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104
TELEVISION PRODUCTION IN CONTRAST TO FILM PRODUCTION
Philip H. Dorte, O.B.E., A.M.I.E.E.*
Read to the 8.K.S. Film Production Division on November 5th, 1947.
rr^KLE VISION has been likened to the daily newspaper, and the motion X picture to the weekly magazine, printed on good paper, with coloured illustrations. The simile is apt, because the film producer can take the time to put into his production the polish which is always evident in a really well produced magazine — in other words, he can afford to spend a whole day on the floor shooting some two to three minutes of final screen time ; the television producer on the other hand has, in a day's work on the floor, to produce two to three hours of screen time, and it must be quite obvious from this that his result must, in comparison with the product of the film studio, be sometimes less polished, even though, because of the immediacy of television, it can on occasions be more exciting.
The B.B.C. Television Service, whose output is, incidentally, very considerably greater than that of any other individual television broadcasting system in the world, broadcasts some 30 hours of screen time per week, of which some 24 hours consist of " live " material — the balance being film. This weekly 24 hours of " live " screen time comes from two very small stages and from two outside broadcasts units.
Television in Film Production
The film producer who even now visualises the day when it will be possible for his actual shooting-schedule to be hours instead of months is not, in fact, making a quite fantastic suggestion. If and when the research laboratories of the electronic and film-stock industries can jointly produce a worthwhile system whereby a high-definition three-colour television picture can be recorded, complete with sound, directly on to film, that day will have arrived ; for then it will be practical for his cast to come on the floor word and action perfect and prepared to play the whole script right through, whilst the director — his work already largely done in the rehearsal-room — can sit in the control-room and direct not only the camera operation but also the cuts, dissolves, wipes and fades that separate and link his shots and sequences. In other words, the film director will be doing just what the television producer is doing now. •
To forestall any accusation that in this eventual film-studio Utopia the standard of film production would be lowered to that of television broadcasting production, I would point out that the film director would still be able to say " Cut " during any stage of shooting, and could still have retakes of a given sequence. In the television broadcasting vocabulary, on the other hand, the words " cut " and " take two " just do not exist ; once a programme has started — and it must, of course, start at the advertised timeit must go on to the bitter end, no matter how many errors, human, electrical or mechanical, intervene.
" Live " Transmission versus Film
Why does the television broadcasting producer not film his programme in advance and thus not only ensure the broadcasting of a more polishe performance, but so also present himself with the means of repeating them
♦Television Outside Broadcasts and Film Supervisor, British Broadcasting Corporation
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