Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

KINESCOPE RECORDING 337
would be especially so if the film were made the same day and
thus was not more than a few hours old. In fact, to incite deception,
there would be no need to tell the audience that they were
seeing a film if it was good. At present however, and until tech-
niques improve, it would not be possible to palm off a kinescope
as a live show.
recording
In most of the stations where kinescope recording is practiced,
the time taken to obtain the processed print is in the order of
hours because there has been no great demand for it any sooner.
In the instantaneous system used by Paramount the dried, finished
film may be seen on the screen within sixty seconds of shooting.
This is wonderful for the producer, for if he thinks that a miscue
or other fluff has occurred in any scene he can see the "rushes,"
and even before the show has progressed more than one minute
past the error scene he calls "cut," and has the scene reshot. Then
all that remains is a little editing to insert the good shot in place
of the bad one and the show is ready for the air.
The major networks have varied plans for kinescoping. In
general, they are quite similar, with any station desiring to carry
their shows being allowed to do so, but with affiliates getting first
choice. When a network price is quoted it includes the cost of
film prints in the same way that line charges are included where
cable is used. It immediately becomes obvious that there are var-
ious ways in which the recordings can be used. In one case they
can be sent out immediately after the live show is over, so that
non-connected stations can show them the following night on a
special local time spot. Or, if the sponsor desires his program to
be on at the same time on a national basis, it can be done by all
those stations on the cable using the current show and those not
connected using the previous week's edition. Provided nothing
very topical was included in the script, there is no objection to
this. A method which is considerably cheaper than this is for the
print to "circulate" around perhaps four or five, or even more,
stations and have each one run it at its own local convenience
depending on the sponsor.
The kinescope recording is as yet only in its infancy, and