Appendix 1

The Filmmaker’s Guide to Final Cut Pro Workfl ow
Figure A1.1 Philo T. Farnsworth and the farnovision
Philo’s fi rst system had 300 scan lines and was monochrome. Later systems, while still monochrome,
operated at 30 FPS and had 525 lines. Years later, engineers came up with the NTSC format, a way to
add color to the signal and maintain compatibility with the earlier monochrome system. They inserted
some of the color information into a color subcarrier. This signal’s frequency was a multiple of the frame
rate and audio and caused undesirable color banding. Unfortunately, instead of detuning the color or
audio subcarrier, they opted to detune the sync frequency by .1 percent, causing the frame rate to change
to 29.97. We are still stuck with this frame rate even in most high-defi nition digital video displays.
Each frame of NTSC video is made up of two fi elds. The image is scanned onto the screen starting
in the upper left of the picture. A “fl ying spot” of changing color and brightness speeds across the
screen tracing in the picture as lines. The spot is moving quite fast; even on a small TV, it is traveling
at more than 1,000 miles per hour.
Figure A1.2 Odd video fi eld. A total of 240 lines are scanned before the “spot” leaves the picture at
the bottom. It continues scanning for 22.5 more lines drawing in unseen sync and blanking information
before completing its journey. The fi rst pass of the “spot” paints in the odd lines of the frame
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