Fade>Fade:
The act of dissolving a video picture to either a color, pattern or titles. Fading a video image is often used as an artistic tool in video productions, most commonly seen as a fade to black. In audio, there is a decrease in the sound level until it is no longer audible. Audio fading is often used in conjunction with video fading causing the sound and image to fade simultaneously. (See Audio-Follow-Video.)

Fiber Optics:
Fiber-optic technology involves sending laser light pulses across glass strands to transmit digital information. While each strand is about the thickness of a human hair, it has nearly unlimited capacity. Bundled in protective sheathing about the diameter of a human thumb, fiber can carry more information than copper cable the diameter of a utility pole.

Field>Field:
One-half of a complete television picture consisting of one complete vertical scan of the video image containing 262.5 line for NTSC and 312.5 lines for PAL. Two fields make up a complete television picture frame. The first field of a frame contains all the odd numbered lines, and the second field contains all of the even numbered lines. (See Interlacing.)

Fielding:
Refers to the size of the area on the artwork which falls within the sight of the camera. Thus, a 12 field is roughly 12 inches across and a 9 field is 9 inches across. Even though a drawing or cel may be of a standard 12 or 16 field size, the camera may have been zoomed in to a 8 or 9 field, focusing on a tighter area of the artwork, eliminating the outer margins of the sheet. Most early pictures conformed to a squarish rectangular field referred to as the Academy Format. Later films, which were shot in widescreen or Cinemascope had a more rectangular active area.

Field, 12:
An industry standard size for cels, backgrounds and drawings, measuring roughly 10 1/2" by 12 1/2".

Field, 16:
An industry standard size for cels, backgrounds and drawings, measuring roughly 12 1/2" by 16 1/2".

Fielding: Panning Shots:
Wider cels, backgrounds and drawings were used in moving camera shots. Pans were often referred to as a 12 field double pan (10 1/2" by 25") or a 16 field (12 1/2" by 24 1/2"). In films shot in Cinemascope or Technirama (like Lady & the Tramp or Sleeping Beauty), panning cels were used in many scenes to accomodate the wider fields needed for the widescreen process.

Fieldrate>Field Rate:
The rate at which fields are displayed (measured in Hz). This is double the frame rate, since there are two fields per frame.

Filllight>Fill Light:
Fill lights, commonly referred to as "scoops," provide a soft-edged field of light used to provide additional subject illumination to reduce harsh shadows or areas not highlighted by the key light.

Film Chain:
Projectors, multiplexors and cameras, connected for the purpose of transferring film to video.

Filtering:
A process used in both analog and digital image processing to reduce bandwidth. Filters can be designed to remove information content such as high or low frequencies, for example, or to average adjacent pixels, creating a new value from two or more pixels.

Flicker>Flicker:
A strobing picture artifact, similar to an old-time movie effect, mainly related to vertical syncs and video field display rates. Some flicker normally exists due to interlacing, but is more apparent in 50 Hz systems (PAL) and when converting film (24 fps) to video (30 fps). Flicker may also be a problem when static computer images are transferred to video.

Flip:
Special effect in which the picture is either horizontally or vertically reversed.

Flying Erase Head:
Facilitates smooth, seamless edits whenever the camcorder recording begins. Without a flying erase head, a video "glitch" may occur at scene transitions. The erase head is mounted on the spinning (flying) video head drum.

FM:
Frequency Modulation. Frequency modulation is a process used for radio (FM broadcast) and television audio transmission and videotape recording. A low frequency (program) signal modulates (changes) the frequency of a high frequency RF carrier signal (causing it to deviate from its nominal base frequency). The original program signal is recovered (demodulated) at the receiver. This system is extensively used in broadcast radio transmission because it is less prone to signal interference and retains most of the original signal quality. In video, FM is used in order to record high quality signals on videotape.

Format:
A variety of formats are used to record video. They vary by tape width: (8mm, 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, 1 inch), signal form: (composite, Y/C, component), data storage type (analog or digital) and signal standard (PAL, NTSC, SECAM).

FPS:
Frames Per Second. The number of images contained in a single second of a moving picture. Thirty FPS is considered full-motion video. Many proprietary digital video technologies produce only 15 FPS video. Film is 24 FPS, NTSC is 30 FPS and PAL/SECAM is 25 FPS.

Fractals:
Along with raster and vector graphics, a way of defining graphics in a computer. Fractal graphics translate the natural curves of an object into mathematical formulas, from which the image can later be constructed.

Frame>Frame:
A single, complete picture in video or film recording. A video frame consists of two interlaced fields of either 525 lines (NTSC) or 625 lines (PAL/SECAM), running at 30 frames per second (NTSC) or 25 frames per second (PAL/SECAM). Also used to describe the total visible area of a video image.

Frame Grabber:
A device that "captures" and potentially stores one complete video frame. Also known as Frame Storer.

Framerate>Frame Rate:
The speed at which video images are displayed.

Framesync>Frame Synchronizer:
A digital electronic device which synchronizes two or more video signals. The frame synchronizer uses one of its inputs as a reference and genlocks the other video signals to the reference's sync and color burst signals. By delaying the other signals so that each line and field starts at the same time, two or more video images can be blended, wiped and otherwise processed together. (A TBC takes this a step further by synchronizing both signals to a stable reference, eliminating time base errors from both sources.)

Freeze:
Special effect in which the picture is held as a still image. It is possible to freeze either one field or a whole frame. Freezing one field provides a more stable image if the subject is moving, however, the resolution of the video image is half that of a full frame freeze. Digital freeze frame is one special effect that could be created with a special effects generator or a TBC.

Frequencyresponse>Frequency Response:
A measure of the quality of reproduction of various frequencies (audio and video) by a circuit or device. If the frequency response of a video processor is adequate, there is no deterioration in image quality at the bandwidth extremes. For video, the NTSC broadcast bandwidth is 4.2 MHz and the PAL broadcast bandwidth is 5.5 MHz. For audio, full bandwidth implies a frequency response extending from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz or higher.

Full-Motion Video:
Video reproduction at 30 frames per second (NTSC-original signals) or 25 frames per second (PAL-original signals).