The SMPTE Service of Test Films and Slides for Motion Pictures and Television
Pablo Weinschenk-Tabernero · SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal · 1974
The SMPTE through its many Engineering Committees has developed over the years, in addition to about two hundred standards, a large number of test films in the fields of motion-picture, sound-recording and television applications. These Engineering Committees specialize in such fields as film dimensions, projection practices, photoinstrumentation, laboratory practices, 16mm and 8mm motion pictures, sound recording and reproducing, videotape recording and reproducing, broadcast and cable television, color motion-picture applications and motion-picture equipment for television use. Through many regularly scheduled meetings and through a continuous flow of communications among all members of each committee, specifications for test films are developed by a painstaking process, starting with a proposal or suggestion, progressing through as many draft stages as may be necessary until, by general consensus, an agreement on the desired quality and characteristics is arrived at and production of a test film is undertaken.