CATEGORY: Video Production

What is meant by 24P and 23.98?

1080i, 720p, 24P . . . oh my!

30 frames, 60i, 25 frames, 50i, 29.97, 23.98.  Somebody help!

Here are links to two in-depth articles on the web that I found that does an excellent job in explaining what all these terms all mean: http://tinyurl.com/ysxs4h   http://www.answers.com/topic/24p

But if you want a quick-read summary, I’ll give it try.  Please read on:

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Effective Writing: Think Like the Fox

The fox turned and stared straight at the camera for several long seconds. Then, apparently judging that we were not a threat, she continued with her main business of hunting food. We kept rolling.

I’ve been filming – or attempting to film – red foxes in my neighborhood for one of my new independently-produced segments for Maryland Public Television’s weekly series, Outdoors Maryland. It occurred to me during my stalking endeavors that pursuing foxes is not unlike pursuing viewers of a media production, whether documentary or corporate, video or website.

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Kaye Lavine, Multi-Camera Directing & the “6 P’s”

March 22, 2008:  Two years ago today one of my mentors, Kaye Lavine, passed away.  I wrote about her at the end of an earlier blog, http://davidryanmediasolutions.com/2007/10/19/the-rocky-mountain-way-an-extra-5-or-10/, and I want expound further on something she espoused.

Kaye was an Executive Producer at Denver’s PBS station, KRMA-TV.  She hired me back early in my career to be Cultural Affairs Producer for the station.  Soon after arriving,  she enlightened me with one her work slogans, otherwise known as the “6 P’s:”  “Proper Planning Prevents Pi**-Poor Production.”  I laughed.  I knew I had found a kindred spirit.

(photo of Kaye Lavine from a feature article ca. 1984)

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“We’ll make them watch it.”

“No one will want to watch this.”
“We’ll make them watch it.”

I don’t even remember the topic of the script anymore, but this was an actual conversation I had with a client that still echoes in memory.  I do recall that the manager was determined to cram as much data into the video as he could, and either didn’t realize, or didn’t care, that his intended audience would tune it out, overloaded into apathy. Important messages would be lost in an unrelenting deluge of instruction, whether the audience – his company’s employees – was required to view the video or not.

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