Can you tell the difference between 'film' and 'videotape'?

[UnquietDad]

I just wondered. A friend who watches "Holby" (I don't) said that they have started "filmizing" the videotape as they once did to "Casualty" and "Brookside", and that it looks awful. He added that, when he tried to point this problem out to his wife, she didn't have a clue what he was going on about.

So is this a male-female thing?? My DW can't see it either. It is as if some people are "tuned in" to teelvisual grammar and others are not.

Videotape is smoother-looking and most soaps and sitcoms are made on it. Film looks deeper and grainier, and most non-soap dramas in the UK used to use it for location only in the 70s/80s, with videotaped interiors looking very stagey (think "Juliet Bravo") but more expensive dramas used film for everything - e.g. "Bergerac" and "Inspector Morse".

Some things now are very successfully done on Hi-definition videotape which looks as close to film as dammit. "Doctor Who" is the best example.

[millie99]

I can tell-there sems to be a difference in the depth of the pcture. Video looks shiny and flat whilst film looks more 3-D to me. Have had this conversation with my mother who has no idea what I am talking about.

[Twinklemegan]

I noticed the difference on Holby. They've changed the editing style as well.

[LyraBelacqua]

I noticed the difference on Brookside and I didn't like it. It was the beginning of the end for that show.

[filchthemildmanneredjanitor]

i noticed it on holby and i hate it. really hate it. much better on video.

[UnquietDad]

A lot of people of older generation don't. It's interesting - my mother calls every drama on TV a "play", regardless whether it is a film, a soap, a US series, a one-off drama, etc.

She could put something on and be watching it and literally have no idea whether she was watching a daytime soap or an afternoon film, because the content of the two is vaguely similar - whereas I imagine you or I could tell in about 5 seconds!

[UnquietDad]

They used to "filmize" Hollyoaks as well - looked terrible, really jerky. You could see in some frames that it hadn't been treated fully.

[LyraBelacqua]

Why do they bother? Videotape is fine for soaps.

[Pruners]

Message withdrawn

[ghosty]

My BIL is a camera man/director in the US (close to getting his 'big break' )
He has this camera that he takes everywhere. It is about the size of the old style video camera that you had to sit on your shoulder ...
He says all Hollywood movies are made on them now ... no more big bulky cameras that have to be wheeled around on a sound studio set ...
They are getting more and more affordable now so that is why TV companies are using them now rather than 'staged' sets with the old bulky cameras in studios IYSWIM?
Is that what you mean UD?

[MissesF]

now this is something i have ALWAYS wondered about!!!

yes i have noticed that sometimes when they show a singer on a chat show performing that even that appears different to the rest of the show...is that the same thing?

[Tech]

When brookside changed suddenly toward the end of its life, it became totally unwatchable to me (even apart from the crappy storylines). It looked like a pastel-ized cartoon or something.

[UnquietDad]

I think the later storylines were more of a problem than the picture quality - Max Farnham's secret mistress, anyone...?

I don't watch "Hollyoaks", but I look at it for the totty.

[MegaLegs]

I notice but could never really explain it before - now I can thank you UQD.

[ahundredtimes]

A lot is filmed digitally nowadays and then they grade it, to create the look they want.