Some people, understandably, become confused about the television series One Step Beyond when they find out that it was shot in black & white and yet they distinctly remember seeing colour... or color. That is because there was a follow up series, also hosted by John Newland, called The Next Step Beyond. Yes it was in living colour as it was produced back in 1978-79, when the networks and television in general had long lived in the chromatic scale, but it was shot on video tape, not motion picture film... hence the "newsy" look to the image.
I watched that series when it aired on CTV (Canadian Television) and was a little disappointed by the video-look, with its 30 frames-per-second motion; which only took away from being able to get lost in that Beyond.
Film is so much better for capturing the "fantastic" or "otherworld". (Hi-definition, or HD, is now used at a frame rate of 24 fps for anything where the given show's producers want to capture that serious dramatic look.)
The 1970s version of The Littlest Hobo was also shot on tape... just killed it for me.
Internet Movie Database entry on The Next Step Beyond...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077054/
3 comments:
I'm always troubled when historical scenes are shot on video too-- it takes away from it. For instance, I was shocked to see that the feature My Dinner With Jimi was shot on tape-- for a film taking place in the rock scene in the late 60s, it cried out for 16mm.
On the flip side-- did you ever see the flick The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler? (More in line, genre-wise, with your original topic actually.) It was a rare theatrical film shot on tape in 1971-- and the smeary video transfer somehow added to the feel of the movie.
"Ripping out" the original 30 fps of video tape happens when you strike a kinescope (which is film, of course).
My dinner With Jimi should have been shot at "24p" video to give it that film look.
I remember watching the television production of Frankenstein: The True Story when it got its premiere network showing back in 1973: It was broadcast (played-back) off a video tape which is what it was shot and produced on. Later, for syndication, the movie was distributed as a kinescope.
Yes, I'm not precisely sure what Jimi was shot on, but the flat lighting gave it away that it was video.
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