Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

204
FUNDAMENTALS
ment would be de-emphasized by the decreased speed during pro-
frames. An alternative is to do
jection at the standard twenty-four
the lettering on the sides of a large barrel and rotate this slowly
while shooting it.
All the methods mentioned above are not true film methods
since they can be, and are, just as easily duplicated by the live
television cameras. For one-shot shows they are obviously un-
economical on film, but if the show is to be played many times the
use of film for titles will release another live camera for studio use
as well as cut down labor costs by saving the cost of a man to
handle the cards. It also reduces the risk of errors in production
by having all the titles in the right place.
At this point, discussion of the types of film used, how used,
and equipment would seem advisable. If normal reversal or nega-
tive-positive film is used then the titles appear in the same color
relationships as they were in the original. For instance, a dark
gray lettering on light gray background would appear the same.
For plain movie work, titles are usually preferred to have white
letters on a black ground. Sometimes for variety or other special
purposes television titles follow suit. It is much simpler to make a
black title on white than it is to make a white title on black. In
the latter case, the black background, being darker than the let-
tering, is liable to show through and make the letters look muddy.
But, if positive film is used in the camera for shooting the
titles, developed, and then spliced into the film all the color values
will be reversed and the black letters will be white and vice versa.
At once the question is bound to be raised: If positive film is used
why doesn't a positive with proper
color values result? This is an
important point and one which all persons engaged in this pro-
fession should understand. There is no difference between positive
and negative film as far as the image is concerned. They both
produce a reversed image, with blacks for whites and vice versa,
from an original. In the case of original pictures, the negative is
opposite to the live colors. In the case of positive film printed
from a negative, the positive print is black where the negative is
clear, etc.