Transcript Film & Television

Video Communication &
Production
Chapter 1: About Video
Ch. 1 Objectives
 Explain the meaning of “Video
Communication”
 Explain why it is important to understand the
nature of the video world.
 List some major types of video programs.
 Describe the three major phases of video
production.
I. About Video?
A. What is video?
 Until recently, video did not exist.
 There were just two main audiovisual
media: Film & Television
1. Film
 Film was the medium used for creating most
audiovisual programs, from movies to TV
commercials.
 Film was (and is) an excellent production
medium.
The Advantages of Film
 Film equipment is relatively portable, so
location filming is practical.
 Film’s ability to reproduce quality images in
black and white or color is highly refined.
 Film picture and sound tracks are usually
recorded on separate strips of film (or audio
tape), so sophisticated editing is possible.
2. Television
 TV was the medium used for broadcasting
studio programs as they happened (“live”),
and other programs previously produced on
(or copied onto) film. Fig 1-1
The Early Disadvantages of TV
 Its equipment was heavy, complex, and tied
down by cables to its control systems.
 Its image quality was markedly lower than that
of film, and its ability to render shades of grey
from black to white was limited.
 It could not be recorded for later editing, except
by copying the live signal to film and then
treating it as if it were a filmed program
(kinescope).
Video Comes of Age
 As the popularity of television grew over the
years, equipment manufacturers gradually
solved most of its problems.
B. Video vs. Film
 Disadvantages of TV
– Picture clarity is course
because its resolution is low
– Color lacks a certain
richness that is hard to
describe but easy to see in
film
– Until recently, sound editing
has been more cumbersome
in video
 Disadvantages of Film
– More expensive to shoot and
process to a final composite
positive strip
– Less tolerant of different light
levels
– Color-balancing is timeconsuming and expensive
– Editing is much more difficult
C. Converging Technologies
 Whatever the alleged weaknesses of film or
video, they are now becoming less
important as the two media grow closer
together.
 High-definition video, for example, is close
to the visual quality of film; and modern film
stocks have wider exposure ranges.
D. Types of Video Production
 Today, people make a wide variety of video
programs ranging from five-second to thirteenhour miniseries.
 These are distributed for broadcast, cable, satellite
TV and the Internet, and on cassettes or disks
played in schools, businesses, and homes.
 Some videos are produced to entertain, to
persuade, or to teach. Others capture a family
holiday, inventory a stamp collection, or document
a vacation.
E. Video Talents and Jobs
 If you like the story side of production, try writing, directing, or editing.
 If you have graphic talents, the specialties of art decoration, set and
costume design, and makeup are vital to sophisticated video
production. You can also create postproduction video graphics and
titles.
 If you are intrigued by nuts and bolts of production, then camera
operation, lighting, and audio recording are skills that command
respect.
 If you have technical aptitude, audio and video engineering are
challenging occupations.
 If management is your aim, video producing and production
management require well-developed skills in organization, personnel,
and finance.
F. Not for Professionals Only
 You may not anticipate a career in video
production, but you may want to master this
medium purely for personal expression.
 Like music or painting or photography or
cabinetmaking, video is an art in which “amateur”
practitioners can and should develop exactly the
same skills that full-time professionals use to
make their living in this medium.
II. Video Communication
A. The Nature of the Video World
 When you watch TV, you may think you are looking at
a picture of the actual world, but you are not. The TV
screen is a window that looks out on a completely
different universe – a strange cosmos in which the
formal laws of space and time and gravity do not work
at all. (See figure 1-5)
B. The Language of Video Expression
C. The Construction of Video Programs
II. Video Communication
A. The Nature of the Video World
B. The Language of Video Expression
 Video Communication uses a visual language
– a language with rules much like those of a
written language.
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An image is much like a single word
A shot is like a complete sentence
A scene is like a paragraph
A sequence is like a chapter
C. The Construction of Video Programs
II. Video Communication
A. The Nature of the Video World
B. The Language of Video Expression
C. The Construction of Video Programs
 Video Communication is like written
communication in yet another way: it is not
enough to write a grammatically correct
sentence or compose a short paragraph. You
must be able to organize and develop a
coherent story or essay – or even a whole
book.
III. Visual Literacy
 Even if your career never involves producing
video, you spend a considerable amount of time
consuming it: Video is the most persuasive and
powerful system ever invented for delivering facts,
ideas, and opinions.
 If you understand the techniques of video
communication, you can separate the information
you are watching from the methods used to
organize and present it. This is called Visual
Literacy.
IV. Video Production
1. Preproduction
 This phase includes everything you do before actual
shooting begins. (scripting, storyboards, scouting
locations, gathering cast and crew, planning
production equipment, etc)
2. Production
 This phase covers the actual shooting of the
material that will become the program.
3. Postproduction
 In this phase, you select the shots you want to
include, assemble them in order, add music and
sound effects to the audio, and create titles and
visual effects. This process is called editing.