Maybe someone can finally answer this for me

[Nerdius Maximus]

Older British tv shows(Doctor Who is a perfect example)always shot with film outside and video inside, or at least that's how it looks. What was the reason for this? It's just something that I've always been curious about.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

From what I've heard, there was 2 main reasons. 1. it was easier to edit film than it was video, so when they were on location using film would make it easier to edit back in to the show. And 2. film cameras were easily usable in the outdoors where as video cameras that were were more expensive.

 

[Candlelight]

TV Cameras were huge back then. Getting them out in the field wasn't really appropriate. It wasnt until season 23 that they became mainstream video right the way through.

 

[Stevil2001]

There's a great essay on this in one of the About Time guidebooks to Doctor Who, volume 4, I think.

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

TV Cameras were huge back then. Getting them out in the field wasn't really appropriate. It wasnt until season 23 that they became mainstream video right the way through.

It was being done as recently as the '90s, at least, though, if not later. I guess maybe it's just one of those differences between Britain and America, like football, boot, as well, hospital, etc.

 

[Deckerd]

TV Cameras were huge back then. Getting them out in the field wasn't really appropriate. It wasnt until season 23 that they became mainstream video right the way through.

It was being done as recently as the '90s, at least, though, if not later. I guess maybe it's just one of those differences between Britain and America, like football, boot, as well, hospital, etc.

Football was covered by TV cameras from early on. I still remember the enormous BBC TV OB cameras at footie matches (even in black and white!).

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

TV Cameras were huge back then. Getting them out in the field wasn't really appropriate. It wasnt until season 23 that they became mainstream video right the way through.

It was being done as recently as the '90s, at least, though, if not later. I guess maybe it's just one of those differences between Britain and America, like football, boot, as well, hospital, etc.

Football was covered by TV cameras from early on. I still remember the enormous BBC TV OB cameras at footie matches (even in black and white!).

I was actually referring to the difference in the terminology. Americans call it soccer, the British call it football, Americans say in the hospital, British say in hospital, etc.

 

[StewMc]

One Foot in the Grave is one of the last shows I can remember still using film only for outside shots, right up till about 1995 or so. By the time the last series aired in 2000, I *think* they had switched to all video, I'd be surprised if they hadn't anyway.

 

[The Mule]

there was a Monty Python bit where a group of people were in a house (shot in the studio on video) and when one of them went out the door, they were outside on film, he went back inside (on video at the studio) and said "we're surrounded by film!"

 

[ChristopherPike]

Just one Classic Doctor Who story was done entirely on film. Pertwee's first - Spearhead from Space and that's purely a fluke. The studio workers were on strike at the time. Few BBC shows were done on film, while the commerically run stations had the more expensive looking ones - The Avengers (Emma Peel onwards), The Sweeney, The Professionals and so on, all done on film 16mm or even true filmic 35mm. Like US TV, those were partially paid for by advertising. While the BBC was/is public sector, paid for by TV licence payers only and were on a strict budget.

 

[Stevil2001]

there was a Monty Python bit where a group of people were in a house (shot in the studio on video) and when one of them went out the door, they were outside on film, he went back inside (on video at the studio) and said "we're surrounded by film!"

I love that one.

 

[DWF]

Older British tv shows(Doctor Who is a perfect example)always shot with film outside and video inside, or at least that's how it looks. What was the reason for this? It's just something that I've always been curious about.

This might be helpful.

http://www.restoration-team.co.uk/

Location work was usually recorded on black and white film, mainly 16mm, although 35mm film was also used (more so than it would be in the later colour years of the programme’s life). 35mm film was also the format favoured for model and effects work. However, material recorded in the television studio was a different matter entirely.

A television studio is a predominantly electronic environment, and the pictures/output from the studio cameras during the making of the programme were recorded directly onto two-inch videotape - an electronic medium. From ‘An Unearthly Child’ through to ‘The Enemy of the World’, the videotape used was 405-line. From ‘The Enemy of the World’ through to ‘The War Games’, it was 625-line. There were, however, exceptions to this procedure.

Certain episodes in the sixties were recorded in the TV studio, but instead of the camera’s output being recorded on videotape, the output was instead routed to a film recording area. Here, it was played into a film recording suite, where a special film recorder (running at 25 frames per second, not the usual 24 f.p.s. associated with film) ‘telerecorded’ the main image, in a process identical to the film telerecordings later made for overseas sale by BBC Enterprises.

The handful of episodes transmitted on film should have been sent to the BBC Film Library for safe keeping after broadcast, whilst the remainder of the episodes - which were transmitted from videotape - were never archived (because the library was - at this time - only a film library, not the Film and Videotape Library that the BBC has today). Instead, the videotapes themselves remained the property of the BBC’s Engineering Department, where a separate rudimentary library of sorts was kept. As there was no mandate for this library, tapes were periodically wiped - sometimes for re-use - from time to time. It is important to put these wipings into context. At around the time of any given episode’s broadcast on the BBC, the videotapes were requisitioned by BBC Enterprises, where Pamela Nash (who was a Film Recording Clerk at the time) would arrange for 16mm black and white film recordings (‘telerecordings’) to be made of the episodes, for the purposes of sale overseas. The only episode from the Hartnell/Troughton era not to be telerecorded for BBC Enterprises was the Christmas day episode 7 from ‘The Dalek Masterplan’ - ‘The Feast of Steven’. Consequently, when the story was offered for overseas sale, it was only listed as an 11-part story. (No country ever purchased this story, although the Australian broadcaster ABC did have viewing copies of the films sent to them, before deciding that the story was not suitable for transmission). As a result, no other copy of this episode was made, and once the original 405-line videotape was erased, the episode was lost forever.
Every other Hartnell and Troughton episode was copied by BBC Enterprises, and a full set was held at least until early 1972, as 16mm black and white film negatives (apart - of course - from ‘Masterplan’ 7). Every time a story was then sold to an overseas broadcaster, a copy would be provided in one of two ways. Either a 16mm positive film print would be struck from the BBC Enterprises negative, or another broadcaster - who already had purchased and transmitted the story - would be requested to pass on their film copies to the new broadcaster - a system often referred to as ‘bicycling’. Sometimes, the negatives held by BBC Enterprises would be damaged or unusable in some way, and a second set would need to be struck from the videotapes while they still existed (as happened with ‘The War Machines’ - one set of Enterprises films were struck in 1966, whilst a second set was made in 1968 - on the instructions of Pamela Nash). Only after an episode had been telerecorded, would the videotape of the episode be wiped by the BBC’s Engineering Department. These wipings generally occurred a good few years after the programme’s transmission. There are many stories and theories about these wipings. Some sources tell of a failed safety inspection by the Fire Department, resulting in a policy of destroying the tapes due to their classification as a fire hazard. Other people surmise that the new colour dawn of 625-line television sealed the fate of the stock of old black and white 405-line and 625-line videotapes. No tapes were ever wiped without reference to BBC Enterprises and/or the relevant production department (in Doctor Who’s case, the programme’s Production Office).