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Casualty - Season 22

Continues Saturdays on BBC One (September 2007)

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DB
dbl
r2ro posted:
Surely the idea of Casualty is to have urgency and give you the idea that you're actually there. By doing this silly film effect will just slow it down and make it look like a film, which I think ruins the atmosphere. Also the picture quality generally becomes worse when this effect is used, which can't be a good thing. True it looks good on some things, but not on a drama like Casualty.

Whilst we're discussing frame rates, what's the difference between progressive and interlaced?


Interlaced -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlaced#Description

Progressive is the opposite.
R2
r2ro
dbl posted:
r2ro posted:
Surely the idea of Casualty is to have urgency and give you the idea that you're actually there. By doing this silly film effect will just slow it down and make it look like a film, which I think ruins the atmosphere. Also the picture quality generally becomes worse when this effect is used, which can't be a good thing. True it looks good on some things, but not on a drama like Casualty.

Whilst we're discussing frame rates, what's the difference between progressive and interlaced?


Interlaced -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlaced#Description

Progressive is the opposite.


Checking Wikipedia never occurred to me!
DB
dbl
r2ro posted:
dbl posted:
r2ro posted:
Surely the idea of Casualty is to have urgency and give you the idea that you're actually there. By doing this silly film effect will just slow it down and make it look like a film, which I think ruins the atmosphere. Also the picture quality generally becomes worse when this effect is used, which can't be a good thing. True it looks good on some things, but not on a drama like Casualty.

Whilst we're discussing frame rates, what's the difference between progressive and interlaced?


Interlaced -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlaced#Description

Progressive is the opposite.


Checking Wikipedia never occurred to me!

Wikipedia maybe dodgy by some trolls who add their opinions in, but when it comes to info like this it's handy. Smile
DO
D-O-P
The grade on Holby and Casualty is what lets it down IMO more than the prog scan look - they're doing that dreadful 'crushing the blacks' thing that producers ask them to do without really knowing what they're asking. It just loses picture information.

I make a lot of cheap commercials and use prog scan all the time, exactly because it does make it look bigger budget - but I also shoot for the grade, which means I shoot slightly underexposed then boost the shadows in post, which has the effect of adding information - making more of the recorded picture visible. And most people don't bat an eyelid, they just think it's film and don't question it. Exactly the opposite to 'crushing the blacks'.

Which is another point - surely if Prime Suspect, or Wire in the Blood, or Vincent or any of those dramas suddenly went 50i, people would complain just as much as Casualty going 25p - it's all about what you expect from the programme, which is entirely dictated by the format you first saw it in. That's really all there is to it.
BT
Baroness Trumpington
r2ro posted:
Surely the idea of Casualty is to have urgency and give you the idea that you're actually there. By doing this silly film effect will just slow it down and make it look like a film, which I think ruins the atmosphere.

Couldn't agree more! It's just one of those silly w*nky gimmicks that gets trotted out every time someone says "How can we freshen the look of the show?"
The most absurd use of it, in my view, is on something like the Brit Awards, which is supposed to be a live, or nearly live, event. Once it has been Filmlooked it looks like a souvenir DVD of the event.
SA
saturdaymorning
dbl posted:
Wikipedia maybe dodgy by some trolls who add their opinions in


NO!WIKIPEDIA IS KING! Laughing

But seriously,stop calling people trolls.It's not funny.
JO
Joe
It's not designed to be funny in any way. It's a label for annoying people on forum who are deliberately winding people up.
GS
Gavin Scott Founding member
D-O-P posted:
The grade on Holby and Casualty is what lets it down IMO more than the prog scan look - they're doing that dreadful 'crushing the blacks' thing that producers ask them to do without really knowing what they're asking. It just loses picture information.

I make a lot of cheap commercials and use prog scan all the time, exactly because it does make it look bigger budget - but I also shoot for the grade, which means I shoot slightly underexposed then boost the shadows in post, which has the effect of adding information - making more of the recorded picture visible. And most people don't bat an eyelid, they just think it's film and don't question it. Exactly the opposite to 'crushing the blacks'.

Which is another point - surely if Prime Suspect, or Wire in the Blood, or Vincent or any of those dramas suddenly went 50i, people would complain just as much as Casualty going 25p - it's all about what you expect from the programme, which is entirely dictated by the format you first saw it in. That's really all there is to it.


That's a very interesting post.

River City went filmic over a year ago, and I beleive they shoot using the technique that you describe.

For a while the trails for upcoming episodes had not been through post and you could see how distinctly odd they looked in 50i, but the finished filmic look is very satisfactory.

I'm not sure that I accept that audiences won't accept a change to a programme style, or that their expectation is bound by the way they first saw a show. By that reckoning Corrie would still be 4:3 and B&W.
JA
jamesmd
tvarksouthwest posted:
(and guess what visual change she made to Grange Hill when she was the producer?)

Taking it off the air? That was a definite improvement.

The Holby City effect looks like it's only been attempted half-heartedly - there are some parts of HC which look fab and really big budget and others just look like a cross between 25 and 50. It really does look sh!t.

ER uses the filmic effect and audiences love it - so don't see why Casualty should differ.
JR
jrothwell97
saturdaymorning posted:
dbl posted:
Wikipedia maybe dodgy by some trolls who add their opinions in


NO!WIKIPEDIA IS KING! Laughing

But seriously,stop calling people trolls.It's not funny.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29

All hail King Jimbo.
TV
tvarksouthwest
James Hall posted:
tvarksouthwest posted:
(and guess what visual change she made to Grange Hill when she was the producer?)

Taking it off the air? That was a definite improvement.

It might as well have been with her in charge...no attempt was made to follow previous series' high drama. After killing off Judi just three episodes in, the rest of the series was filler material.

Curiously, episodes 1 and 2 were broadcast with standard VT look, with the filmic effect not coming in until episode 3. Yet in the same year, Children's Ward reverted to a VT look after three years as a more teen-oriented drama.
GS
Gavin Scott Founding member
tvarksouthwest posted:
It might as well have been with her in charge...


You're just so negative.

You don't like Phil Redmond or any of the last few producers, so is there anyone involved in the making of the programme you respect?

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