19 December 2011

25 Wonderful Things No.19

There's something genuinely gratifying about how being a UK Doctor Who fan in the 1970s and 1980s led to so many people (myself included) having a fascination with the production and history of homegrown television.

Monday 19th December


Movie-goers refer to it primarily as "bluescreen", the television industry at large knows it as "chromakey", but we True Believers and BBC-junkies know and love it as "CSO" (that's Colour Separation Overlay, to you).

And did it change the face of broadcasting?

Oh yes, indeed.

Now a common tool for every idiot with a camera and digital editing facilities, the blue and yellow hues of yesteryear have been replaced by a more digital-camera friendly green. (Blue is the colour of choice for film due to emulsion considerations, I was delighted to learn today!).

I wonder if any of the once-pubescent Who fans that are now industry movers and shakers in adulthood remember with fondness the yellow fringes that seemed to permanently surround Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker like Ready-Brek style secular halos?

Of course they do, and for that I am glad.  

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