Classic Doctor Who technical question

[Mikey]

Something i've noticed on Classic Doctor Who's is when they film using video tape (which is easy to spot) and there's gunfire, the gunfire disrupts the video making a strobe effect during that scene.

I don't think this is caused by the flash of light because sometimes there is no flash.

The Restoration Team seems to not care about this because they make no effort to remove it or clean it up.

Just wondering, what is actually making it happen ?

m

[Bruce Banner]

This phenomenon is actually caused by sound, specifically the loud noise emitted by a prop gun.
It's one of the problems inherent in video cameras such as the type once used to record Doctor Who.

The critical alignment of the studio camera is disrupted by the physical vibration effect of the loud noise, the usual culprit being gunshots.

It was often resolved by the sound effects of gunfire and other loud noises in TV shows being added later in post production, rather than being recorded live on set.

[Mikey]

Interesting,

Thanks for the info

[emeraldknight47]

This phenomenon is actually caused by sound, specifically the loud noise emitted by a prop gun.
It's one of the problems inherent in video cameras such as the type once used to record Doctor Who.

The critical alignment of the studio camera is disrupted by the physical vibration effect of the loud noise, the usual culprit being gunshots.

It was often resolved by the sound effects of gunfire and other loud noises in TV shows being added later in post production, rather than being recorded live on set.

Man---and here I thought you were just an expert at the science of gamma radiation!

[Bruce Banner]

[Mikey]

Ok, I have another question along the same lines .......

99.9999% of all classic Dr Who's use film for outdoor shots and video for inside shots.

Sometimes this is very striking because the filmed scene are usually way lower quality.

It seems to me all video (even back then) would have been cheaper --- and brought nicer results.

So why didn't they shoot Dr Who on just video tape ?