On Thu, 2 Oct 1997 12:42:28 -0500 Charles Derry said: >Re: The continuing discussion of film stills. > >What about the use of frame enlargements, or, more pertinent to what I am >now working on, the use of video frames from a television series (in order >to do extensive visual analysis)? Incidentally, although I have all the >shows I'm writing about taped, has anyone already "invented the wheel" >and found the best way to extract specific images from a videotaped show >for subsequent publication as stills? Hi Chuck, This is something I've been grappling with since beginning work in 1990 on a television criticism textbook (shameless plug: TELEVISION: CRITICAL METHODS AND APPLICATIONS, Wadsworth) and I'm happy to report that there are now many computer-based options for nabbing video images. 'Course, there's still the old-fashioned method of setting a camera's shutter speed below 1/30th of a sec and photographing the screen, but I've found that that often results in scanline trouble. But, if you decide to use a computer, then what you want to do is a "video capture." The images you nab can then be displayed on your computer and tweaked to look just right. Later, you send the image files directly to the printer of the book/journal article--just as you do the word processed files. The resulting images look just as good as, say, frame enlargements from 16/35mm film (cf. FILM ART's images). When TV:CM&A was printed in late 1993, it included dozens of captured images. This technology was still in a semi-primitive state at the time, however, and I'm not entirely pleased with the results. Today, even with a fairly rudimentary computer, you can get much better results. You can grab frames with: 1. a high-end video capture board--or even a non-linear video editing system (e.g., Avid, Media 100, Adobe Premiere)--to grab the frames, or 2. Snappy, an inexpensive (less that $200) device that plugs into the parallel port of your Windows-based computer. I've become quite a fan of Snappy. It's cheap and easy to install and you just plug the NTSC signal directly into it using a regular RCA connector. Thus, it'll accept output from a VCR or a camcorder. The only drawback I've found is that it operates on a 9v *battery* (which, of course, has to be replaced periodically) instead of using a transformer, but I reckon a trip to Radio Shack could solve that. In fact, I was just using it yesterday to capture some images from RULES OF THE GAME for a class of mine on Bazinian realism. Check it out online at: http://www.tcf.ua.edu/classes/Jbutler/T340/Bazin02.htm Even with the scuzzy nth generation print on video that I was using, the images turned out pretty decent, I think. (The BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES still on that site is *not* a frame grab.) Thus far, this is the best option I've come across. If anyone knows of a simpler, more effective, and/or cheaper system, I'd sure like to hear about it. Take care, ---- Jeremy Butler Associate Professor [log in to unmask] ScreenSite http://www.sa.ua.edu/ScreenSite Telecommunication & Film/University of Alabama/Tuscaloosa ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.sa.ua.edu/screensite