Re: Shadows celebrate 10 years on TV.
Posted: 06 Feb 2018, 13:08
drakula63 wrote:iefje wrote:This footage includes, like many other TV and film material of the past which hasn't been released commercially, a tape/film counter through the image. Why is that? Have the ones who 'leaked' these recordings switched the tape/film counter on on purpose?
It's a Timecode which is usually there to denote the time at which the recording was made. I suspect that this master recording was made at 10 o'clock (probably a.m.). This must have been the time at which all the various elements were played 'live' as it were and the finished programme mixed together and recorded as one programme for broadcast. I think Timecodes were usually burnt into preview/review prints, with no way of removing them.
I'm sure that Ian can expand upon that or correct me if I'm wrong.
The timecode is there to aid editing. For some reason 10 o'clock is the standard start time for the clock on a recording regardless of when it was actually recorded, although I have timecoded recordings of live programmes displaying the actual time.
The timecode will be there on all broadcast quality video recordings and when copies are made, there's an option to switch it in or out. As archive programmes are usually supplied for the purpose of using clips, the viewing copies have the timecode switched on (BITC - burned-in timecode) so that researchers can supply the in and out times of the bits they need to use.