HDTV series: this upcoming television season features a wave of shows being shot or posted, or both, on HD

Post, Sept, 2003 by Edmond M. Rosenthal

Five years ago, facilities that were editing TV series in high definition were not only future-proofing the product but were also preparing for their own futures. Now that the future has arrived, they're sitting pretty having gradually evolved their HD facilities along with the evolution or actual HD broadcasts,

CBS ,was time first network to embrace HDTV, ABC was the next to follow and now NBC has joined the fold. The WB Network will also be airing some series in HD this coming season, as will some of the cablenets. The Fox Network is testing the waters with pilots and expects to be heavily into HD for the '04 -'05 season. For the most part, the series remaining in standard definition among the networks are long-running shows, such as Friends, that are going into their final season.

SCRUBS FOR HD BROADCAST?

For HD delivery, a big holdout among the top 10 shows was Scrubs, a Touchstone Television and NBC co-production. Last season, it was shooting on Super 16mm and delivering on Digital Betacam, according to Ramy Katrib, CEO of DigitalFilmTree (www.digitalfilmtree.com) in Los Angeles. This season, the program is still being shot in Super 16, but NBC is seriously considering broadcast in HD. DigitalFilmTree does the online editing of the series, while Level 3 Post in Burbank transfers it to HDCAM and handles color correction and delivery of dubs.

"Most shows are under pressure to have an HD master, no matter what they're showing," Katrib notes. "Once they finish in HD, they can repurpose for standard definition, HD or PAL delivery."

His operation recently acquired a Sony HDCAM deck, and it is experimenting with the Sony Xpri, a nonlinear editing system that handles standard definition while being a native HD editing system.

"We're interested in what we've seen over the past month," reports Katrib. "Our editors have been giving feedback to Sony and we hope it becomes a workable system for our post services," He notes that a native editing system can best exploit the advantages of Sony's HDCAM.

"One of the biggest challenges now," he adds,"is finding a good workflow for offlining HD. It takes up a lot of space on a hard drive." His facility is designing an individual path for each client, tailored to its needs. For Scrubs they are using systems like Apple's Final Cut Pro powered the AJA PCI capture card, the IO, which allows working in HD. Apple's Shake software is used in conjunction with Final Cut Pro for compositing on the series.

"Once we digitize the HD content," Katrib explains,"we can do such processes as color correction, titling, image manipulation and 2D and 3D content all at the same location."

FILM TO HD TRANSFER, HD POST

Along with its work on Scrubs, Level 3 Post (www.level3post.com), is also posting Third Watch, West Wing and Wanda At Large in HE). According to Darrell Anderson, managing director, this work has extended to pilots, such as Las Vegas, for NBC. Only a couple of years ago, much of the HD work was in anticipation of airing in that format, he says. Now nearly everything shot in 24p, or in film for HD transfer, is for immediate airing in HD. One exception, he notes, is the FX program Lucky, which is downconverted from HD to standard after the assembly session.

"At the end of last season,"Anderson recalls,"we discussed what the future might bring and acquired a Cintel C-Reality to transfer film to tape in HD. It will certainly be used for Third Watch and West Wing, and probably for Wanda At Large. We're also buying some additional HDCAM machines to handle shows shot in 24p."

Meanwhile, the facility was installing two Avid Nitris systems which double its HD editing capabilities. They'll be used for assembly, compositing, titling, film repair and paint work. Each of the Nitris systems will have 1.5 terabytes of storage. And if that isn't enough, sister company Digital Symphony always has extra storage space available.

ENCORE'S WORKING ON 16 SERIES IN HD

At Encore Hollywood (www.encorehollywood.com), some 16 series are being posted in HD, compared with only three or four in standard. HD clients include established series such as Boomtown, Alias, Without a Trace and Monk, as well as new series like ABC's Line of Fire and CBS's Navy NCIS. Managing director Jackie Peretti notes that the general rule is for half-hour series to shoot in 24p and for one-hour programs to transfer from film. But she notes that some of the dramatic series are now starting to discuss shooting in 24p.

The process of gearing up for the increased HD effort has been assisted by the consolidation into Encore of Hollywood Digital, sister company in the Ascent Media Group. Along with talent, it brought in a Thomson Spirit telecine and Discreet Fire and Inferno equipment. Between the inherited equipment and purchases, Encore now has two Fires and four Infernos. Meanwhile, it has purchased a daVinci 2K color corrector.

Quadrupling the number of HD shows handled over the past few years has been a gradual process for Encore, so no drastic changes have been necessary in workflow procedures. Additional storage space has been required to handle the vast requirements of special effects in HD.