As stated in the subject. Am watching S1E9 The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization. It is clearly not filmed the same way as every other episode I’ve seen. Is this a one-episode thing?
According to Wkipedia the only broadcast format they list is 1080i HD. This means that *none *of the episodes were ‘filmed’, but that they were in fact all videotaped. But I know what you’re asking, the ‘film vs. videotape’ question comes up often here. I watched the beginning of that episode on YouTube and it doesn’t look any different to me.
BTW, whereas before some shows were taped vs filmed, with the advent of HD video they’re all shot on video now, including single camera, hour-long dramas (major motion pictures too!). Because of an HD video camera’s high-resolution and their ability to shoot in 24fps, it is essentially identical looking to film. The only shows which are still shot at 30fps (and in HD) are shows which either are live (morning shows, SNL etc.) or shows which are still meant to look live (Leno, Letterman, all talk shows). This is purely an aesthetic choice, not a technical one, live HD video can be broadcast at 24fps but then it wouldn’t ‘look’ live.
This gets argued about a lot but the main factor in making HD video still look like ‘video’ is upping the frame rate to standard definition’s 30fps frame rate. Between 24 and 30fps is a crucial threshold through which the human eye does, then doesn’t see ‘motion blur’.
Thanks. To be honest, the effect I noticed in that episode stopped soon after I posted. I wonder if that scene had lighting or some other technical issue?
Was this from syndication? It could just be a crappy transfer or broadcast from the local station.
Yes, it was in syndication.