Here we look at some of the origins of gamma in imaging and move on to introduce the peculiar characteristics of the cathode ray tube.
For anyone who’s seen the first series to bear the title, the name Penny Dreadful will conjure up images of occult happenings in a shadowy, late-Victorian world. After twenty-seven episodes across three highly successful seasons, Showtime aired the last episode of Penny Dreadful in June 2016. By November 2018, the network had ordered a successor: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, which premiered in April 2020 and looks very different to its gothic predecessor.
There is level and then there is loudness. Neither can be measured absolutely, but by adopting standardized approaches it is possible to have measurements that are useful.
Twenty years ago, there was a clear divide between how you shot and finished a project for Cinema compared to the typical workflows used in broadcast TV. With the advent of streaming services that provide 4K/UHD to a broad audience the lines are now blurred between these two worlds.
Most film and TV jobs start with some simple questions, as Gregory Irwin puts it. “What is it, where is it, when is it.” In April 2018 Irwin found himself asking those questions of cinematographer Lawrence Sher, with whom he’d collaborated on five previous films beginning with John Hamburg’s I Love You, Man in 2009, as well as the 2019 production Godzilla: King of the Monsters, directed by Michael Dougherty, and the three Hangover films by director Todd Phillips. Sher’s call concerned another Phillips collaboration which would go on to gross over a billion dollars; it was to star Joaquin Phoenix and titled simply Joker.
Gamma is a topic that pervades almost all forms of image portrayal, including film, television and computers. Gamma has become a tradition, which means that its origins are not understood, and it is not questioned. Perhaps it is time that it was.
There are two basic reasons to know the level of an audio signal. One of these is more technical and one of them is more subjective.
Glasgow in December is a place and a time with a particular look, and The Nest is a production which enthusiastically embraces that aesthetic. Broadcast in the UK beginning in March 2020, it was produced for the BBC by Studio Lambert as five one-hour episodes featuring a couple, played by Martin Compston and Sophie Rundle, trying to start a family via a surrogate, played by Mirren Mack in her first leading role. The final two episodes were photographed by director of photography Tim Palmer, BSC, whose credit history begins in the late 90s and includes a choice selection of British television, including Life on Mars, Silent Witness, Hustle, Being Human, Line of Duty, Critical and Doctor Who, and many more.