Hollywood Prepares For Nosehair TV Era

Cable World, June 23, 2003

Byline: ANTHONY CRUPI

Late in the tenth episode of last season's The Sopranos, button men Paulie Walnuts and Silvio Dante are standing in the rain out in front of a warehouse in Newark, waiting for a shipment of flat-screen TVs that, uh, fell off the back of a truck. As the two men cool their heels in front of the loading bay, Paulie gives Silvio a tutorial on the joys of plasma: "These flat screens, I tell ya. No glare. High definition. I was watching On the Waterfront downstairs. Karl Malden's nose hairs, they looked like f**kin' BX cable."

As unpalatable an image as that may be, Paulie's not completely oobatz. While HD begins to find a wider audience, the physical imperfections of actors - the wens and welts and scars that are all but invisible in an SD telecast - can no longer be hidden by conventional cosmetic techniques.

"Hi-def picks up everything," said Nikki Wang, a Manhattan-based makeup artist. "You can't just layer on the pancake like you'd do for a normal shoot, because it'll look gloppy. At the same time, you want to cover up whatever flaws there might be. It's tricky."

Some of the first victims of HD's relentless clarity were the local news anchors in the Los Angeles market. Early HD broadcasts on KTLA saw the on-air talent take on the orangish mien of a band of Oompa Loompas; what's more, the set looked as though it was held together with duct tape and thumb tacks.

KTLA turned to Dina Ousley, president and founder of Dinair, a North Hollywood company that utilizes a patented airbrush system to apply a finely atomized layer of makeup on the face and body. According to Ousley, the microscopic dots of pigment won't obscure the skin's natural tones, yet will hide just about any dermatological imperfection.

"Dinair is a perfect fit for hi-def," said Rita Green, a KTLA cosmetician who has used the system for its newscasts since 1999. "It's like live-action photo retouching."

Sets are another matter altogether. While TV has always been predicated on pretty faces and strong jaw lines, most sets, when viewed up close, are rickety and cheap. Those days are over. When The Tonight Show began broadcasting in HD in 1999, the necessary studio rehaul cost in the neighborhood of $10 million.

"HD sees everything," said production designer Dennis Roof. "Every seam had to be made smooth, every surface slick and clean."

Not everyone in Hollywood is running for cover. Pierre de Lespinois, a director and producer with perhaps more HD shoots under his belt than anyone working in the business, scoffs at the notion that hi-def reveals too much.

"HD is like having a computer inside the camera," de Lespinois said. "You have complete control over how everything looks." For example, Sony HD cameras can actually smooth out the skin texture via an automatic scanning process.

"Anyone who tells you that HD isn't ready for prime time is just threatened by it," de Lespinois said. "If you know what you're doing, [HD] is beautiful. It's like a piece of glass with a story going on behind it."

THE NEXT QUESTION:

*Will the additional costs of HD production temper Hollywood's enthusiasm for hi-def?