a British cardiac arrest scenario....

I work in advertizing which means unrealistic deadlines with no margin for error. One of the scariest moments I have encountered is luminance flash. It'll kill ya. It comes right out of the blue and strikes hard - in the UK it is called failing the Harding test. My question, aside from instinct is there a way of detecting luminance flash without having to pay the extortionate cost and difficulty in obtaining the wrath of 'The Harding Test'. I know in America broadcasters don't bother as much but Auntie Beeb bothers a great deal. I there was a plug in I'd be the first in line. Cheers Phil UK

Did you try Range Check > Excess Luma and Excess Chroma?

Or you could run it through Color, which lets you set and clamp levels.


hth,
Clay

Cheers Clay, is Range Check on FCP 6? I have not heard of it, I am running FCP 5.1.4 on a mac pro which also means I don't run Color. It is a weird one. It was Jude Cotter who explained to me how to sort of fix the problem, I just wish there was some way to detect it.

Clay I found Range Check (I'm a dolt)...I will mess around with it. Hey who knows.

Won't do you much good as far as the Harding test goes...

5.1.4 comes with scopes that move when the video plays. That's more help than range check which switches off when the video plays (of course it does, how else do you expect to see video?) .

After color correction, you could try dropping in the Broadcast Safe filter set to either conservative or extremely conservative.

Does'nt work in this case...

THe "Harding Test".

As I understand it, this test is designed to detect the "pulsing" of light (luminence) that may trigger seizures in any suseptible viewer. Therefore, any of the "limiters", scopes, etc. mentioned above will be of no help.

What you need is someone to say, "Hey, that's cut too fast! Slow it down". No automatic process that I know will do that.

Mark

Mark is right here.

Luminance isn't the problem, it is the closeness of the flashes. I believe that anything more than 3 flashes a second can cause epileptic seizures among viewers. Press conferences with lts of flash photography, film premier exterior celeb arrivals etc are good examples of what will fail.

Take a look :- [www.hardingfpa.com]

A plugin might be tricky as you will have to compare everything in time, so basically loading a whole clip in to analyse.

There is a standalone machine that does the test which broadcasters and some facility houses have, but it is quite expensive for what it does. I do know of a company that was thinking of offering a 'FTP Harding Test' where you would upload your commercial and then get an email report back, but I don't think they have progressed with the idea.

Peter

[www.peterwiggins.com]

Thanks guys, the Harding test is costly and time consuming and complicated to understand...it suppose it can flashes or fast cuts, we had a problem with a bright motion graphic that when it cleared the screen left a gap of 8 frames then kicked into another graphic. We had to take the color down and put fades on each end and that solved the problem. It took 4 Harding tests before it was OK at a cost of over £1000. The problems we have had have been fast, colorful motion GFX.

Interesting, learned something new today. I thought it was mostly a function of luminance rather than frequency, sorry if I chimed in too hastily. Just curious now, how does your Auntie Bee deal with broadcasting something like the Bourne Identity (about as fast paced as anything can get)? Or are they just biting the hand that feeds them by picking on the advertisers again? I had them turn down a commercial once because a motorcylce sound effect in the background was deemed too aggressive. Pretty absurd stuff.

Clay

ClayC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Just curious now, how does your Auntie
> Bee deal with broadcasting something like the
> Bourne Identity (about as fast paced as anything
> can get)?

They are more relaxed about the harding test when it comes to airing any big Hollywood number or bought in big budget programming. The other getout is for the continuity announcer to say "The following programme contains flash photography etc...."

Peter


[www.peterwiggins.com]

It is so hard to calibrate...I have seen the Bourne films on the BBC (auntie Beeb) so I dont think is is fast cutting. I have checked the info available, Jude Cotter was really helpful on this and knew the language but I guess there is no cheap and easy way of knowing until you in trouble.

That's right, it is always on news reports and trash morning TV. In my line it is a lot more of a nightmare because commercials go through what is known as the BACC who decide on whether titles are on long enough, line height, Harding test and whether content is fit for pre watershed programing. What is infuriating about the BACC is that they simply fail your ad telling you "It failed the Harding test." No what bit failed? Why? Not a peep. It is then up to the production company to find a place that does the test and pay them lots of money then it is down to the likes of me to figure it out. A nightmare to say the least.

I have wondered how Stars can handle all the Flashes from still cameras -

I cant see a thing after just one or 2 flashes --I bet it is really bad for eyes -
Maybe this is why they are called Stars --Jay--

Ps
the army has some type of light weapon that works with flashes

What is the back story behind the standard for flashing in the UK? Was there at some time a rash of epileptic seizures at some point in the past?

Is there a similar standard in other parts of the world?

Are tens of thousands of Americans collapsing during primetime, unloved and forgotten by the US media? Or worse is there a segment of potential viewers who are banished to the internet, radio and books unable to enjoy the commercials the rest of us take for granted?

Is there a generation of British editors raised to avoid the fast cut montage? How does one spice up a boring corporate presentation opening on the other side of the pond?

-Vance

Well you know us Vance... we like a leisurely approach to the art of cutting a tease... 12 second shots with nice 75 frame dissolves.

As I understand it, the photo-epilepsy debate (whereby flashing images on TV can cause epileptic seixures) got into full swing after a certain episode of Pokemon (animation) series was broadcast in Japan.

After the first airing several people reported having seizures.

When this news was reported in the PrimeTime news bulletins, with a sample clip, the number of seizures multiplied dramatically!

Harding has refined this to include luminance changes and patterns that may cause a similar effect. No US show I have worked on has ever given a hoot about this. One day someone'll sue them and then they'll react. Maybe - more likely pay then off

T

Here's a solution for around 12,000 pounds.

[www.hardingfpa.com]

Some good info there on Harding stuff in general, too. Apparently the 2012 London Olympics logo is causing fits all over the joint.

And yes, 12 grand is a lot, but if you keep getting pulled up and have no idea how to fix it other than guessing and trying again, at an average cost of 1000 pounds per commercial, you'd recoup your money fairly quickly. Also, you could start offering harding tests as a service, and make it cheaper for all the others out there suffering the same problems, while earning back the cost of the gear.