The Computer

Computers, now installed in every modern production suite, are used to guide cameras, record information, produce graphics and control operations. The computer stores information which can be retrieved. It is this facility which makes it so valuable.

As individual chips, ‘computers’ can be found in electronic equipment where they are used to control simple operations, while at the other end of the scale they can comprise an array of monitors, keyboards, palettes, mice, external links and so on.

Typical of the upper range is the equipment used to create graphics and animations. Requiring none of the usual artists’ tools it enables even those who cannot draw to produce elaborate pictures, artwork and printed captions.

In the technical suite there are computer-based devices which when fed with rehearsal data will, during transmission, control the studio lights and monitor camera outputs.

Motion control

For the special-effects designer the choice of techniques has widened considerably. One example is in the use of computer-controlled cameras.

This technique uses computer software to memorise camera movements – including zooms, focusing, panning, tilting and tracking – and to recreate any or all of these functions on command – a substantial improvement on the older methods where the camera operator would be expected to remember and perform all these movements manually. The great advantage of this new system is that it is able to repeat the same movements over and over again with total accuracy and without further human intervention.

Visualise a sequence in which the camera follows the flight of a model aircraft which, in the story, has to be destroyed by an explosive missile in mid-flight. Imagine too that our viewpoint is not from a static camera, but from the attacking aircraft flying behind.

The aircraft would be recorded in a master shot, weaving and jinking to avoid attack. It would then be removed and the camera made to continue its travel. A second pass would include the missile and a third pass would record the explosion through which the camera would fly.