What format does Hollywood use?

[hech54]

Seeing this discussion led me to something else that has been bugging me recently:
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=293685

My question is....What format are the film cameras that are used to shoot Hollywood movies?...NTSC, PAL or neither?

Are the same cameras/format used outside of Hollywood....like say the UK or Germany?

At what stage of the production does NTSC or PAL come into play?

[Soltaris]

I'm pretty sure NTSC/PAL doesn't come into play until the video material is reproduced for viewing on a television set (VHS, DVD, broadcast, etc).

[kschang]

Yep, in general they are shot on film!

Though recently some have entered the digital age, but I'm not sure what res they would be using, but it would be astronomically high.

[TBoneit]

Film doesn't have PAL or NTSC

That only happens when the film is turned in video.

[hech54]

My Canon MiniDV cam is PAL...and it's also available in an NTSC version.

So my old Super8 home movies are neither NTSC or PAL?

[LloydAZ]

My Canon MiniDV cam is PAL...and it's also available in an NTSC version.

So my old Super8 home movies are neither NTSC or PAL?

Motion pictures are generally shot of film at 24 fps, not video (except some of the newer movies such as Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.)

You are correct, your old Super 8 home movies are neither PAL or NTSC as they are on film.

[solarfox]

Your Canon MiniDV is a video camera, not a film camera. Film is not video. Video is not film. They are completely, utterly different technologies that do not have anything in common beyond the fact that both, with the appropriate hardware, can be used to record and display a moving image. NTSC and PAL are video standards only, and have absolutely nothing -- I repeat, nothing -- to do with film in any way, shape, or form.

Clear?

Hollywood movie film is typically either 35mm or 70mm, shot and projected at 24 frames per second. 8mm or Super8 "home movie" film usually runs at 18fps. Both are a photographic technology in which the image is stored as a series of still images recorded on a strip of plastic impregnated with photosensitive chemicals; to reproduce the images, light is then beamed through the strip and a series of focusing lenses to project the image on a screen. In this scheme, each frame is stored as a complete, separate image on the strip; there are no "scan lines", "fields", "scanning rates", etc.

Video, as typified by your MiniDV camcorder (or a VHS tape), is an electronic technology stored upon magnetic or optical media, which is reproduced by decoding the signals and passing them through to an electronic display device. In this scheme, each frame is stored as a continuously-varying electronic signal (or a series of digital bits which represent the original electronic signals) which encodes the brightness and color of each discrete point along each discrete scan line, separated by synchronization pulses which indicate the beginning and end of each line and frame.

[guns1inger]

The new digital cameras used by the likes of Lucas et al. are progressive scan 24 fps - basically they mimic film.

Consumer devices are designed to playback on home tvs etc, hence the need to conform to a domestic tv format.

[Two2Tango]

Just a bit of trivia... Remember the bata/vhs era? Up until recently hollywood use bata format for recording (does that tell you something), but is now converting to digital.

[BJ_M]

you might be referring to beta -- Hollywood (and the film industry in general, much of which is outside of hollywood these days) does not use beta for recording -- but you might be thinking of either beta sp or digital beta -- both VERY common formats and much much superior to home vhs or minidv

beta sp and digital beta are used for broadcast ..

digital beta can be converted to HD very nicely

[devlynh]

The standard for Movies / MOW (movie of the week) and series for "Hollywood" is either 35mm, 16mm, super 16 for film. For HD video shot the usual is 1080 24P. The film is telecined to BetaCam/DigiBeta or SVHS (3/4" still used occasionally). The HD is downconverted to SD on DigiBeta.
What is used for the shoot depends on what the final delivery is film or video.
There are many variations for this and as more formats enter the market the less standard things become.
Just remember this as video becomes more and more digital there should be less and less concern about NTSC and PAL.
Just a comment on Beta. The home version, BetaMax and the commercial version BetaCam share only two things in common the term Beta and the transport mechanism. The actual format of video on the tape is as different as night and day.
Also i don't think anyone has shot a feature film on 70mm for 20 years. Its too expensive and causes too many problems. The exception is IMAX but that is another topic best left alone.

[BJ_M]

we shoot a lot of 70mm films -- tonnes of footage .. plus rent out out 70mm cameras in both 3d and 2d formats

[piano632]

Just a comment on Beta. The home version, BetaMax and the commercial version BetaCam share only two things in common the term Beta and the transport mechanism. The actual format of video on the tape is as different as night and day.

Betamax and BetaCam have one more thing in common: The small size BetaCam tapes are the same as Betamax tapes so you can use blank tapes interchangably (likewise metal BetaCam SP tapes = ED Beta tapes). If Sony had been smart, they would have made Betamax machines that used the large size BetaCam tapes which would have been able to hold 9 hours on one tape and it probably would have killed VHS.

[edDV]

"Hollywood", "London", "Tokyo", etc. produce programming for the world market in what are called "production formats". After the program is complete, it is copied to "distribution formats".

Typical Production formats.

16mm, 35mm, 70mm or special (e.g. IMAX) film usually shot at 24 fps
HDCAM SR (RGB HDTV 1080p 440-880 Mb/s, 24fps)
HDCAM (Normal 1080i, 720p 144Mb/s HDTV)
Panasonic's DVCPro Varicam 4-60 fps 1280x720 progressive HDTV
Digital Betacam (480i/576i SMPTE 259M)
Betacam IMX, XDCAM IMX (IMX = editable MPeg2)
Cell or computer stills and animation


Typcial Digital Distribution formats, other than theatrical film prints (for Cinema)
(available in various formats and framerates)

MPeg2, MPeg4 (HDTV and SDTV) to video servers
HDCAM (Normal 1080i, 720p 144Mb/s HDTV)
Digital Betacam (SMPTE 259M)*
DVCPro 25, 50, 100 (DV format to SMPTE-259M)*
DVCAM, DV*
D2, D3 (Digital composite NTSC or PAL)
DVD


Typical Analog Distribution formats
(avialable in NTSC 525/60Hz or PAL 625/50Hz or other formats)

Betacam, M2*
1" tape (2" tape in early days)*
Laserdisc
U-Matic*
VHS, Betamax, 8mm, Hi8

* these formats can also be used as lower scale production formats

...

At what stage of the production does NTSC or PAL come into play?

In modern facilties, everything will be in digital component up to the analog TV transmitter where NTSC, PAL or SECAM is encoded.

For cable and DBS, everything is digital component** up to the set-top box where NTSC, PAL or SECAM is encoded.

For DVD, the player creates NTSC, PAL or SECAM for composite and S-Video connectors. The YPbPr and HDMI outputs remain component to the TV.

** exception for local analog TV channels