Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

150
FUNDAMENTALS
correct the color; arclamps in particular
are often filtered for
ultraviolet elimination as well as color correction. In setting up the
lights for a studio, a color test is often made as follows: A color
test chart obtainable from most photographic stores is fastened to
a stand in front of the camera and illuminated by the combination
proposed for the show or set. After properly adjusting the camera
and focussing, the image on the monitor not view finder is com-
pared with the original on the board. Since the steps of color are
numbered, it is possible to compare them directly and form a very
good idea of how different colors will appear
on the screen with
the same lighting. If the results are not what is required, it is
possible to reselect the lights to achieve the best balance.
The chief drawback with cold or fluorescent lighting is the
fact that it is still quite bulky, and as a result the fittings are not
easy to move and take up too much space
in the studio. It is almost
impossible to focus in the same way as light from incandescents ;
therefore, it is used mostly for fill or general illumination, with
incandescents, properly filtered, for other sources. An added reason
for using fluorescent light is that it is shadowless and therefore
reduces the risk of putting microphone shadows in the picture.
The habit of flooding the set with light, usually flat fill light,
has prevailed for a long time, but now gradually this is giving
way to a more rational approach with the realization that television
does not depend on how much light is used but in what way
the producer places the amount he does use. The early difficulties
of getting sufficient light for any kind of picture have formed
habit patterns which are hard to eradicate, but the modern pro-
ducer is learning fast, and everyday more and more use is being
made of lights to set the mood of the scene.
Immediately the film producer switches from theatre film work
to making films for television, he encounters conditions which
take a little effort to comprehend. In motion picture production
for the theatre screen and this includes 16 mm as well as 35
mm films the screen brightness in a good theatre with first-class
equipment is of the order of at least ten foot lamberts (a foot
lambert is the measure of a perfectly diffusing surface which emits