American Cinematographer - August 2001 - 104

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In his introduction to this manual,
editor Michael Grotticelli refers to it

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the "ASC

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place. "The advent of digital technology
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aren't shooting with a digital camera and
are not archiving on digital tape, you're
missing out on the immense possibilities
and limiting the future viability of your
about

Placing Shadows
Lighting Techniques for Video
Production, 2Ed
Chuck Gloman & Tom LeTourneau
Covers the fundamental
of
-

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Updated to include the latest in
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DVCAM, Mini DV, and DVCPRO

Grotticelli

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professional as well as the

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NTSC: We Were Shafted," is a brilliant
historical overview of TV technology by

outlines "a

engineer, historian and
judge. From the pioneering TV inventions
of John Logie Baird in the 1920s to the
final report of the National Television

new

TV tech¬

nologies. He also notes that because of
complexities inherent in the implementa¬
tion of HDTV and digital television as
they stand on the brink of widespread
public use, NTSC TV may be with us for
years to come.

The second

chapter, "Going Digi¬
by Joseph Fedele, is a clearly writ¬
ten primer on the basic principles of
both analog and digital video. "It is
important to understand," writes
Fedele, "that regardless of how a 'real'
moving image is stored or transmitted,
its original picture information was
captured in analog form and later
converted to digital." The final viewing

currently

available." Standard-definition and hi-def

produce an indispensable
primer on where the technology stands
today. The opening essay, "The End of

tal"

style

Digital videotape, as John Rice
points out in his chapter on various
formats, "once the domain of the highend, high-budget production, has now

formats

dards in the evolution of

-

of the fundamentals of digital

their relative

January 27, 1941 (which adopted the
525-line system still used today), Schu¬
bin underscores the importance of stan¬

Jon Fauer, ASC

cover¬

conversion.

dards to

Standards Committee (NTSC) issued on

Shooting Digital Video

age

stellar array of writers
conversant with DV formats and stan¬
a

Mark Schubin, an

SHOOTING DIGIUL VIDEO

Winterhalter illustrate Fedele's

become the mainstream, with over 15

work."
-

moving pictures takes place on
those signals in
analog form for our eyes" so that "the
primary reason to convert video from
analog to digital in the first place is to
allow for quality improvements in trans¬
mission or storage."
The complex series of events by
which analog information is converted
to digital is clearly explained by Fedele,
who covers sampling, data rates and
compression standards such as JPEG
and MPEG. Well-drawn graphics and
charts by Marion Gore and Martha
"monitors that present

(Third Edition)
Edited

of

now

in

listed, along with
strengths and limitations.
use are

In "Video Cameras & Lenses in
the

Digital Era," Robert M. Goodman
new

set of tools available for

exploitation by talented directors of
photography." To aid cinematographers
making the transition from the photo¬
chemical world of film to the digital elec¬
tronic realm, Goodman points out the
relationship between film and video
terminology. In an initial section on "Digi¬
tal Camera Basics," Goodman discusses

the

four

cameras,

principal types of digital
the imaging process, charge-

coupled devices (CCDs) and digital signal
processing (DSP). Also discussed are DV
cameras that are currently on the market.
Test equipment for DV is
explained by Gerald McGinty, and digital
audio for video is clarified by Lon
Neumann. As with previous editions of
the ASC Video Manual, additional arti¬
cles address specifics of video produc¬

tion, from storage of videotape to expo¬
sure

indexes for video

cameras.

A

comprehensive "Digital Glossary" is
new

a
feature of this book, which is an

essential field

ing trails

on

guide for any pioneer blaz¬
the DV frontier.
■
American Cinematographer - August 2001

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 2001
