Ed's View - The "Film Look"

[Ed Milbourn]

As HDTV becomes increasingly popular as both a production and display medium, the subjective differences between motion picture and video originations become more apparent. This is because HDTV reproduces the image more accurately than SDTV, i.e., by definition HDTV is much more "transparent" than SDTV.

The motion picture film image has significantly different qualities than images produced by video cameras. There is not one specific factor that characterizes the difference, but a litany of them. Interestingly, attempts by engineering texts to quantify and precisely define the "film look" have met with dubious success. This is little agreement as to the exact characteristics defining the film image. It is a "you know it when you see it" thing - very ephemeral. Subjective characterizations such as smooth, muted, and surreal are identified with film as compared to video characterizations such as sharp, harsh and vivid.


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