Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

326
THE PROGRAM ANGLE
of the medium used for the commercial. It makes the fact that it is
a commercial stand out very clearly and spoils the illusion of life.
We have all seen those commercials where detail is lacking, the
picture seems continually out of focus, and the sound quality is so
bad that we get up to retune the set. There is no excuse for using
films whose quality is less than first-class ; it does not cost much more
to make good prints from good originals, and the amount of good
will that is lost through such poor offerings is tremendous.
There are five general categories into which commercials utiliz-
ing film fit. While they are not all examples of moving pictures they
are at least adaptations of film principles. They are :
Slides costing from $10 to $250.
Silent films with or without live commentary:
sound-over; film costs $100 to $500.
sometimes called
Narrated films with sound track added after film is made, $250
to $1000.
Sound films with full lip sync, $1000 to $10,000.
Animation with full movement and sound, up to $10,000.
Some idea of the reason for the high cost of animation may be
gained from the fact that in a sixty-second spot with full animation
90 feet of 35 mm film are used. This represents 90 times 16 (frames
per foot) which equals 1440 frames. Therefore, there will be 1440
separate, different drawings. When it is realized that each has to
be drawn properly, oriented to the story, planned before drawing
commences, and photographed one at a time the reasons for the
huge costs become apparent. Because it is full animation and does
not repeat cycles like the cheaper semianimated film, every drawing
has to be done by hand separately. If some of the originals can be
used over again in a form of cyclic animation, such as a train roll-
ing along a track, the cost can be reduced.
The story of animation is long and involved for it is an art in
itself, and a whole book would not be enough to do it justice. There
are, of course, tricks of the trade which make it possible
to use
camera techniques to avoid redrawing everything as various changes