Before embarking on the second season of Star Academie, MTL Video will be busy with other TV projects, including Ciao Bella, Cirrus Communications’ high-definition comedy/drama that will be shot in English and French for CBC/SRC.

The HD format suits MTL’s Andrew Lapierre – it’s his area of specialty and where he feels the industry is going.

‘Two years ago we did two local TV series and [CineGroupe Images’] Big Wolf on Campus [in HD],’ he says. ‘This year we are probably doing about 10 HD TV series, and eight of them are local.’

Lapierre attended NAB2003 last month in Las Vegas to scout new HD developments and says he was particularly impressed with the Fujinon HAe3X5 and HAe10x10 Cine Super E Style Zoom lenses, which will be used on Star Wars: Episode 3 for principal and F/X photography. Also noteworthy, he says, was the new color viewfinder for Sony 24p HDCAMs.

Lapierre took a novel approach to his NAB visit this time around, bringing along three of his cinematographer clients.

‘For me it was the easiest way to look at what’s at NAB and quickly know what’s good or what’s not,’ he explains. ‘They use [the products], they test them and they say ‘this is good’ and ‘this isn’t.’ I used to go to NAB and buy something that sat on the shelf – now I know what to buy and what not to buy.’

The supplier expects HD will win over naysayers when the highly anticipated camera from Waterloo, ON-based Dalsa Digital Imaging Solutions is unveiled in a few years. Lapierre forecasts that it and France’s Thompson Multimedia Viper project, which promises HD images with film-like resolution, will become standard issue for videographers and should sway some motion picture purists.

In reference to the Viper, Lapierre says, ‘Once there are enough hard-drive systems able to record its signal, this will become the camera, because it is perfect for digital effects projects. When you go into post and hit one button, the green [from the green screen] is gone, instead of film, where you have to scan the film and try to cut off the edges.’

For all his enthusiasm toward HD, Lapierre admits that for now the format is not quite perfect.

‘The tapes available are not able to record the quality the HD camera is capturing,’ he explains. ‘There isn’t a tape format strong enough, which is why we have to compress, but we are moving into a harder system where we won’t have any tape and we’ll be able to record the full bandwidth and get a perfect signal. That will be in the next three or four years.’