TV screens and PAL

[FilmUnited]

Mr. Mullen,

First of all, thank you for taking so much of your time to answer so many questions on so many online cinematography forums. I have learned a great deal from your posts.

I am shooting a studio project next week here in Prague. Previously, I have only shot in the States, and thus 24fps and NTSC, and I have only a little experience shooting working television screens and computer monitors.

The shoot next week will instead be at 25fps and I will need to show a PAL television (playing off of a VCR). If it looks a little choppy it is fine, but I want it to look as clean as possible.

I will be shooting with an ARI 435, which I have seen used many times before but never used myself. I have been given contradictory advice from multiple sources about how to properly adjust the shutter angle to cleanly shoot the TV screen. I was told from one source that if I can see the roll bar on the ground glass when camera is rolling I am safe, and another told me I wanted to not be able to see the roll bar on the ground glass... so I wanted to hear your opinion on that and any other general advice for shooting television screens...

Thanks,

Corey

 

[DBXMe2]

Hi, I'm taking a shot in the dark at this one, but by making a quick Google I found out that PAL runs at 50Hz.... and when I looked for shutter speeds I found this page

http://www.panavision.co.nz/main/kbase/reference/hmispeeds50hz.asp

I hope this helps.

DBXMe2

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I haven't used an Arri-435 myself -- it's more used in commercials than features. Once you end up renting one or two sync-sound cameras, the money left over for an MOS camera tends to limit me to Arri-3's, 2C's, etc.

As far as syncing to the PAL monitor at 25 fps, I believe you need to adjust the phase until you don't see the roll bar in the viewfinder. Truth is that my camera assistants always do the syncing, and lately I have had an operator as well, so I haven't physically done it myself in some time.

 

[FilmUnited]

Well, the shoot is over and I got the footage back today. As mentioned by DBXMe2, PAL TVs do run on 50 hertz, 25 frames a second. We are bringing the film back to the States for editing, so we shot 24fps for a better NTSC encoding, but for the two shots with the TV, we shot 25fps. It came out perfect! So, I guess just as a refrence to anyone wondering, if you are shooting a PAL TV, 25 frames a second with a 180 degree shutter works flawlessly.

Corey

 

[DBXMe2]

Awsome man, congrats!