List of 30p television series shot on film?

[Robert Drummond]

Reading the recent Columbo thread piqued my interest in 30p. Anyone know which if any television series that were shot on film were also shot at 30p instead of 24p? In the 90's, for some reason, I was convinced that most or all American sitcoms that were shot on film (Seinfeld, Friends, etc.) were also shot 30p. Though looking back now, that seems to be wrong.

Edited February 12, 2017 by Robert Drummond

[David Mullen ASC]

Most were shot at 24 fps on film. "Max Headroom" is one of the few I know that was shot on film at 30 fps.

[Keith Walters]

Reading the recent Columbo thread piqued my interest in 30p. Anyone know which if any television series that were shot on film were also shot at 30p instead of 24p? In the 90's, for some reason, I was convinced that most or all American sitcoms that were shot on film (Seinfeld, Friends, etc.) were also shot 30p. Though looking back now, that seems to be wrong.

There were many advantages of shooting at 24 frames per second.

Apart from stock and processing savings, you have a much greater range of cameras and other equipment available, and for release in PAL/SECAM countries, the original masters can be re-telecine-ed at 25 frames per second instead of standards converting the NTSC video.

I remember once seeing a 30fps beer commercial shot in Sydney for a Japanese client. That was shot on Arri 3s with Cinematography Electronics crystal bases. That was the only one I'd ever seen; everything else for NTSC clients was shot on 24.

It really is hard to pick the difference between 30fps and 24fps with 3:2 pulldown; the average viewer couldn't care less.

[Ravi Kiran]

I believe the filmed segments of Kids in the Hall were shot at 30fps.

Edited February 28, 2017 by Ravi Kiran

[George Ebersole]

In the early 90s I remember seeing some experimentation with both commercials and TV shows being shot at 30 fps. My crazy "business partner" pointed at the screen one time and asked me point blank "Is that film or video?" I couldn't answer because I couldn't tell. I think it's always been around in some form, I thinkn it's just a matter of whether the production company wants to spend the extra money for the look.

[Ravi Kiran]

"Larry Sanders Show" was shot on 16mm, mostly at 24fps, but they would switch to 30fps whenever there were TV monitors in the scene. The talk show within the show was shot on video, probably at 60i.

[David Mullen ASC]

I remember a time when people were shooting any blue screen shots for TV or commercials at 30 fps here in the U.S. just to avoid dealing with pulldown when doing composites in SD.

[Justin Hayward]

Years ago when I worked at a commercial production company here in Chicago, we shot everything at 30fps for television broadcast. Then we switched to digital when the red got popular and still tried to shoot at 30fps, but it made the image look more like video than film. Kind of the issue people have shooting and projecting movies at 48fps. It makes me wonder what people that have a problem with HFR would think of shooting and projecting film at 48fps.