Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

258
THE PROGRAM ANGLE
rent for from $60 to $200 a picture. Some series of thirteen have
been offered for $50 apiece. Cartoons and serials run about $10 to
$25 a reel. If film is used commercially, it is generally charged at
double rates.
In closing this chapter, mention must be made of a scheme of
utilizing television techniques with film cameras to produce films
in the live style without the usual loss of definition from a kine-
scope recording. Although this method has often been suggested,
it has never before been used as far as the author is aware. The
Berndt-Bach Company, maker of the Auricon 1200 camera, has
outlined the principle. The possibility of shooting films in this
manner had been delayed pending the introduction of suitable
film magazines for thirty-three minutes' filming and cameras
which would not cost too much to buy in triplicate for integrated
use in this system.
The setup using two or three Auricon single system cameras
with the same technique as for live programs is to place the
cameras say three on dollies and run them continuously in
synchronism. The three sound tracks will be identical, and the
half-hour show will be photographed from three different angles
the three films are
just as a live studio show is. Aften processing,
projected synchronously onto a screen together with the image
of synchronous footage counter. Editing is done by the producer
calling his shots from screen to screen in the same way that he
would if it were a live show. The cutter merely notes the footage
of the individual film, and after projection cuts the film and as-
sembles the final production. The beauty of this method is that if
the producer or cutter muffs a shot it does not go out over
the air; another piece of film is picked off the cutting room floor
and respliced in place of the offending shot.
The increased cost of this method would not be much greater
than present kinescoping and would certainly be infinitely superior
in terms of definition. This is still in the experimental stage, but
it is quite possible that it may supersede live shows which have to
be kinescoped for later showing.