Exploring SMPTE and BITC errors

As mentioned earlier, the countdown clock counts down 8 seconds as a pre-roll before the movie starts. Errors occur when the film director places the BITC in the “wrong” part of the film. This is the result of an incorrect SMPTE timecode. When the SMPTE timecode is incorrect, then the BITC will display the incorrect timecode and will be placed in the wrong part of the movie.

Note

Here, we’re assuming that the timecode is wrong as an example, but some composers don’t have a problem working with these errors and don’t consider them errors at all.

Figure 2.14 is an example of a window “burnt in” with the incorrect timecode of TC 01:00:00:00 (it should say TC 00:59:52:00):

Figure 2.14: BITC with incorrect timecode

As a result of this incorrect timecode placement, there will now no longer be a traditional pre-roll, with the 2-pop at TC 00:59:58:00. Instead, the 2-pop will...