D'Elia recognizes that the transitional period — during which consumers will slowly switch from 1.33:1 to 16:9 televisions — will present some creative problems. If the script requires an actor to enter the screen from either side at a precise moment to make the comedic or dramatic point, a choice will have to be made. Should you make the joke work in 1.33:1 or in 16:9? "Those timing concerns could be a problem," D'Elia says. "Hopefully, as the technology advances and people get widescreen HD sets, we'll just start composing for them. People with the older [1.33:1] sets will be missing out, but that's just what is going to happen. It will be a bit like it was when programs were first broadcast in color — if you had a black-and-white set, the contrast wasn't quite right."
Did the temporary transition to HD affect Chicago Hope's actors? Bagdonas recalls, "They knew they were going to be shot in high-def, and Hector [Elizondo] asked if anything would be different for him. I said 'Not at all.' If we hadn't told them about it, they wouldn't have known the difference." Makeup and hair considerations were unchanged as well.
D'Elia fondly remembers the speed with which the episode was shot. "We normally shoot 12-hour days," he says, "but on 'The Other Cheek' we finished early every day. It was one of the easiest shoots I've ever had, but I think it was the nature of the episode more than anything. In a normal episode, we might have anywhere from 30 to 50 scenes. We had 146 for this one, but because of the nature of the script, the episode had to be shot as if it were a documentary. We weren't doing the type of precise setups we usually do. We just went in, shot it, and tried to make it unrehearsed."
During takes, the cinematographer, director and script supervisor carefully watched the monitors, but they never called for playback. D'Elia says, "In my mind, I just thought we were still shooting film, so I never played anything back." He adds that when the crew shoots with 35mm, "we have video assist, but not playback. I'm a guy who directs film, and I want to work with what I see and what I think works. Playing things back slows down the process, and you start to distrust your instincts."
The front end of the postproduction process for "The Other Cheek" was identical to other episodes of the series shot on film. Supervising producer John Heath says that the post team made center-slice cassettes (eliminating the sides to come down to 1.33:1), and digitized them into the Avid as usual. Understandably, the online process at Laser Pacific's high-definition lab was a bit more complicated than usual, but the technicians had anticipated a few new twists on such a pioneering effort.
What does the future hold for episodic drama and high-def? The consensus is that the shows that currently shoot on film will likely continue to do so. However, more and more studios will require that a show be finished in HD for archival purposes, because they recognize that it won't be long before HD transmission is the standard. At the Sony broadcast-night reception in Studio 36, a guest asked when CBS would begin letterboxing all of its shows on the air. "That breakpoint is going to be very difficult to reach," responded Charles Cappelman, CBS senior vice president of West Coast Operations and Engineering, "but there's going to be some magic point when enough of a percentage of the audience is watching in 16:9 that we will start to compromise the 1.33:1 center-only image."
"Long before that happens," Plus 8 Video president Marker Karahadian says, "more and more studio production executives are going to be considering the economics of not only finishing in HD, but shooting in it as well, especially when progressive-scan, 1080-line, high-def cameras become available in mid-1999. Cinematographers who take advantage of the opportunity to shoot HD now are going to be ahead of the curve when the word comes down to use it."
Reassuringly, Plus 8 Video vice president Chris Nightingale adds, "High-def is already advanced enough that it's acceptable as a master-quality image. We've had our cameras out shooting low-budget features on location for several smaller production companies. They've also been used for a Janet Jackson music video, for which the producer wanted the best video image possible of their multi-colored stage lighting. The cameras have even been on location in Alaska waiting for a moose to give birth. As far as feedback is concerned, we've heard nothing but good things from the cinematographers who have been willing to break the barrier and learn what HD can do for them."
