The script supervisor works closely with the director and editor, and plays a key role in guarding against omissions or mismatches in the production. Continuity work begins as soon as a finished script exists, but comes into its own during shooting. The script supervisor monitors the continuity of costumes, properties, and characters’ words and behavior—something that otherwise falls haphazardly to director, actors, and crew. The professional continuity supervisor’s note taking culminates in one or more sheets per camera setup. These records provide guidance during the shoot and are used intensively by the editor.

SCRIPT BREAKDOWN

A close reading of the script yields a list of locations and of people in the first breakdown. Very important are their names, characteristics, physical attributes, overt action (as opposed to action offscreen or implied in the past), and their entries and exits.

CHRONOLOGY

The script supervisor makes a chronology for the story that, at the very least, will have time lapses. If the story is told out of order, or has flashbacks or flash-forwards, this may have profound consequences for the age or condition of the characters, and thus for their makeup and costuming. Continuity must at all times know where the story is, spatially and temporally, as well as what has befallen the characters before we see them and where they go afterward. The chronology is key to keeping track of all this, and will be measured off in minutes, hours, days,or years—whatever the story calls for. If the story is set in four days, the main unit will be Day One, Day Two, Day Three, and Day Four, and each scene will be specified by time within the day. Other key temporal and spatial aspects are day or night, and interior or exterior.

PLANNING THE SHOOT

As coordinator for many important details, the script supervisor gets specifics from wardrobe, props, and makeup, and makes sure the production manager has the right details for each scene. The production office will issue the daily call sheet. This list of personnel is handed to everyone who is being called in for the next day’s work. The call sheet specifies scenes, actors, costuming, properties, equipment, transport to locations, and any other special provisions.

TYPES OF CONTINUITY

Continuity implies the simple match of details from one scene to the next, but if a chronologically late scene precedes an earlier one, continuity must be back-matched to preserve the logic of compatibility. There is also direct and indirect continuity: Direct continuity is when one shot or one scene follows another. A character cannot change jackets while stepping from one room to another, for instance. Indirect continuity is that between scenes separated by time or other scenes. If a man goes carousing and we next see him many hours later, this is indirect continuity. Although he is in the same clothes, they are now rumpled and stained, and his face shadowed with stubble. During parallel storytelling, we might intercut two stories, so indirect continuity must hold good in all the A segments and all the B segments.

WARDROBE AND PROPERTIES OVERSIGHT

The script supervisor must know wardrobe details from scene to scene, and keep a hawk eye on costumes, hair, makeup, and properties. There are three classes of property:  Hand props, such as a comb or diary, which the characters handle. Stage props, such as a lava lamp or princess bed, which are part of an environment and may be related to one of the characters. Breakaway props, such as a pottery figure or a foam cup, which get broken or used up in some way (and for which replacements must be on hand for subsequent takes).

The continuity supervisor must know which buttons must be done up in which suit, and whether the Cuisinart Mini-Prep food processor has its lid on or off. A cake with two slices taken in one scene cannot appear later with only one piece gone.

CONTINUITY BREAKDOWN

The script supervisor must read, analyze, break down, and reread the script until its every need is committed to memory.

TIMING

How long each scene should last is predicted by a page count. One normal page lasts one minute of screen time. Scene length is specified to the nearest eighth of a page. Naturally, a scene description saying only “A montage of shots in Montana showing the transition from fall through winter and spring” must be interpreted differently. During shooting, the script supervisor uses a stopwatch to time every take of every shot in every scene. Master scenes yield the first overall timing. Keeping track of script pages shot per day and of screen time completed lets the unit know its progress. The producer thus gets a warning if the film is lagging its schedule or exceeding its length.

MONITORING DIALOGUE

From take to take, the script supervisor logs all the words that the actors use. The supervisor records any variations that will create problems in editing. Plot information is often embedded in dialogue, so it would be disastrous to settle for a take in which the detective gave the suspect’s name wrongly. The script supervisor may note the relative pacing, subtext, and feeling from take to take.

PHYSICAL CONTINUITY

If a character picks up a glass of wine with her right hand in the master shot, but her left in closer shots, the editor has a problem. Similarly, if a character rises during a line in a medium shot, but after the line in the long shot, there will be another problem—and much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the cutting room. Continuity’s job is to alert everyone to continuity lapses and to inconsistencies in camera movements or timing, and to know what options exist as alternatives. This means being very prepared and very observant, all the time. Taking digital snaps of characters or sets before and after each take helps keep tabs on what people wore, how they wore it, and how their hair looked. Shooting on video makes this less necessary, but it’s amazing how sure an actor can be that his jacket was unbuttoned—until video footage proves otherwise.

COVERAGE

From discussions with the director, the script supervisor knows how a scene should be covered—then, after shooting, how it was actually covered and can be edited. Script supervisors thus need to know editing and dramaturgic structure because both can be in flux during shooting.

BRACKETING THE SCRIPT

Bracketing the master script lightly in pencil shows how the scene will be broken down into shots, and heavier penciling can then record the actuality. Color codings for particular characters, or for their entries and exits, may be helpful, but like any system, must be used consistently for it to work.

SCRIPT SUPERVISOR’S POSITIONING

Normally, the script supervisor sits beside the camera in order to see what it sees, but he or she might sometimes watch a video feed. Often the monitor’s acuity won’t be good enough, or, if it’s an exterior scene, the screen will be washed out by daylight. Events also start to happen off camera before they appear in frame,so the wider awareness of sitting next to the camera is preferable.

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As digital television is becoming the standard around the world, plans to create a universal standard have failed. Currently, three international transmission digital systems exist: Terrestrial Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB-T), developed in Japan; Terrestrial Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-T), developed in Europe; and Advanced Television Systems Committee Digital Television (ATSC-DTV), developed in the United States. In addition, the U.S. ATSC standard actually offers 18 different formats. The FCC refused to set specific technical standards, leaving the industry to decide among the available formats. Digital standards conversion equipment is available, but the equipment is expensive, and some loss in signal quality occurs during the conversion. With the continuing use of digital systems, the conversion between standards has become less of a problem.

The measurement of digital systems is based on the number of bits required to convert a signal from analog to digital. A bit is either an ON or an OFF signal, the basics of the binary digital system. The amount of memory (number of bits) required determines the quality of the conversion and the ability of a specific system to handle the number of bits. For example, 1 second of color video would require 28 megabytes of memory.  To deal with that large amount of memory, most video signals are compressed. Compression is accomplished by using one of several Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) systems that separate necessary information from redundant information to reduce the amount of memory required for any one segment or program.

INTERNATIONAL DTV STANDARDS

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As programming boundaries expanded, television shows and the creative minds behind them grew bolder. Brilliant young comedic minds like Ernie Kovacs and Sid Caesar wrote witty and irreverent material, and used TV’s technology to produce special effects that played with the material at hand. Television was moving away from simply adapting traditional radio formats to new and innovative programming concepts.

Yet with all its creative departures, the technical limitations of live broadcast had traditionally restricted television’s ability to produce and transmit a show from any location other than from television studios, most of which were then in New York City. However, when videotape was introduced in 1956, this invention allowed programs and shows to be first taped, edited, then broadcast from a wider range of locations. This offered viewers much clearer images and audio. Videotape made it possible to record and archive programs; it was electronic, more flexible, and less expensive than film. Prior to wide use of videotape, the only way to record a broadcast had been to aim a film camera at the television set as it received the live broadcast and to film it; the result was called a kinescope. The first broadcast use of videotape was a segment in color on the innovative Jonathan Winters Show.

Coaxial cable, which had originally connected only New York and Philadelphia, eventually worked its way to the West Coast; its cross-country completion was celebrated in the fall of 1951. NBC could now broadcast coast-to-coast over its 61 stations. The same year, the first experimental color TV transmissions were attempted, but were a failure because black-andwhites sets still couldn’t pick up color transmissions. Although CBS had developed a color disk that could be placed over the black-and-white image, it was NBC who ultimately perfected the technical ability to make a TV set compatible. Two years later, the problem was solved and “compatible color” was successfully broadcast.

The technology of television was getting better, faster, and most important, cheaper. As the sales of TV sets flourished, movie theaters and the established motion picture studio system were threatened by this burgeoning medium. Television’s explosive growth alarmed the FCC. The mounting technological and ethical questions hadn’t been anticipated, and the establishment of monopolies was only a matter of time. It was becoming an overwhelming issue, and in 1948, the government stopped issuing any additional broadcasting licenses and focused their resources on the rapid expansion of television as a powerful business and cultural force to be reckoned with.

It took the FCC four years to draft and finally agree upon a statement of principles that would govern television and the standards with which it operated. The political and electronic complexities were regulated by a set of guidelines established in 1952 that set new standards for flourishing areas of television, as well as for future media advances that were then still theoretical.

The FCC guidelines included the assignment of very high frequency (VHF) and ultrahigh frequency (UHF) channels. These new standards for engineering and technology applications defined public service and educational programming, and set channels aside that were only for educational and public access use. It took the FCC over a year to review the various color systems that were still experimental, finally agreeing on one color system that could be transmitted by all the networks and received by all color TV sets.

Cable TV was launched in 1950 as an effort to provide television to homes in rural areas that were unable to receive broadcast signals due to their distance from major transmission towers. As television viewing exploded in the urban American cities, the demand increased among people who lived in more remote areas for both outlets through which they could buy TV sets as well as ways to receive programming on them. Cable TV was able to provide the programming, and television dealerships in rural areas grew exponentially.

The Golden Age of 1950s television saw the creation of I Love Lucy in 1951. This was the first sitcom shot with the now-standard three-camera setup, along with family shows like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Father Knows Best. In 1952, Dave Garroway was the original host of the Today Show, the first magazine-format program. One year later, TV Guide began publication. The country’s first “adult western,” Gunsmoke, began in 1955 and ran for twenty years. The Mickey Mouse Club put ABC on the map as a youth-oriented network in 1955. The teen hit of the decade was The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis with Warren Beatty and Tuesday Weld, and Rod Serling’s sci-fi series, Twilight Zone, aired from 1959 to 1964 on CBS. It also the first network to introduce 30-minutes soap operas rather than the traditional 15-minute dramas, and both As the World Turns and The Edge of Night began airing in 1956. Broadway Open House with Morey Amsterdam was the first late-night variety show, setting the stage for The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman.

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A documentary is defined as a nonfiction report that devotes its full time slot to one thesis or subject, usually under the guidance of a single producer. Part of the fascination with documentaries lies in their unique blend of writing, visual images, sound tracks, and the individual styles of their producers. In addition to their particular contribution to the television medium, however, documentaries are notable because they have intertwined with wrenching moments in history. These characteristics have inspired some to describe documentaries as among the finest moments on television and as a voice of reason, while others have criticized them as inflammatory.

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Born in Helensburgh, Dumbartonshire, U.K., 13 August 1888. Attended Royal Technical College, Glasgow, and Glasgow University. Served as superintendent, Clyde Valley Electric Power Company; helped pioneer television transmission, successfully transmitting image of a Maltese cross several feet, 1924; gave scientists a demonstration of “Noctovision,” a form of infra-red television imaging, 26 January 1926; succeeded with world’s first transatlantic television transmission from London to New York, and produced first television images in natural color, 1928; experimented with stereoscopic television; the BBC adopted his 30-line, mechanically-scanned system, 1929, used for the first televising of the Derby from Epsom, 1931. Recipient: first gold medal of the International Faculty of Science given to an Englishman, 1937; Gold Medal of the International Faculty of Science, 1937. Died in Bexhill, Sussex, U.K., 14 June 1946.

John Logie Baird pioneered early television with the mechanical scanning system he developed from 1923 to the late 1930s. He is remembered today as an inventor (178 patents) with considerable insight, who was in many ways ahead of his time. Among his pioneering ideas were early versions of color television, the video disc, large screen television, stereo television, televised sports, and pay television by closed circuit. But he is also a tragic figure who often worked alone for lack of financial backing and lived to see his technical ideas superseded. He was forgotten by the time he died at the age of 58.

Baird did not select television as a field of endeavor so much as he backed into it. As a teen, he had toyed with the notion of pictures by wireless, as had others fascinated with the new technology. Later, having unsuccessfully tried innovation in several more mundane fields (socks, jams, glass razors, shoe soles), Baird traveled to Hastings (on England’s south coast) in 1923 to see if the sea air would aid his always marginal health. During a series of long walks there, his mind returned to his earlier notions of how to send wireless images. But he was not well trained in electronics, and this lack of basic knowledge often limited his thinking and experiments.

Beginning in 1923 and continuing until 1939, Baird produced a series of mechanical video systems that could scan (and thus transmit and receive) moving images. These offered a crude picture (about 30 lines of definition from 1929 to 1935, improving to about 240 before he broke off development) by means of a cumbersome system of large rotating discs fitted with lenses. Baird promoted initial public interest in television with the first public demonstrations (one in a London department store window) in 1925 to 1926, and long-distance transmissions by wire (between London and Glasgow in 1926) and short-wave (trans-Atlantic from London to New York in 1927). By 1928 he was experimenting with “phonovision,” a means of recording his crude images on a phonograph-like disc. His efforts at promotion and sale of “televisor” devices created considerable controversy among experts as to whether television was sufficiently developed to promote public viewing and purchase of receivers.

For many years, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) resisted his efforts to utilize their frequencies and studio facilities in his work. Under pressure from the British Post Office (then in charge of all wire and wireless transmission), the BBC reluctantly began to work with Baird in 1930. Several years of experiments culminated in a regular daily broadcast comparison of his 240-line system with an RCA-like all-electronic 405-line system developed by Marconi-EMI in 1936-37. Baird’s now outmoded approach was soon dropped in favor of the latter’s vastly superior electronic system.

Baird continued developmental work on color television, now making use of cathode-ray technology, and achieved 600-line experimental color telecasts by 1940. He continued his effort to perfect large-screen projection color television during the war, along with some apparent work for the British military. But his health, never strong, gave out and he died in 1946.

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The best way to determine which camera to use if you don’t own one is to rent or borrow one and do tests. Shoot in situations you are likely to encouter, capture  it, and view the result. If you plan to shoot with additional accessories such as an anamorphic adapter, a dolly, jib arm, follow focus gear, or any equipment you have never used before, rent it too and do a small test. Ask yourself how the camera is to use. Is it easy to adjust and comfortable to hold? Does it deliver sufficient image quality? You want to know everything you can about the camera you’re going to use because you don’t want to waste time on the set when it could be spent for another take or setup. You also don’t want a surprise if gear doesn’t work as intended. It is better to find out before production begins.

Shooting tests are not only about using the gear but also about the image quality. Capture the material you shot and look at it in your NLE or compositing application. Color-correct it and experiment with effects. If you’re happy with the results, you know picked a good camera. Use this time to learn the camera’s control.

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Stand-Up Interviews and Sit-Down Interviews

Stand-Up Interviews

Stand-up interviews are the on-the-spot kind one sees in front of the courthouse. They are cheap in the sense that questions are thrown out, and they are unscripted and unplanned. These interviews are good for a quick opinion or sound bite, but you cannot get the depth in these that you would get from a sit-down interview.

A stand-up interview can be anywhere, but is probably best and more meaningful if it is shot in a location that plays a part in a film, like a controversial location or a place the subject has a historical connection to.

Sit-Down Interviews

Sit-down interviews yield more reflective responses not only because the subject knows the questions you will ask, but also because he has made a commitment to be interviewed and more often than not has something substantial to say. In either interview situation, you have to ask yourself as a filmmaker and cinematographer what kind of material you are trying to get and what role the subject plays in the film. The setting for a sit-down interview is almost always removed from the action in a documentary film. It is in a library, a person’s home, or an office. This artificial distance between interview and action can be useful for pacing a film since it creates time for the audience to pause and reflect upon the film’s action and interviews.

A common type of sit-down interview is with the expert or person who has an informed opinion on the subject matter. Expert interviews are for information and should try to be impartial even though what they say might support or dispute a film’s position. Lectures are a good example of where to get expert opinions if you cannot get the expert to commit to an interview. When framing expert interviews, set these as a medium close-up.

Interview Cinematography Suggestions

• Choose settings carefully. Scout the interview place in advance at the time of day that the interview will take place. The background should be out of focus and slightly darker than the foreground. Spots of highlights can be good, especially in the eyes.

• As a general rule, subjects should not wear white, black, red, or stripes. A white shirt can be blown out and requires careful lighting which might not be possible. Black is bad because there is no lighting and all detail is lost in this area. Stripes can cause moires and other visually distracting artifacts.

• Distance between the background and the person speaking should be as great as possible. There should be more depth of field in video. The background should be out of focus if possible.

• An alternative to the sit-down interview is to have the subject flip through scrap books, photo albums, or historical news clippings. This often adds beauty to a documentary film and adds punch to what is being said.

• Consistency in the look is key. While documentary filmmaking is not as stringent as narrative film, continuity and some level of production value will keep the audience focused. Capturing the essence of a scene depends entirely on where you are in a scene. Understand what’s going on and learn to take advantage of the scene for angle changes (anticipation).

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D-1 {4:2:2} component digital format was introduced in 1986 and has since become the industry standard for uncompressed digital video recording. The recording is made on a 3/4-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette. The maximum recording time for the format is 90 minutes. The format supports up to four digital audio channels plus a cue track. For color correction of standard definition material, the D-1 format is by far the best format to use because it represents the highest quality available and has no video compression.

D-2 format is a composite digital format that records information onto a 3/4-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette and runs at a speed of 5.185 inches/sec, or 131.7 millimeters/sec. The D-2 format has four digital audio channels and supports a maximum recording time of 126 minutes.

D-3 format is a composite digital format developed by the NHK in 1991. It records the information onto a 1/2-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette at a speed of 3.28 inches/sec, or 83.88 millimeters/sec. It has a maximum recording time of 246 minutes. It supports up to four channels of digital audio and has one channel allocated for the time code. It’s a format that is widely used throughout the broadcast industry.

D-5 (4:2:2) component digital format was released in 1994 by the Panasonic corporation. The format uses the same type of cassette as the D-3 format, which uses a 1/2-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette. The format also has four digital audio channels and a dedicated time-code channel. The maximum playing time for D-5 is 124 minutes. There is a high-definition television (HDTV) adapter, which can be added in order to permit HDTV recordings with a four-to-one compression ratio.

D-6 is a compression-free, component digital HDTV recording format developed by Philips and Toshiba. The recording is made onto a 3/4-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette, providing a maximum recording time of 64 minutes. It also has twelve channels of audio along with a time-code channel.

D-7 (DVCPRO) format was developed by the Panasonic Corporation. The format was developed for use within industrial and broadcast applications, generally intended for ENG applications. It records the information using a special MP or metal-particle 6-mm videotape with a maximum recording time of 184 minutes. The format uses a digital sampling ratio of 4:1:1, which means that the luminance information is at full resolution; however, the chrominance resolution is half of what it is in 4:2:2. This is a component digital format that has a compression ratio of five to one and also has two digital audio tracks.

DCT (Digital Component Technology) format is a 4:2:2 component digital format developed by the Ampex Corporation. The format records onto a 3/4-inch- or 19-mm-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette. The format has a compression ratio of two to one and supports up to four channels of audio and a time-code channel. The DCT format has a maximum recording time of 208 minutes.

Digital Betacam format released by Sony Corporation in 1995. As with Betacam SP, Digital Betacam uses a 1/2-inch (12.7-mm) videotape enclosed within a cassette that is specially marked for use within a Digital Betacam machine. It is a 4:2:2 component digital format with a two-to-one compression ratio, along with four digital audio tracks and a time-code track. The maximum playing time is 124 minutes. This format is widely used throughout the industry and provides excellent results for color correction.

D-9 or Digital S format was developed by the JVC Corporation and is a component digital format. It has a sampling ratio of 4:2:2 and the recording is made on a 1/2-inch metal-particle videotape enclosed within a cassette. It actually uses the same cassette shell that is used for the VHS format. The format supports up to four digital audio tracks and the tape moves through the transport at a speed of 2.1 inches/sec. It has a compression ratio of 3.3 :1 and a maximum recording time of 104 minutes.

DV/DVC format is a component digital recording format that has a five-to-one compression ratio. It also supports up to two channels of digital audio. The information is recorded on a special 6-mm metal-evaporated videotape enclosed within a cassette. The format has a maximum recording time of 6.9 hours, using the long play mode with a DVCAM 184-minute videocassette. It has a sampling ratio of 4:1:1 in NTSC and 4:2:0 in PAL. It is widely used for consumer and professional applications.

DVCAM format from Sony is a component digital recording format. It supports up to two channels of digital audio and has a maximum recording time of 184 minutes, recording on a special 6-mm metal-evaporated cassetteenclosed videotape. The format is generally intended for professional or industrial applications. In NTSC, it records with a sampling ratio of 4:1:1, which means that the luminance information is at full resolution; however, the chrominance resolution is half of what it is in 4:2:2. When used in PAL, the sampling ratio is 4:2:0, which means that there is full luminance resolution as in 4:2:2; however, the chrominance only has half resolution on every other scanning line.

DVCPRO 50 format is a component digital format that uses a sampling ratio of 4:2:2 and has a compression ratio of 3.3 : 1. It has a maximum recording time of 90 minutes and supports up to four channels of digital audio. The information is recorded on a cassette-enclosed 6.35-mm-wide videotape.

Digital 8 format from Sony is a component digital format that has a sampling ratio of 4:1:1 in NTSC and 4:2:0 in PAL. It uses a compression ratio of five to one. The format records the information onto an 8-mm-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette running at a speed of 28.666 millimeters/sec, or 1.12 inches/sec. The maximum recording time is 90 minutes on either a metal-evaporated or metal-particle videotape, and it supports up to two channels of digital audio.

HDCAM is an HDTV format that records a digital HDTV signal plus four channels of audio onto a 1/2-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette, with a compression ratio of 4.4 to 1. The HDCAM format was introduced in 1997 and is basically to HDTV what Digital Betacam is to standard-definition television (SDTV). The maximum recording time for HDCAM is 124 minutes.

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8-mm format is a composite analog format. It was originally released by Eastman Kodak. It provides an image quality that is slightly superior to that of VHS. It makes the recording on an 8-mm metal-particle videotape enclosed within a cassette. It supports one stereo AFM and one stereo PCM audio track and has a maximum recording time in NTSC of 240 minutes, running at LP speed, using a P6–120 videocassette. In PAL, the format has a maximum recording time of 180 minutes, using a P5–90 videocassette, running at LP speed.

Betacam is an analog component format developed by Sony Corporation in 1982 and uses a 1/2-inch (12.7-mm) videotape enclosed within a cassette. The format supports a maximum recording time of 30 minutes. Besides being able to record composite video, the format has the option of recording a Y, R-Y, B-Y component signal and supports up to two channels of audio and a timecode track. This format has become extremely popular for electronic news gathering (ENG) applications.

Betacam SP (Superior Performance) format released by Sony Corporation in 1987. The format supports videocassettes with a longer running time than Betacam. As with its Betacam counterpart, Betacam SP uses 18 Video Color Correction for Nonlinear Editors a 1/2-inch (12.7-mm)-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette. The format supports a maximum recording time of 90 minutes and has four channels of audio, two of which are FM tracks, which provide high-quality audio reproduction. The change from Betacam to Betacam SP saw the format evolve from being used for news-gathering applications and industrial use to being widely used within the postproduction industry.

Betamax is an analog videocassette format intended for consumer use that was originally developed by Sony. It utilizes a half-inch (12.5-mm) ferro-chrome videotape enclosed within a cassette. It supports up to two channels of audio and has a maximum recording time of 300 minutes in NTSC. The maximum recording time in PAL is 215 minutes.

Hi-8 format is an analog format that can receive a video input in composite or Y/C mode, which separates the chrominance and luminance information. It was introduced by Sony in 1989. It records the information onto an 8-mm-wide metal-evaporated cassette-enclosed videotape. It is basically a consumer format; however, it is sometimes used for professional applications. The format has a maximum recording time of 240 minutes in NTSC, running at LP speed, using a P6–120ME videocassette. In PAL, the maximum recording time is 180 minutes in LP mode, using a P5–90ME videocassette.

S-VHS format utilizes a special high-energy videotape and provides superior resolution over its VHS counterpart by receiving the input video in Y/C mode, which separates the chrominance from the luminance information. The use of the Y/C input signal significantly improves the color reproduction. The format has a maximum recording time of 480 minutes, using an ST-160 videocassette running at EP speed in NTSC. The maximum recording time in PAL is 480 minutes at LP speed, using an SE-240 videocassette.

U-Matic or 3/4-inch format as it’s sometimes known, is essentially an industrial format released in 1968 and has been widely used throughout the production and postproduction industry due to its compact size and quality. It was widely used within the news business for field ENG. It records using a 3/4-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette and has a maximum recording time of 75 minutes. The U-Matic format is a composite analog video format that has two audio tracks, one of which is frequently used for the time code. In order to maintain superior color rendition, the chrominance and luminance information is separated during recording and restored during playback. There are also certain professional models that have their own dedicated time-code channel, which is known as “address track time code.”

VHS is a consumer format that records an analog composite signal along with two channels of audio. The format records using a 1/2-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a specially designed cassette. There are three speeds available. These are: 1.94 inches per second (known as SP or standard play), which yields the best results; LP (long play) mode, which records at 0.66 inches/sec; and finally, SLP (super long play), which records at 0.44 inches per second. The best quality is of course achieved when using the SP mode. The format has a maximum recording time of 320 minutes in LP mode, using a T-160 videocassette in NTSC, and 600 minutes using an E-300 in PAL at LP mode.

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When you are making a low budget movie, it is important to realize that not everything is going to be perfect. You may have a vision for how you see your film, but if you’re not willing to compromise, it is unlikely that you will were be able to finish anything. Instead of giving up, use your creativity to come up with acceptable compromises and workarounds for your problems. It is your creativity that got you here, and it is your creativity that will allow you to finish it.

2. Fix It in Post

A common joke in Hollywood is to use the term “we will fix it and post”. It is very easy during filming to settle for bad sound, or other mistakes, and assume that they can be fixed during post-production. However, once you get into post-production, you will most likely hate yourself for making those decisions. Take the time to do it right the first time, or you could waste hours of your time trying to “fix it and post”.

3. We Are Friends, We Don’t Need Contracts

It is easy to partner with your friends to make a movie, but a common mistake, is not getting things in writing. I can’t tell you how many horror stories I’ve heard about film makers who have had falling outs with their friends, leading to legal nightmares during distribution. Before you shoot anything, always make sure that everyone is in agreement about their involvement, and get it in writing. If you don’t, be prepared for trouble down the road.

Original source and author from James Sosa’s articel

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