Post by Roderick StewartOn Wed, 6 Oct 2021 09:04:32 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Mark CarverPost by Mark CarverPost by TweedOften a verbal warning is given in the news that the next item contains
some flash photography. Now I understand why the warning needs to be given.
But why cant modern processing drop the frames that contain the offending
flash (and perhaps interpolate the missing frames from the neighbours)?
There's an awful lot of bedtime reading and internet 'rabbit holes' on
this topic.
The UK has the world's strictest measures regarding flashing images on TV
Start here
https://www.hardingtest.com/index.php?page=pse
Thanks. Ive had a look through that site, but unless Ive missed
something, it doesnt answer my question as to why flash photography cant
be electronically eliminated from news video.
Well there's no technical reason why it can't be, there's just the
matter mentioned by others that on news footage you risk 'influencing'
what's being reported, and on light entertainment shows, you're
tampering with someone's artistic masterpiece !
For light entertainment it is surely banned anyway, as programmes have to
be certified free of such effect? For news footage you are effectively
preventing those who are prone to flash photography issues from watching
that segment, which is a tad discriminatory?
A function or adaptor for the TV sets of those who consider themselves
troubled by this would be a more appropriate place to implement any
deliberate distortion of news footage. Then those who were watching
the distorted footage would know they were, because they'd chosen to
do it themselves. This would be much better than having your view
distorted by someone else, perhaps without your knowledge.
If you're concerned about discriminating against those with "flash
photography issues", what about the routine attempts to "protect"
those with "word issues" or "idea issues" by preventing the use of
particular words or expressions, or the inclusion of particular ideas?
Do you think it's more discriminatory to do this, or not to do it?
Rod.
Photosensitive reaction is a well documented condition, ie hard fact. The
other issues you raise boil down to matters of opinion. I hardly think that
suppressing flash photography in a news report alters the meaning in any
significant way. It’s orders of magnitude below how the meaning is altered
(for good or ill) by the editing process and the journalistic voice over.
(Please don’t start another BBC bashing or Brexit thread, they are getting
tedious….). Pre preprepared programmes have to be certified free of these
issues, so for example, a week old news documentary couldn’t carry flash
photography (if I understand the rules correctly). It’s only near real time
stuff that escapes this process.