Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

PROCESSING NEWSREEL SCRIPTS 297
: Story Air Crash
Scene Scene
Description No. Feet
Plane approaching field 1 9
Shot along runway 2 18
Time
Time Total
(in seconds) (in seconds)
15 15
30 45
Long shot, wheel collapse
Long shot, fire trucks
3 6
10 55
going out 4 6 10 65
easy means of converting to time. For accurate synchronization of
picture and sound, or work print and negative, a film measurer
incorporating an additional dial calibrated in frames,
a length can be expressed as 16 feet, 33 frames, etc. No illustra-
is used. Thus
tions or examples of typical editing and timing sheets have been
included since many individuals prefer to make their own.
The point that so many producers and writers fail to realize
is that the medium is television; that means the pictures should
tell the story. So if you have good pictures which really do a good
telling job, hold the narration and let the pictures tell the story.
When there is writing to be done it should be timed at the rate of
approximately four seconds per line of 68 characters or typewriter
strokes. One way of writing is to set up 68 strokes on the margins
by setting the left to 10 and the right to 78. Of course, there are
countless other ways of arriving at a count of 68, and it doesn't
matter how it is done. But it must be remembered that every stroke
of the typewriter counts, and that means spaces as well as punctuation
marks. So in the table we have above for the imaginary news-
reel, the maximum lines of 68 points would be for each scene:
Scene number 1 15 sees 3.75 lines
2 30 sees 7.5 lines
3 & 4 10 sees 2.5 lines
Just because all that time is available does not mean it has to
be used. If the picture does not need words, don't use them. The
story should be simple and avoid long
they
or unfamiliar words since
distract the listeners' attention as well as lend themselves to
loss in transmission due to inadequate sound systems.