Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

CHAPTER 7
LIGHTING
If the technical problems involved in transmitting a picture over
the air are ignored and it is considered that everything behind the
camera lens either live or film camera is perfect, it still does
not make life any easier for the producer. He has just as many
problems which include scenery, color balance, costumes, actors,
sound, and lights. Neglecting the rest for the moment, but only for
the moment if we wish to retain our jobs, let us think about lights.
Television, and movies, for that matter, are only light and
shadow on a screen. Therefore, it would be expected that great
attention would have been paid to lighting. In movies for the
theatre this is true, but in television producers are still stumbling
in the dark. To be sure there are some men who have studied the
subject and are as competent as any Hollywood lighting engineer.
But these producers are very few. There are some lighting experts
very active in the television field. George
Stoetzel is one of the
greatest of these television lighting experts. His techniques are
brilliantly different from other lighting arrangements and give an
individuality to any show prepared by him.
But even with the knowledge and experience gained already
by the film world, not enough attention is paid to proper lighting
in television. Techniques which are the result of fifty years' ex-
perience cannot be ignored; on the other hand, they cannot be
completely absorbed into television, for television demands a
different approach from the theatre screen since the behavior of
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