Super 16mm has its place, too

In the March 20 issue of Playback, an article about last month’s Local Heroes Festival in Winnipeg says that one of the HDTV Showcase speakers, Canadian Digital Television’s Michael McEwen, made the point that Super 16mm is not convertible to the hdtv format. I was at the luncheon speech given by McEwen and he said that the Super 16mm format would seriously limit hdtv distribution and that producers should only originate on 35mm or hdtv video. I find both McEwen’s statement and especially Playback’s simplification of it too generalized and misleading.

I believe McEwen’s comment is based on the cbs network’s opinion that Super 16mm has undesirable qualities for transfer to hdtv. An important clarification here is that cbs would actually accept Super 16mm under ‘prior arrangement,’ which means so long as you can justify its use, as with a nature documentary. This is also one opinion from one network on a very debatable subject. If Super 16mm is shot properly and transferred with care it can look better than a neglected 35mm hd transfer. I saw a Super 16mm pbs documentary for American Experience transferred on a Spirit scanner at Toronto’s toybox to hd and the pictures were impressive.

Documentary producers prefer 16mm for its portability. I co-ordinated a film versus hdtv test for the Canadian Society of Cinematographers and I feel that 16mm did very well, especially with lower asa stocks.

I realize if a producer wants to cater to high-end hdtv distribution, they would be wise to follow McEwen’s advice and choose a format like 35mm film, but in my opinion, McEwen should realize he is talking to a broad range of producers and perhaps he should clarify that Super 16mm has a place in many genres and hd markets. For Playback to say that Super 16mm is ‘not convertible’ to hd is just not accurate. I certainly do not want to promote low standards, but I believe there will be many hd distribution outlets which will have no specific origination specifications, but rather they will judge a show on content, within the context of image acceptability.

Richard Stringer CSC,

Toronto