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HDTV: The Future of Television
by Matt Hurwitz
As part of its Fast Forward! series, the New Technologies Committee presented its third installment of seminars on the use of High Definition (HD) video, "HDTV: The Future of Television." The meeting, held on Saturday, April 27, in DGA Theatre 2, offered members the opportunity to hear from four television directors, discussing their experiences with using HD in producing episodic television. The directors illustrated their talks with clips from each of their shows, projected for the audience with an HD video projector.
Present were director Rod Holcomb (who also acted as moderator) and producer Chris Nelson, both from CBS's The Education of Max Bickford. The two were joined by Terry Brown, vice president of Engineering for LaserPacific, which handles post-production for the show. Director Jerry London discussed his work on A&E's 100 Centre Street, while Fox's Titus was represented by director Gary Shimokawa and associate director Kevin Sullivan. Director Lee Shallat Chemel and director of photography Victor Nelli discussed Fox's The Bernie Mac Show. Each presented their experiences with HD on their current series, followed by a Q&A session with the audience was held.
Holcomb began by reminding directors to be conscious of their creative rights, noting that those rights extend into post-production. "As a complete filmmaker, we have to try a little harder, stick with it a little longer, ask where the film is going," he said. "When I shoot a story in film, it's called a 'film.' When I shoot a story in HiDef, is it called a 'video'? Or is it still a story?" Holcomb asked. "It's the ultimate result that we want to keep in mind."
Jerry London got his start in the '60s, directing such comedy series as Hogan's Heroes and Love, American Style, before getting into television drama and miniseries (He won the DGA Award in 1980 for Shogun). London jumped at the chance to work with DGA Lifetime Achievement Award winner Sidney Lumet, who was beginning work on the crime/courtroom drama 100 Centre Street in New York, using HD. The two eventually began alternating directorial duties on the series.
London noted that Lumet likes to shoot the show differently than most directors do using HD by using three cameras. "Not only that," said London, "he liked to do it like he did Playhouse 90. We had a truck with a switcher and a tech director, so as we shot the scenes, we actually edited. If we wanted to do it again, we'd do another take." All three cameras were also backed up, allowing a change if desired later.
On the stage, Lumet used two HD cameras, set on traditional video pedestals, each with a single operator. A third camera, a film camera used for the master shots, was set in the center on a dolly, to handle the more intricate moves; the two HD cameras handled additional coverage.
For courtroom scenes, the set was designed with a removable back wall, behind the judge, allowing filming from two directions at once. One camera could get over-the-shoulder views into the courtroom, while another, off to the side, could get one of the prosecutors at the same time. "Sidney just liked the flow of shooting live television," explained London. "I found it fascinating, because I'd never filmed this way before."
Working on a seven-day shooting schedule (five and two), shooting 9- to 10-page days with just six days of prep, Lumet would set his interior lighting by watching rehearsals from his booth, while the DP would observe from the truck, parked outside the stage. Exterior lighting was a little less difficult, he explained, due to the greater latitude HD tape afford a DP in lower light situations.
The HD camera was perfect for DP Ron Fortunato, particularly on tight-fitting practical locations. "We were shooting in Queens, so the houses were very small," said London. "The HiDef cameras were small enough so you could get them in really tight positions. Most of the time, I'd be shooting two camera."
Gary Shimokawa and Kevin Sullivan next showed clips from the half-hour situation comedy Titus. Each episode is typically broken up into three time frames. The show opens with "neutral state," in which the lead character introduces the subject matter of the episode. There are also flashbacks as the story unfolds. These are both filmed using single camera, the "neutral state" intro in black-and-white. "Both of these are pretty much no movement," explained Sullivan. The remainder of the show, the present-day time frame, is shot using traditional four camera.
Nominally, the team has a five-day rehearsal period, though, as Shimokawa noted, only the last two of those five days is "real rehearsal. On the third day, on Wednesday, we record all the single-camera stuff." The following day, the crew rehearses the four-camera, present-day shoot, and then, on Friday, rehearses a "live" performance, inserting the intro and flashbacks. The audience then sees what appears to be a complete show — thanks, in part, to the presence of an audience switcher.
Shimokawa, who himself came from the days of '70s videotaped sitcoms such as Welcome Back, Kotter and Archie Bunker's Place, recalled a friend who also came from the same background and didn't like having to view a quad split to observe the HD cameras. "He hated that he loses control that way. He wanted to cut the show, so he had them build a booth, right on the floor, and he had the TD with him, and he cut the cameras."
Sullivan noted few differences between working in four-camera HD and video, though he did indicate the elimination of having first assistant's running focus tape. "It's all in the interest of making the camera blocking day move quickly," he said. He also pointed out that HD has greater depth of field, prompting the blocking of actors away from walls. "The background does not fall off, like it does in film."
Lee Shallat Chemel's and Victor Nelli's demonstration of HD on The Bernie Mac Show was an illustration in the versatility of the medium, as applicable to television comedy. "From my perspective, whatever you want to do, you can do with HD," said Shallat Chemel. "In the last year, I've directed shows with four-camera HD on ped, single-camera HD, hand-held, Steadi, dolly, whatever."
The camera has been anything but locked down on the show. In one clip shown, the camera easily followed a family conversation around the house from one room to the next. "We could have just played it at the dinner table, but I thought I'd kind of like to open it up a bit," said Shallat Chemel. In another clip, DP Victor Nelli slid the camera into home plate as Bernie Mac rounded the bases in a baseball game sequence.
Nelli stressed, as many DPs have, how important it is to test the equipment and find out what it can do. "Make mistakes, really beat it up, and just have some fun and do not be so afraid of it," he told the audience.
Shallat Chemel also commented on the difference in framing a shot for HD. "At first I was angry about it. Comedy is the two shot. But after doing Bernie, I totally changed my mind about that. You have to frame for what most people are looking at right now, but you have to make it safe for HD."
Rod Holcomb and team showed a number of clips from The Education of Max Bickford, illustrating a number of "lessons learned." Most important was learning about the effects of highlight and shadow and how best to deal with them. Highlights — even those produced by bright colors — can "go nuclear," Chris Nelson pointed out. Scenes lit and photographed for shadow, but with intermittent highlights, such as one scene in which the characters are walking outdoors beneath large trees, briefly passing into sunlight, can wreck havoc on the image. "Exterior highlights can and still will kill you, if, in fact, you are digging deep for shadows," Holcomb explained.
Another clip, featuring lead actor Richard Dreyfuss in a dark kitchen, tended to bring up digital screen noise, due to low-fill ratio.
Holcomb had praises for the fine look of HD, though. "I kept looking for the 'dirty' button. That mean street look. It doesn't exist at the present time." He added that as with many trouble areas, post-production can help produce the desired look, though at a cost.
Another important pitfall came in assuring proper calibration of monitors used on set. Holcomb would shoot in New York with what appeared to be perfect color balance, but upon review for color timing at LaserPacific in L.A., the colors were substantially off. "We discovered that we were not seeing what we were shooting," he said. As LaserPacific's Terry Brown discovered, "We found that the monitor that we're using to evaluate picture on set had never been calibrated. The whole package needs to be evaluated and calibrated, before you go on set."
While, Holcomb gave HD high marks for its look, the choice for going HD is typically not a creative one.
"It's really generated by economics. The important thing is for you, as directors, to simply know what your choices are. That's what this is all about," he said.
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