A helping hand...
We had some pretty good broadcasts on Wednesday.
However, after the 6pm, we received a call from our general manager. He said he saw the floor director's hand in a wide shot.
Later in the evening, I took a look at the air check. We did see a hand waving on a wide shot, but only in high definition land.
The picture on the right is in high definition. You can see the hand on the bottom left side of the screen.
On the standard definition feed, you couldn't see a hand at all. Here's the same picture below in standard definition.
I took the opportunity to scan the newscast for ano
ther case of hands in the shot. Take a look at this shot of Jennifer Ryan in high definition.
On this picture to the right, if you look to the bottom right, you'll see Todd McDermott's hand.
Right below, is the same picture of Jen in standard definition.
Look to the right. Do you see Todd's hand?
No, you don't.
At the same time, look to the right side of the picture. Look at all the room we have in high definition. Now compare that same picture in standard definition.
We don't have so much room now, do we? If I zoomed the camera in a bit, I'd lose Todd's hand in high definition, I could also lose Jen's shoulder in standard definition.
At this time, we have to shoot our broadcasts for high definition (16:9 ratio) AND standard definition (4:3 ratio).
When you're directing a fast paced newscast, it's quite the challenge. Since MOST people still have a standard definition television set, we tend to shoot our shots for the standard definition side. It's better to see a hand moving briefly on the edges of the screen rather than having an anchor with a shoulder missing or only seeing part of a graphic in the monitor.
One important thing to keep in mind: These are just freeze frames.
In the actual video, Todd moved his hand towards himself, so we lost the hand in high definition. While in the first example, the floor director was waving his hand across to camera two. As such, if you were really looking for it, you would have only seen his hand briefly.
That doesn't excuse anything. We need to try to shoot the shots as cleanly as possible for both standard and high definition. At the same time, by showing these pictures, I hoped that I've illustrated that it can be a challenge to shoot for both looks.
Once February 2009 rolls around, we won't have this problem anymore. Everyone will be in high definition!
However, after the 6pm, we received a call from our general manager. He said he saw the floor director's hand in a wide shot.
Later in the evening, I took a look at the air check. We did see a hand waving on a wide shot, but only in high definition land.
The picture on the right is in high definition. You can see the hand on the bottom left side of the screen.
On the standard definition feed, you couldn't see a hand at all. Here's the same picture below in standard definition.
I took the opportunity to scan the newscast for ano
ther case of hands in the shot. Take a look at this shot of Jennifer Ryan in high definition.On this picture to the right, if you look to the bottom right, you'll see Todd McDermott's hand.
Right below, is the same picture of Jen in standard definition.
Look to the right. Do you see Todd's hand?
No, you don't.
At the same time, look to the right side of the picture. Look at all the room we have in high definition. Now compare that same picture in standard definition.
We don't have so much room now, do we? If I zoomed the camera in a bit, I'd lose Todd's hand in high definition, I could also lose Jen's shoulder in standard definition.
At this time, we have to shoot our broadcasts for high definition (16:9 ratio) AND standard definition (4:3 ratio).
When you're directing a fast paced newscast, it's quite the challenge. Since MOST people still have a standard definition television set, we tend to shoot our shots for the standard definition side. It's better to see a hand moving briefly on the edges of the screen rather than having an anchor with a shoulder missing or only seeing part of a graphic in the monitor.
One important thing to keep in mind: These are just freeze frames.
In the actual video, Todd moved his hand towards himself, so we lost the hand in high definition. While in the first example, the floor director was waving his hand across to camera two. As such, if you were really looking for it, you would have only seen his hand briefly.
That doesn't excuse anything. We need to try to shoot the shots as cleanly as possible for both standard and high definition. At the same time, by showing these pictures, I hoped that I've illustrated that it can be a challenge to shoot for both looks.
Once February 2009 rolls around, we won't have this problem anymore. Everyone will be in high definition!
posted by Scott Rubens at
4:55 PM
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