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Dirs./DPs John Alonzo and Bruce Nadel discuss their HDTV spotwork.

HDTV has tremendous ramifications for origination/production of programming, and commercials are no exception. Directors/DPs will have some procedural changes to think about with the coming of this new palette. In the end, the consumer may view an enhanced image on a technologically improved TV set; HDTV offers higher resolution than today's standard-definition images.

"This changes everything," says acclaimed director/DP John Alonzo, A.S.C., who in a career spanning more than 40 years has shot nearly 50 films, including Steel Magnolias, Norma Rae, Cross Creek, Scarface, Black Sunday and Chinatown, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for best cinematography.

This past June, Alonzo directed/DPed a Tide spot in high definition, the :15 "Mountain Spring," which he shot on Sony's portable HD camera, the HDC 500, for Cincinnati-headquartered Procter & Gamble via Saatchi & Saatchi, New York. It was co-produced by Nolan/LaMonte Films, Santa Monica, and Mustapha Khan, a division of New York-headquartered Screen Gems.

What are the implications from the shooting/production perspective? "You have to pay more attention to everything in the frame when shooting in high definition," says Alonzo, currently on location in Los Angeles shooting Lansky, a two-hour movie starring Richard Dreyfuss, directed by James McNaughton for HBO Productions and scheduled to debut in the U.S. next summer. "Everything has to be perfect, which affects wardrobe, props, hair and makeup, production design and art direction." As an example of the need for "frame perfection," Alonzo explains that "a patch on a soldier, which might normally be painted on in post digitally, could be identified as a 'fraud' in high-definition."

Lansky will be shot respecting the HDTV format. "They're thinking ahead and starting to create product they can use when high definition is here," says Alonzo. This means that when Alonzo and his crew shoot, they compose the frame for the two aspect ratios - today's 4:3 and HDTV's 16:9. A movie or TV commercial shot in the HDTV format and played on standard TV yields a letterbox, and viewers are expected to see enhanced image quality. "As far as commercial production is concerned," says Alonzo, "there is instant gratification for the agency, the director and the client. ... What you see on the monitor while on the set is exactly what you get on an HDTV screen in someone's living room."

Bruce Nadel, director/DP at bicoastal OneSuch Films, also shot a television commercial that was subsequently posted in high definition. While Alonzo was hired by Procter & Gamble specifically to shoot an HDTV spot, Nadel convinced ad agency Hoffman York, Milwaukee, to produce both a standard and experimental high-definition version of a regional Sprint spot. "My Midwest rep, Helen O'Brien, walked into Hoffman York the same day they were looking at reels for directors to shoot a Sprint Yellow Pages spot," says Nadel. The agency liked Nadel's reel. "I explained how cool it would be for them to be on the cutting edge, doing state-of-the-art broadcast work." He says they liked the idea; he shot it both ways.

Nadel is philosophical, if not sentimental, about the quality of the images captured and, more importantly, transmitted in hi-def. "Up until now," says Nadel, "when making a film-to-tape transfer, after all the hours of screening and colorizing and tweaking and noodling to get the color, feeling, density and everything absolutely right, I know it's the last time I will see that image look that way. Once it's broadcast and goes out on analog and received by the myriad quality of televisions in millions of homes, the image I saw on my monitor is not the same that people will see on their TV."

With HDTV, viewers will see in their original, pristine form the images that Nadel and every other director and DP sweated over to create. "The HDTV format interests me visually," says Nadel. "With HDTV you can put more in the frame. ... It's the way we view things, we see things wide."

For a noted tabletop director like Nadel, the HD format also offers more sensitivity to textures. "With high definition you'll get a better read on steam and hot food on a lighter or neutral background," he says as an example, noting that in standard definition, steam must be shot in front of a dark background in order to be seen. "[HDTV] picks up the more subtle, almost elusive elements of steam."

While Alonzo shot on a high-definition digital camera, Nadel shot 35mm film on an Arri III. In order to properly frame for HDTV format, Nadel had a ground optical created with etched glass, which he attaches to his camera so he can see the appropriate composition for the wider format.

The spot was shot over four days in February at Nadel's 15,000-square-foot studio in New York. "The concept of the spot, 'How Was Your Day?' is that the viewer would be an interloper in people's lives, witnessing glimpses of the many things that go wrong during the course of a day," the director explains. The solution, of course, is to turn to the Sprint Yellow Pages. Executive produced by OneSuch's Rick Katzen, and shot with a 16-person crew, the fast-paced, high-energy, color-saturated spot, cut to a driving sound track, contained no dialogue, just computer-generated text.

"How Was Your Day?" involved more than 20 setups in the studio. According to Nadel, he was able to achieve the many different looks and feelings not so much on location and in-camera but in postproduction. "I found a sense of lighting that I liked that I knew I could use throughout all the vignettes," says Nadel, "but I knew I could manipulate the imagery and the colors, along with effects in post." Nadel also used a technique more common to European productions than American. To achieve the high color saturation and density, Nadel transferred the print from the film's positive instead of the negative. "What this does," explains Nadel, "is it gives you richer hues. If you go from a red on the negative, it becomes an electronic transfer as opposed to with the positive you get the original, true red, which is on the film emulsion."

Nadel posted at The Tape House, New York. Colorist John Dowdell III, Tape House's director of the Spirit Datacine, transferred the film on the Spirit, which initially scans film at 2,000 lines per frame, eliminating aliasing artifacts. "Using this equipment," says Nadel, "suddenly you're seeing detail that you saw in the film, which can transfer to the videotape." In addition to capturing the detail in the transfer, Nadel was able to create mood using The Tape House's Spirit. "In the past, if I wanted to put a bloom of light behind somebody's head, I would have to do it on site, now I can just do it in post," says Nadel. "This saves me time lighting on location, it allows me to move quicker, get more done and still achieve incredible effects and looks." The Tape House's Peter Heady edited the spot in the company's HD linear online room. "How Was Your Day?" broke in the Midwest the first week in March.