Safe Title and Color Temperatures

Title Safe Area and Action Safe Area, NTSC Safe Zone

When shooting and editing movies it is important to keep the action within “action safe” and “title safe” areas, especially if you ever expect to have them on TV.

Safe area is a term used to describe the areas of the television picture that can be seen on all television screens.

Since the early days of television the bezels that surrounded the rounded picture tubes were different from set to set and manufacturer to manufacturer. Standards were established to ensure important picture areas were transmitted to everyone regardless of their set.

On Screen text and any titles should be kept in the center 80 percent of the screen, within a guideline called the Title Safe Area.

To make sure that your audience will not miss any important action in your film, the vital parts of your scene should take place within the central 90% of your frame, a guideline called the Action Safe Area. Why? It’s because what’s outside the action safe area is invisible on most TV sets.

The safe action area is defined as the area in which “all significant action must take place” and the safe title area is where “all the important information must be confined to ensure visibility on the majority of home television receivers.”

The safe action area occupies the center 90% of the screen, giving a 5% border all around. The safe title area occupies the center 80% of the screen, giving a 10% border.

So what’s this mean when you are shooting and editing. Never put captions, titles or credits in the outer 10 percent border around the video. It may not show up on all TV’s. You also want to make sure important action is with the 5 percent border.

Many cameras and video editors allow you to overlay guidelines so you can keep track of the safe zones. Read your help files to see if your software has this feature.

Color Temperatures

Light from different sources can have different colors. The colors are called color temperatures.

Your brain quickly adapts to different light but your camera has a much more difficult time. (Note that fluorescent lights can come in different colors including daylight. You need to check the lamp to find out what color temperature you are working under.)

Fluorescent lights are sort of greenish. Common incandescent lighting is reddish (about 2000 degrees K color temperature). Quartz halogen TV lights are also reddish (3200 degrees K). Outdoor light is usually bluish, (about 5400 degrees K) except during sunrise and sunset. People’s skin looks strange when illuminated by more than one type of light. The bluish light from a window could make one side of the talent’s face look pallid and ghost-like, while indoor lighting may make the other side of the face look red and sunburned. To balance your colors, try to use only one type of light in the scene. If shooting outdoors or next to a window, and you wish to “fill” the dark side of an image with incandescent light, place a 1/4 or 1/2 blue color correction gel over the light to reduce its redness. Thus bluish light will be coming from both sides and you can color balance your camera to make the flesh tones look correct everywhere.

Handling the above situation a different way, you could place a large, slightly amber 85B gel or 1/4 CTO gel over the window to “warm up” the blue light coming in. Thus you have reddish light from the window and reddish light from the interior incandescent lamps illuminating your talent.

Placing a blue gel over a standard tungsten studio lamp reduces its brightness significantly. The perfect solution would be to use studio lights that were bluish and matched the outdoor color temperatures. These are called HMI lights (5600 degrees K). Because none of the light is wasted by filters, HMI lights are twice as efficient as quartz. They are perfect for filling in shadows in outdoor scenes.

In offices where fluorescent lights provide most of the illumination, one could gel the tungsten lights as before, again wasting a lot of electricity. Or you could gel the fluorescents to match the tungsten’s. The most efficient solution is to employ more fluorescent lights, such as the Lowell Light-Array, or one of the Videssence, or Mole-Richardson models. These are banks of fluorescent tubes that can be adjusted in brightness and used to complement the existing office lighting (which because it comes from above never looks that terrific by itself). It is also possible to change the tubes in fluorescent lighting so that the colors can be made warmer or at least be made to match the colors in other lights. You might try Softtube 3200 degree K tubes to match studio quartz lights. Two additional benefits of fluorescent lights: they consume less than half the power (per amount of useful light) of their tungsten counterparts, and consequently require less noisy and expensive air conditioning.

That is why you have to white balance the camera between different lighting sources.

When it comes to light, white light is all colors combined. For an example, if you shine a red, blue and green light on a natural surface you will end up with a white light.

Black is the absence of color. Good cameras also do a black balance.

So, if you show the camera, and it’s electronic brain, a white light, or all colors, and black, the total absence of color, it can figure out all colors in the spectrum in between. Always re-white balance when lighting changes.

When shooting in sunlight you may have to re-white balance between every shot if it’s dawn or dusk, because as the sun rises or sets, the color temperature of the lighting is constantly changing. Clouds can also affect the color temperature of the light.

White Balance Tricks

Get or make a white balance card. Some slates have a white background that make a great white card.

I find that most instances, any white surface (i.e. white t-shirt, sheet of paper, piece of foam core) placed in your key light (whether it’s direct sunlight or an artificial source) is more than adequate for white balance.

I wouldn’t waste money on a grey/white card unless you plan to use it for motion picture or still photo purposes. The most important thing is to set the white balance and then check the color rendition of the scene by eye. It may be necessary to use a mix of light (i.e. some direct sun, some artificial light) to achieve the proper balance for the desired color rendition.

More useful than an expensive white card is a color correction gel swatch book, (samples of gels used for motion picture and still photo lights). I’ve found that you can shift the white balance to a more appealing look by holding a bit of color correction gel in front of the lens while white balancing.

For example, to warm up a scene, hold a piece of 1/8 or 1/4 blue in front of the lens while white balancing. This tricks the camera into thinking your white reference is just slightly bluer than true white and it adjusts accordingly. Now pull the gel away and zoom out to get a look at your subject.

If the scene is too warm, try balancing again with no gel or a slightly less blue gel. To go with a cooler look, try using the Orange gels.

These swatch books are available from companies like Lee Filters and Roscoe, and can generally be acquired for free at pro photo stores and expendable supply houses. If possible try to get your mitts on the larger “Cinematographers Edition” books.

It all starts with your recording media.

Tape Stock

Back in the day, when I was shooting film, none of us would ever consider shooting a project with unknown quality, outdated or cheep film stock. Why would you be any less cautious with your video tape?

Film consists of a backing or binder, basically a strip of plastic that is coated with layers of dyes that react to light and end up, after processing, as your master. Videotape is much the same as it also consists of a binder and a layer of oxide that your recording is magnetically imprinted on.

Even these days, when we are recording the signal in digital format instead of analog the quality of the media can impact the quality of the end product. (Sometimes I think that some of the problems I had with analog could be worked around, but when the digital recording is faulty I don’t have anything to workaround with.)

Always buy a brand name and the best quality tape you can afford. Better quality tape stock is less likely to have an inconsistent oxide coating that can cause digital drop outs in your camera master. High quality tape is also less likely to have loose oxide on the tape that can clog or damage the expensive heads of your camera. They also have fewer damaged or poorly manufactured cassette boxes, or a damaged binder, that can even damage the camera itself.

I’m not selling tape, so I don’t care what brand you use. However I do recommend you pick a brand name and stick with it.

The reason for this is because video tape has a lubricant on it that keeps the heads scanning smoothly across the tape and reduces heat build up from friction.  As long as you are using a good brand name tape this lubricant stays fluid and does a fine job. The problem is that when you mix different brands of tape and lubricant together they tend to become sticky and gummy. This gunk then clogs heads and ultimately reduces head life. It also degrades recording quality because of increased friction.

I’ll talk about memory cards in later blogs.

Protect that tape

OK, you have good tape and you stick to a single brand. Now, what do you do with the tape after you shoot?

I’ve seen videographers shove them in their pockets and keep on working. When you do this the tape is subject to moisture and heat that can quickly damage the tape. If you don’t wear a shooters vest that will keep the tape away from sweat, as well as physical damage, try to find a dry, cool, safe place to put the tape, such as your camera bag, until you can store it properly. See below on proper tape ID and setup.

Always, I say again ALWAYS put the tape back in its storage box. That cheap plastic box can protect the tape from dust and dirt, moisture and protect it from physical damage.

When you get home, you should store the tape in its box, standing on edge in a dry, cool, and dark place. Make sure they are protected from magnetic fields and other conditions that can damage the recording. Try to separate tapes by at least one inch. (Recording tapes have a magnetic field that can cause degradation and anything you can do to reduce these fields will help protect your tapes.)

(Why dark? It’s because dark places are usually safe places, and it’s an old habit from my film days.)

To Black Or Not Too Black

This is a debatable subject between videographers. For many years I have been told by some to black the tape and told by others, that at the best it’s a waste of time and at the worst it will wear down your heads.

For me, it’s half and half. I always black used tapes. I tend to do this in a studio deck attached to a black burst generator, and not in my camera. With new tapes I use a tape rewind to fast forward and rewind the tape before use.

For home videographers, keep an eye out for old cameras and decks at flea markets. Sometimes you can get old cameras for a few bucks that can take the wear from your good equipment. All they need to do is work as rewinds and if they can generate black, that’s a plus.

Time code is the language of video. It’s the system your camera uses to assign a unique number to every frame you shoot, enabling you to accurately log your scenes and find them later without burning out your camcorder’s drive mechanism shuttling back and forth in search of that elusive magic moment. Clean time code is also required by many video-editing applications for batch processing. Even if the application you’re using now doesn’t need clean code, as is the case with Apple’s iMovie, another (such as Adobe Premiere) might.

The best way to maintain time code is to make sure you never start recording when your LCD monitor is displaying a blue screen (some camcorders show black instead). If you were to start taping with a blue screen, then your time code would start from zero, even though you’re somewhere in the middle of the tape. That’s what we call “broken time code.” What you want instead is continuous footage without any blue screen breaks. That way, a time code number will be assigned to every frame.

Because unbroken time code is of vital importance, sometimes pro shooters will black the tape before they go out on location. They simply load a brand-new blank tape into the camcorder, put the lens cap on, mute the sound, press the record button, and let the tape roll for its duration. Now time code has been established for every second on that cassette. No more blue screens! Then they simply rewind the tape, label it, and they’re ready for assignment. No matter what happens during the excitement of shooting, the time code will remain unbroken.

If you don’t have a black generator you can record black in your camera, just leave the lens cap on the camera and hit record.

An added advantage to blacking your tapes, especially new tapes, is that if any loose oxide is on the tape one pass on the heads will get rid of it. Running the tape from the beginning to the end also eliminates and spots where the tape might be stuck to its self in the stack and spools the tape on the reel at a constant tension. Both of these will reduce digital dropouts on your tape and if you get a bad tape out-of-the-box you find out in the shop, not in the field where you might lose the tape and the shots you have already taken.

Name That Tape

Label tapes. Label them by date, order, or make up a system, but label those tapes. When you capture those tapes, use the name of the tape as part of the capture folder. If you’re not using tape, such as with the P2 Cards, then label a file folder with a unique name prior to transfer. You might even consider putting a text file in the folder describing the contents, as this will help you in the sorting of tapes. Some NLE’s such as Sony Vegas (professional version) offer searchable media managers that will help locate a specific file when you need to find it quickly. At the end of the day, if the file isn’t labeled, it doesn’t exist in the digital sense. Computers are for making life easier; help the computer do its job by labeling that information.

Start With Color Bars and Slate

At the beginning of each new tape, slate it with at least 30 seconds of bars and then slate the date and production for at least 5 seconds. This is really important with used stock. This will really help in editing. Also, the tape at the very beginning and end of your cassette will have more glitches and sound and color irregularities.

If you have a complicated edit and will have a lot of scenes and takes it’s a good idea to slate shots and develop a technique you can use through out the shoot. Most often it’s “Scene” then “Take,” but I have seen Scene #3 Take A. (If you make it all the way through the alphabet you are doing something wrong, but if you do just continue with something like Scene #3 Take AA or A2 etc.)

There are some really cool electronic slates available for the iPhone. Check them out.

Another way to establish important tape or shooting facts quickly (without having to press any buttons) is by simply speaking into the camera’s microphone, then go back to being quiet and letting the camera record what is happening.

If you forget to slate a tape or scene, turn the slate upside down and put it in at the tail of the show. When you play it back you will know it’s a tail slate because it’s upside down.

This may sound silly but I have two slates in my camera bag. One is a small dry marker slate. The other is a small dry marker clap board slate. That’s the one you see in all the old movies.

No I don’t need it to sync sound with my Nagra sound recorder but for folks that don’t know any better it’s very cool and adds to the mystique of a shoot. In short it makes it more enjoyable and memorable. If I go into a company that I want to impress I use the clap board and they love it.

The reason for this blog:

I have worked in video production since 1967, over 40 years. When I got my first job at a TV station we were still black & white. We were recording on an Ampex 2" Low Band Quad deck that was bigger than a double door refrigerator.

For field work we were using a Bolex Rex 5 16mm camera with mag stripe and for larger projects a CP 16 16mm camera.

Any straight cuts only editing was done with rewinds and a hot block splicer and glue. For anything fancy it had to go through the switcher using A-B rolls.

I have had the opportunity to work with an ever expanding world of equipment and techniques. I now work exclusively in the digital world and would not go back for any reason.

Many of the skills I have learned over the years are now obsolete. However, I had some good teachers and gave me the best advice you can get, "Look at the thing you are best at. It’s the next thing to become obsolete."

Other tidbits included:

"Kid, there’s always more than one answer."
"You can’t know it all, trust your crew."
"Your opinion is just as good as anyone else’s and even better if you know the target audience better."
"Take the tips you want from me and every other pro you work with, toss away the ones you don’t like. Shove the ones you like in your bag of tricks and eventually you will have a style that’s all yours, made from your experience and the combined training of a hundred others."
"Trust your gut. If it feels wrong, it is. Do something about it."

The one thing all of the talented men and women who took me under their wing had in common was the belief that it is a video professionals moral duty to help train and pass along skills to the next generation of video professionals.

Because of my mentors I made a point of working with young videographer’s and editors on a day-to-day basis and I now understand why my they were so willing to teach.

The secret is that I learn as much from the people I mentor as they do from me. Add to that, these are the people that who will be running the Ad agencies, TV stations, production studios and movie studios in the future. How do you want them remembering you, as the grumpy old coot that didn’t have time for them, or as the guy that helped them along with their career when they needed it. It’s the old saying, ‘Be nice to the people on the way up. They are the same people you meet on the way down.’

So, that said, this section is a tribute to all of the amazing professionals who have taken their time to teach me, (Ben Aycrigg, Lou Gordon, Frank Vaught, Bill Kennedy, Craig Hunt, Bill Peel, Dick Yarmey, Gary Bakman, Bill Vermillion, Joe Myron, Walter Cronkite, Mike Verla, Reed Gaede, Tee Taylor, Chris Schmidt, John Handiboe, Stephen Chavarie, Robin Smythe, Jenn Cook and my wonderful wife Sandi Sawyer, just to mention a very, very few.)

This blog is also a dedicated to all of the the talented young people I have mentored, learned from and continue to learn so much from, especally Amanda Pallay, one of the most talented young women I have had the pleasure to work with in my long and checkered career and Heather Hruby the best Web editor and Internet journalist and copy editor I have ever worked with.

Jim Sawyer

How Stable Are You?:

Over the years, I have spent a good deal of time teaching new shooters how to use a camera. With the current trend to one-man-band reporters, that’s where the reporter is not assigned a photographer but has to shoot their own footage, it always amazes me that colleges don’t teach journalism students how to most effectively use a camera.

The first thing I recommend to them is, whenever possible, use a tripod. It’s always the best way to get a steady shot. If your your camera has built-in Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), it can only compensate for so much motion.

Another problem is that OIS reduces picture resolution. Depending on the system used and the quality of the system, it can reduce the picture resolution by as much as ten percent. In a camera equipped with OIS, the control circuitry does not record the full image striking the camera’s CCDs. Instead, it records about 90 percent of the chip’s area. When you bump the camera, the used portion of the image readout area on the chip itself electrically shifts opposite the direction of motion to compensate for the amount of movement, thereby following the subject of the shot.

Because of this, if you are using a tripod, turn the OIS off. When you pan the camera, it confuses your starting and stopping of the pan as camera shake and tries to counteract it. This can produce some very unpleasant visuals.

When you go to get a tripod, $175to $200 is the starting range for tripods that will be sturdy and offer smooth movements. Be sure to get a tripod with a head specifically designed for video, with a head rated for the weight of your camera.

Also, remember, good professional tripods are tough.It pays in the long run to get the best tripod your budget will allow. I have one I use on a regular basis, that I bought used in the 80′s. it’s an old set of wooden legs "sticks," with a Miller fluid head that was made in the 60′s. I keep it in good repair and it’s a great piece of gear. What this means is, if you deal with a reputable equipment company, feel free to purchase used gear. You can often get quality professional gear at a fraction of the new price, and if you are a gear geek like me, wooden sticks are cool.

Many DV shooters use a simple, compact, and very effective accessory called a monopods. Essentially, it’s a one-legged tripod. They are extremely compact and easy to transport, monopods are an excellent tool to help you properly hold your shots. Another advantage is the because of the weight you can raise it high above your head, tilt the external monitor down so you can see it and get shots from 12 to 15 foot in the air. Be careful not to loose control or your camera could end up in pieces all over the floor.

However, in run-and-gun news or documentary photography it’s not always convenient or safe to shoot with a tripod or even a monopod. So, I usually start my training with hand held techniques. I start by pointing something out across the room and ask the reporter to shoot it hand held. Normally they pick up their camera, zoom in and frame the object, hit record and try to hold as still as they can.

On playback, it quickly becomes obvious that no matter how good they are, the shot is bouncy and would give the viewer a case of sea-sickness.

Next, I tell them to zoom their lens all the way out and then walk across the room to a few feet from the object, refocus and shoot the object again.

It always seems to amaze them that this shot on playback is, without exception, far steadier than their original shot.

When you zoom in, any camera movement is magnified proportionally to the amount the lens is zoomed in. By zooming out, you eliminate any magnification of the shake and end up with a much more stable picture. This is why you always see TV news photographers up in people’s faces.

Grab your camera and go out and give it a try.

In future blog’s we’ll look at lots of other equipment, techniques and skills. Check back each week for a new quick top to make your videos better.

Jim Sawyer