Lower third

In the television industry (especially in North America), a lower third is a graphic placed in the lower area of the screen, though not necessarily the entire lower third of it, as the name suggests.

Lower thirds are most commonly found in television-news production, although they also appear in documentaries and even have begun to make appearances in amateur videos thanks to home-video editing.

In its simplest form, a lower third can just be text overlying the video. Frequently this text is white with a drop shadow to make the words easier to read. A lower third can also contain graphical elements such as boxes, images or shading. Some lower thirds have animated backgrounds and text.

Lower thirds can be created using basic home-video editing software or professional-level equipment. This equipment makes use of video's alpha channel to determine what parts of the graphic or text should be transparent, allowing the video in the background to show through.

Terminology

Video with lower thirds is known as a "program as broadcast" or as "dirty"; video without lower thirds is known as a "clean feed" or as "textless". For international distribution, programs often include "textless elements" on the master tape – these are all the shots to which lower thirds (and other graphics) have been applied, placed end-to-end so a clean master can be created if necessary.

Tiers

In popular culture

See also

References

Category:Television news Category:Television terminology