DV Filmmaking

The Importance of a Well-Calibrated NTSC Monitor

When you’re editing digital video, the images you see on your computer screen won’t match what your audience sees on a television. NTSC monitors and computer screens display colors and motion differently, and they also display different areas of a video frame.

NTSC monitors display a more limited range of color than computer screens. As a result, colors that look really good on a computer screen might not look that great to audiences watching your work on a television. Even if you never expect a television broadcast, the way your work looks on television is still important. If you plan on distributing your work on DVD or VHS, the people you give copies to will almost certainly be watching your film on a television screen. If the colors don’t look the way you want them to, showing people your work may turn into a very disappointing experience. (For more information on the difference between video monitors and computer screens, see Chapter 11.)

SIDEBARDeveloping a Tape Naming Convention

A naming convention is a set of rules you apply to ensure the names you give tapes or files in a project all follow the same logic.

A very straightforward and widely used convention involves numbering each tape sequentially, starting with 001. The next tape would be 002, then 003, etc. This enables a filmmaker to use 999 separate tapes without repeating a tape name. (I don’t know anyone who records that many tapes, but it’s nice to have the option.)

Some ...