American Cinematographer - December 1960 - 48

suited in the specification of a recom¬
mended "safe action area" and a
"safe title area.
These areas should
be marked on camera ground glasses
and viewfinders as a guide to the cam¬
era operator. Review room projectors
also should be provided with apertures
cut to these dimensions.
Lighting, Costume and
Set Materials
The ratio of key to fill light should
be a maximum of 2y2-to-l, and the
maximum brightness ratio of scene
elements, as read by a spot brightness
meter, should be 20-to-l or not over
30-to-l.
Within a given lighting condition,
brightness of scene elements must be
controlled by proper choice of costume
and set materials. High reflectance
whites, such as white shirts or white
walls, should be toned down by dye¬
ing, painting, or by adjusting the light¬
ing, so that they do not become an
improperly high "white reference."
Black costume and set decoration
materials should be avoided as they
will lose detail. Care should be taken
to keep good lighting separation be¬
tween dark elements of the scene, such
as between an actor in a dark suit and
a dark background.
Wherever possible, include a
"white reference" and "black refer¬
ence" in each scene as a guide to the
video operator in establishing proper
transmission levels. As a practical
matter, this means that there should
always be something in the scene
lighter than the face, and something
darker than the face.
Avoid large areas of white or black
in the picture in order to maintain
acceptable grey scale reproduction on
those receivers without d.c. restoration.
As a guide, those scenes for which a
reflected light exposure meter would
give an exposure indication equal or
close to that of an incident light meter,
should reproduce satisfactorily. Night
effects should be simulated by sugges¬
tion (lighted window, street lamp, ap¬
parent single source of light) rather
than by shooting almost fully dark
scenes or by printing down ("day for
night").
Large areas of uniform density
should be avoided, particularly if they
are very light or very dark.
Cutting back and forth between
angles where the background is alter¬
nately light and dark should be
avoided. Alternate camera angles

754

should have similar background bright¬
ness.
All the recommendations for refer¬
ence white and black, large areas of
uniform density, d.c. restoration re¬
ceivers, etc., apply to art work and
animation as well as to "live" photog¬
raphy. Art work lettering should be
controlled to produce print densities
within the highlight and shadow range
shown in laboratory practices. Large
neutral backgrounds are best broken
up with "cookies" or given an other¬
wise textured effect, and should be
kept in a range which produces print
densities between 0.70 and 1.0.
Whenever possible, review films on
a closed circuit television system which
includes a monitor without d.c. re¬
storation. Review under such condi¬
tions is the best way to correlate stage
photographic procedures, laboratory
review room viewing, and the image
seen by the television audience.
Laboratory Practices
Television film negatives should be
correctly exposed and should be de¬
veloped to a normal lb gamma of 0.65
to 0.70.
Prints are made on release print
stock and are processed by a printthrough gamma of 1.85 to 2.35, de¬
pending on negative photographic con¬
trast.
Prints should be timed to produce
a minimum density of 0.40 or higher
in any area required to reproduce de¬
tail. Face densities or middle grey
points of interest should be at a den¬
sity of 0.75 ±0.15. Maximum density
of any area required to reproduce de¬
tail should be 2.0 or lower.
Scene-to-scene balance of densities
should be as uniform as possible.
Prints intended for telecasting will
appear somewhat higher in density in
the highlight areas and lower in con¬
trast than prints made for theatrical
release.
The print resulting from the above
laboratory and photographic practices
will have densities which fall within
the usable range of the television
system, and will have good shadow
and highlight contrast needed to
maintain an appearance of sharpness
and clarity under the usually unfavor¬
able home viewing conditions.
(The foregoing recommendations
are covered in greater detail in the
publication, "Laboratory Practices on
Films for Television" available from
the Association of Cinema Labora¬

tories, 1905 Fairview Ave. NE, Wash¬
ington, D.C.; also reprinted in the
SMPTE Journal, January 1958, Vol.
67.)
Composition and Safe Action Area
Closeup and medium shots should
be used as much as possible. Long
shots should be used only to establish
perspective or to cover wide range
action.
Fine patterns or "fussy" material in
costumes or set decoration will not
reproduce in detail and can be dis¬
tracting. Bold, simple patterns are
much more effective. Closely-spaced
parallel horizontal lines in costumes or
sets can cause disturbing moire effects
(interference patterns) with the tele¬
vision scanning lines. Long straight
lines on large circles may not be repro¬
duced correctly as straight lines or
circles, due to receiver scanning dis¬
tortions.
Essential action should be kept
within the "safe action area." Essen¬
tial title informtion should be kept
within the "safe title area." It is
recommended that these areas be
marked on the camera ground glass
and viewfinder.
Color Films for Television
Most of the preceding recommenda¬
tions for black-and-white television
films apply equally to color television
films. The limited latitude of color
film, plus the fact there is no provi¬
sion for contrast control in processing,
make necessary even more carefully
controlled lighting and exposure.
Lighting ratios should be held to l1/^to-1 or a maximum of 2-to-l.
Whites and blacks in costume and
set materials should be carefully con¬
trolled to a 20-to-l brightness ratio.
"Reference white" and "reference
black" are necessary in color photogra¬
phy for TV as well as in black-andwhite.
Even though color receivers have
d.c. restoration circuits, the usual pre¬
cautions against high-key and low-key
scenes should be followed, since a great
majority of receivers tuned to a color
broadcast will be black-and-white re¬
ceivers without d.c. restoration.
Make-up should enhance the natural
highlighting and color differences in
the face. Excessive flatness of makeup
is neither necessary nor desirable.
In addition to the precaution against
closely spaced horizontal lines, which

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American Cinematographer - December 1960

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