eli5 Why are high/bird eye viewpoint shots in tv so low quality?

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In most shows that I watch, whenever they cut to a high altitude shot of a city (of wherever the setting is), its mostly low quality. For example, I’m watching a tv show “you” and they do high shots a few times throughout the show, and on S1E8 they do one where its night and the quality just seems horrible. Like 2003 quality in a 2018 show. I’ve noticed it a few other times in the show, and I’ve seen similar occurrences in a few other shows, movies, and even music videos I’ve watched, where the “high shot” quality is far less than the normal shots and far less than what could be achieved. Is it because of budget?

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4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There’s a good chance it’s just stock footage that they bought from somewhere, because the didn’t have time to send someone out there with a drone or helicopter to take new footage. TV show production is quite often very rushed and a lot of things get done pretty last minute, so whoever gets tasked with finding that stock footage probably doesn’t have much time or money to look around for really nice city shots, they just use one of the first things they find.

Anonymous 0 Comments

You’re seeing stock footage licensed from a stock house like Getty or Shutterstock. Sometimes it looks great; sometimes less so. 

You work with low res downloads until the show is locked, then you pay for and receive high res quicktimes. I suppose there will be times when you don’t realize until then that the original footage is not up to snuff. I would hope the post team would then look for a new shot, but maybe there was no time left. 

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

As others have mentioned: it’s stock footage. Happens in movies as well. Check out the same car crash in two movies here