We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
ABOVE SCENE in Jerry Fairbanks videofilm studios shows popular trend of TV film producers toward use of three cameras. Econ¬ omies are effected by shooting a scene simultaneously from three angles, thereby reducing number of camera setups.
FOR ECONOMY of time and budget, TV film scripts should pro¬ vide for fairly long takes, with variety achieved through careful dollying in and out as well as panning with the action, as in scene at right for Frank Wisbar's "Fireside Theatre" TV series.
Filming The TV Dramatic Featurette
Videofilms must have all the technical quality the public has come to expect in theatrical films.
A SURVEY OF TV network program¬ ming for the past six months re¬ veals the startling fact that while dra¬ matic film series amount to just 10 per cent of total network viewing time, these programs hold the lead in viewer popu¬ larity by a wide margin. Among those at the top of the list are Fireside Theatre, Dragnet, Big Town, Gangbusters, Gruen Theatre, I Love Lucy, The Lone Ranger, Mystery Theatre, Racket Squal, the Roy Rogers show, Sky King, and the Stu Erwin Show.
It has now been proved to many who were watching and waiting that a live TV show can never have the technical quality and finish of a well-made film, especially when it comes to a dramatic show. The director is at the mercy of too many mechanical failures. Poor
By HERB A. LIGHTMAN
camera handling, badly timed “editing’’ by the Technical Director, and fluffs by the actors — all go out over the air with no possibility for retakes. As a re¬ sult, there is a rapidly developing trend toward putting dramatic shows on film. The latest top dramatic show to switch from live to film is the Schlitz Play¬ house, and several others are planning to follow.
It is a fact, also, that viewing audi¬ ences are becoming more critical, not only of program content, but of tech¬ nique as well. Audiences now demand quality comparable to that which they are used to viewing on their theatre screens. The burden of developing the mechanical techniques necessary to achieve such quality has naturally fallen on Hollywood, and specifically upon the
•
cameramen of A.S.C. and other tech¬ nicians who have adapted the know-how of forty years of filming to meet the de¬ mand of the new medium.
After several years of trial and error on the part of the producers who pio¬ neered the filming of the dramatic fea¬ turette for television, certain techniques can now be considered standard oper¬ ating procedure for achieving the best results in this type of production. We can now set these down as guideposts for producers currently entering the field, and for those who will do so at a later date to satisfy the ever-growing audience demand for well-made TV dra¬ matic shows.
The production of dramatic featurettes for television requires a special approach. We must remember that with
392
o
American Cinematographer
September, 1952