The ‘American TV Look’

[Bret Williams]

Yeah, I’d be incredibly surprised if TV shows in Europe weren’t shot on film. Video just looks so amateurish by comparison. Especially in color and exposure latitude. And visually, if it’s shot interlaced, it looks even more amateurish. I’ve not seen anything on BBC that really grabbed me as video, but the accent is so distracting you know…

[Don Greening]

I read somewhere a while ago that the biggest difference between North American and European TV broadcasts has to do with the colour saturation levels i.e. in North America, audiences equate brighter and richer colour to be more dramatic and a more expensive production. Europeans seem to be satisfied with a picture that has more realistic colour, or colour that is basically the same as if they went outside their door and looked around at everyday life. Does this mean that when North Americans watch TV or go to the movies they want to live in a dreamworld where the perception of film and colour is bigger than life? So it would seem.

Interestingly enough, if you go to Japan, the people there perceive the look of interlaced video to be very dramatic and realistic, quite the opposite of how we think of the video look here in North America.

I guess it boils down to what one is used to and brought up with, and that anything different is considered to be inferior or not to be taken seriously. We certainly are a product of our respective environments.

– Don.

[Tony]

Don,

you hit it right on the nail. One good reason why their are different color matrix settings in video cameras which correspond to specific markets in the world.

For example:

EBU which the Europeans like to use is rather dull but realistic in terms of real world color.
ITU 709 is quite punchy and at times too colorful for my taste.

Another item to consider if the climate conditions in different part of the world will effect the viewer perception of color etc based on the typical color temp in that part of the world which has an impact on viewing conditions on an average household tv overseas.

Tony Salgado

[Don Greening]

[tony salgado] “Another item to consider if the climate conditions in different part of the world will effect the viewer perception of color etc based on the typical color temp in that part of the world which has an impact on viewing conditions on an average household tv overseas.”

I never even thought of that. Probably because I always thought that daylight colour temp was a constant everywhere. Excellent point, Tony.

– Don

[Aaron Neitz]

the 50 field refreshes per second in PAL is not quite enough to continually fool the eye that it’s a solid picture. The 60 fields/sec in NTSC help overcome that ‘flickery’ quality you get in PAL. Also, yes, shooting a progressive format (like film, or a video camera with a progressive mode) will always yield a home camcorder look – a lot of UK shows seem to be shot on regular video. Way before colorspace, I notice frames/fields first.

[Aaron Neitz]

oops, I mean shooting PROGRESSIVE makes it look BETTER!

[Tom Wolsky]

Unless something moves quickly in the frame. Or the camera moves.

All the best,

Tom

Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” DVD

[Tony]

The so called flickering is actually only for those who are accustomed to 60i whereas if you watch PAL for a while you brain will start to “lock up” and dial out any perceived flicker.

I once did a shoot where we shot PAL and NTSC camera side by side and I had to watch two monitors at once displaying the NTSC and PAL feeds. At first it was distrubing to see the differences between the frame rates but after about an hour I embraced the PAL image well over the NTSC image.

Tony Salgado

[John Davidson]

From watching “The Vicar of Dibley”, I would say alot of it comes from being shot on video and then using the worst lighting scheme possible.

Granted, most of my knowledge of these shows comes from PBS, but there seems to be a consistant video/bad lighting combination throughtout the majority of them. The PAL thing enhances the lighting issues a bit, too I think.

[Aaron Neitz]

That’s true. After a couple days in the UK you kind of stop fixating on that annoying flicker. And it does have better resolution.