evidence, as well as quiet most skeptics.
When setting up a room using the example above (which some of you will recognize), at least three cameras should be used. Let's go over the details; the story is that when a married man sleeps in the bed, he awakes to a woman standing at the foot of the bed and partially undresses. She also seems to have a foot fetish, since she is said to push the blanket off of the man’s feet so that she may tickle them. Video Evidence of one night in the room shows the blanket being pulled back off of an investigators foot. Let’s look at a mock-up of the room in question;
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To the left you'll see the general layout of this particular room. In this instance, only one camera was used to document any activity that may occur. The placement of the single camera was due to the story, the woman stood at the foot of the bed, and pushed the covers back from the person lying in the bed. The yellow lines show the view the camera actually caught. There are several problems with this set-up. No one really knows if this woman simply comes out of no-where or if she moves from, say, the doorway. The camera view doesn't include the doorway out of the room or half the room itself.
Another problem arises from a skeptics point of view. The view from the camera barely shows half the bed. The "occupant's" upper body (including torso, arms and head) are not seen at all. From even an "Armchair" skeptic's point of view, there's no way to tell if the guy laying in the bed pulled the blanket from underneath. A few safety pins and some fishing line/string could easily get the job done. The point is, without a view of the person in the bed... and we mean a view of the entire person (and bed), it's not acceptable as evidence.
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Let's take view of how we'd set it up;
The diagram on the left is the practical set-up. A second camera placed on a tripod, and placed in the top left corner would give an excellent view of the doorway out of the room, as well as part of the bed the first camera can't see. A third camera set up in the Hutch (with the doors open) would have given a great view of the bed, and the guy sleeping on it. This three-camera set-up would capture any activity anywhere around the bed. It will also keep many skeptics silent, when there's little chance of tampering (Since so many cameras are "watching").
If you have enough cameras, then its important that you use them. On an investigation, you're on site to document all the evidence you can in the short time you have. There really is no reason any camera should be left sitting in its case and not being used. In this situation, if the story was a bit different; the woman is seen entering the room from the doorway. In this case, we would make sure a camera had the doorway in full view from inside the room. We would also have another camera set up out in the hallway. If we had enough cameras, two cameras would be set up to cover both ends of the hallway outside the room.
We could even go a step further. Mounting a camera to the backboard of the bed will give us a "sleeper's" point of view. We'd see what the guy sleeping in the bed would see. Placing a fifth camera next to the window would essentially cover the entire room, taking the chance of tampering to near zero.
In all cases, we need to cover every possible angle. When all you have are stories to go on, you'll want to get all the footage humanly possible. In most cases, you may only get one shot at it... so make it count! Use all the cameras available to your team at the time. If you're trying to cover a few areas at the same time, you'll have to choose where the majority of cameras will go. We suggest at least two cameras for each area.
If you're planning on covering just one or two rooms overnight, then you should make use of every camera in your inventory. This includes cameras hooked into a DVR system and stand alone cameras as well (Including VHS, Hi8, MiniDV, DVD and Internal Hard Drive cameras). Something else to consider, any camera can be hooked into a stand-alone VCR or DVD recorder. This will allow you to record the maximum time on a VHS tape or DVD (which can be up to 8 hours). A small monitor can be used to set up a view, then left to record.
Securing a Camera to a Base
There may be situations that require a camera to be mounted in an untraditional way. Tripods have always been the best way to keep a camera in place and steady, but they're not always made to fit everywhere. Sometimes you'll have to improvise.
Some of the items you may have at your disposal are tape, zip-ties and even plastic clamps (which look like plastic vice-grips). When mounting the cameras, try to use more then one item; use some tape with a few zip-ties, etc. Even with these things holding your camera in place, don't expect it to be perfectly steady. If a tripod can't be used, then most likely you'll be attaching to surface that is not flat. This could be a rafter, a door, a window sill or even headboard.
As with any of these things, movement can occur. From a breeze causing a door to move a bit to a a guy turning over in his sleep causing a headboard to rattle. Just because you think its secured, doesn't mean that it is. These movements may appear extremely slight on the video playback.
Signal strength can also be a problem here. I've seen video footage in which the image shifts, making it look as though the camera itself moved. In reality, the camera doesn't move at all. Some interference with the signal can cause a slight disruption. Security cameras with a slow frame rate (less the 30 fps) can easily display this type of problem, which may be interpreted as paranormal.
Protecting Cameras Against Tampering
This is a definite problem, especially if you're in a place that really wants some publicity. You should always protect your cameras form the possibility of someone messing with them. Anyone who watches a certain show on the Sci-Fi channel has seen this situation play out already.
Cameras should never be set up right in front of the doorway, with no view (from another camera) behind it. If the control buttons of the camera (Stop, Pause, Rewind, etc) are within easy reach, WITHOUT getting in view of the camera... then it's not a good spot. Now, of course we need to consider all the details. If you're investigating a private residence or small business where the owners/operators are always with a team member, then this caution is not as important. However, in a situation where the site is rather large and all employees can not be accounted for at all times, then this practice will be vital to gaining credible evidence.
Keeping Camera Views from Possible Outside Influence
There are two directions we can go with this. The first has to do with the Monitor Station. When using a DVR set-up, there is usually a room where the system is set up and the monitors are on a table. In small sites, there's not much room to spread out. However, in larger sites (say, a prison or old hospital) there may be a problem that arises. This goes back to the last topic, with a place that may want a little publicity out of your investigation.
Let's say you're in an old prison and have a bunch of cameras set up. They're all hooked into the single monitor in the main lobby. During an overnight investigation, the team may decide to head across the street for a bite to eat. In most cases, there will be employees at the facility who are charged with keeping an eye on everything. These guys are not part of your team, but work for the facility. With all of the camera views displayed on the monitor, the employees may find it easy to "make a ghost appear" just at the edge of the camera's view. An employee would have a much better knowledge of the area, which makes them suspect if any activity is recorded while they were there... and you were not.
Ok, this is not to say that every employee at every "haunted" site is out to make a name for their facility. This is just a concern that has to be addressed by investigative teams. We've seen this happen at least twice (unfortunatly at the same facility), where there was deliberate tampering with events.
The 2nd direction we could go with this topic is simply the view of certain areas. When we watch a door mysteriously close or open on its own, our first thoughts are "can we see the entire door in the footage?" Without a full view, every clip of an object that seems to move on its own, cannot be accepted. Who's to say someone isn't laying on the floor and moving the door? Who's to say someone isn't standing against the outside wall pushing the door open slowly?
When analyzing evidence, every possibility must be looked at. As paranormal teams, we all want that great video that proves that ghosts are real; that they're actually haunting a site. However, we all should want a genuine video. To get something close to that, we need to strip away every possible natural explanation we can think of. After that, we need to allow the rest of our team take a shot at it. And when they make observations, really listen to them. You never know who might have a better insight to what the cause could be.
