British Kinematography (1953)

July, 1953 THE USE OF FILM IN TELEVISION PRODUCTION 17 original negative must be where possible controlled. In the case cited harsh light effects would be avoided, shadows would be filled by means of reflectors on exteriors and everything would be done to provide the " soft " negative required. Where the film transmitting system is unlike the associated studio camera system it is even more difficult to control the quality of the film print so as to produce indistinguishable pictures. The Insert Here all the considerations of matching previously discussed are applicable as are the problems of continuity in an even more acute form. The reading of a letter or showing of any other typical insert can be much more effective and less of a jar if the cuts are on a movement rather than to and from a static frame. It is often easier for the actor involved in the studio to cue himself from a picture monitor than to take signals. It is advantageous to shoot the insert where possible after the scene in question has been rehearsed for a few days and the most effective relevant action has been evolved. Film Background Back projection provides the most obvious example of this requirement. While television is fast evolving continuous methods of using still plate back projection peculiar to its own needs and very different from the methods of the film maker, in moving back projection the requirements are at present similar and are likely to remain so for many reasons. Naturally the type and density of print required will depend on the television system in use, but essentially the processes are identical and the problems presented similar, though for television they are more formidable because of the continuous action involved. Recently the Designs Department of the B.B.C. has evolved and demonstrated most effectively an apparatus which performs three operations. One of these produces the effect known to film makers as the " wipe " and need not concern us here. The other two, known respectively as "Inlay"1 and "Overlay " may in due course affect profoundly the use of film in television. Both processes are means of combining in one composite picture pre-determined areas of the pictures from two separate channels. Either or, on occasions, both of these individual pictures may originate from film. Inlay enables a fixed area of one picture to be obliterated and replaced by the corresponding area of another picture. For example, in its simplest application, a house built in the studio could cover three-quarters of the picture while, seen beyond it in the fourth quarter of the picture could be a filmed and " inlaid " street. Or a street scene could be filmed while inlaid in the first floor of one of the buildings could be a window built in the studio through which one of the characters in the play could be looking. Of course in the first example no one could walk past the end of the studio house and in the second example no bus on film could pass in front of the studio window. In short, Inlay is the television equivalent of the film " split screen " technique with similar advantages and restrictions. Its great advantage as a television tool, however, may prove to be that it can be used or abandoned instantaneously and at will. For example a scene may be laid in an army hut on the edge of the barrack square. For the majority of the time we may see through the window a still back projection plate or even a photographic backing, but at appropriate intervals we may inlay a filmed window through which is seen a squad of marching soldiers. During this time it is true the studio actors must keep clear of the window frame, but the flick of a switch restores the scene as it was before and complete freedom of movement is possible in the studio set. Time and experience will undoubtedly produce hundreds of ingenious ways of using the Inlay process. Not all of them will use film, but it is safe to say that film will play a very important part in the utilisation of the process. " Overlay " is analogous to the travelling matte process of the film studio. Characters in the story stand in front of a black or white background according to the television system in use and they appear against a background provided by a second picture channel, which may well be a film channel. If the foreground