Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is the duration each individual frame is exposed to light, stated in fractions of a second.

What this is about

Photographers use shutter speed freely; film crews cannot, because every frame's exposure time also draws its motion blur, and blur must stay consistent across cuts. At 24 fps the practical convention is 1/48 of a second — the video expression of the 180-degree shutter. Crews deviate deliberately: shorter for a harsh, staccato action feel, longer for dreamlike smear. Shutter speed is also the flicker lever — against monitors, HMIs on unstable power or LED walls, the fix is often a slightly shifted shutter, not a lamp swap.

A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.

What runs differently here

In planning terms, that means:

  • The 1/(2x frame rate) habit is a convention for natural-looking motion, not a technical requirement.
  • A shot with a deviating shutter reads differently in the cut — deviate per sequence, not per accident.
  • Fine shutter adjustment in fractions or degrees is the standard cure for monitor and lamp flicker.

With TillyGen

In the production plan, scenes with screens or LED walls get a flicker note, so shutter tests happen in prep instead of during the shooting day.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.

Frequently asked

Why 1/48 second at 24 fps?

It mirrors the film-era 180-degree shutter: half the frame interval exposed. The resulting motion blur is what a century of cinema trained audiences to accept as natural.

How long does it take to get started with TillyGen?

A first project takes under an hour to set up. There is no configuration phase in which templates and fields have to be defined before the tool produces anything.

Can the results be exported?

Yes — as PDF for the crew, CSV for downstream systems and through the API for anything automated. The plan stays the source; the exports are views of it.