Despite a resurgence of Super 16 capture, the HD post revolution appears to be in full swing.

Vancouver post house Rainmaker, for one, has just installed its third HD scanner and is waiting for the delivery of another HD SR deck.

‘As far as series and made for cable and TV, [HD] is significant,’ says Bill Hammond, Rainmaker’s chief engineer. ‘Last year it was 70% with HD and this year will be higher. We already know that some of the major made-for-TV and DVD people are going to go HD this year.’

But the reasons for shooting on Super 16 are indicative of other things.

‘Right now the [Sony/Panavision HD] Genesis camera package is more expensive to outfit than a 35mm rig,’ observes Rainmaker prez Barry Chambers. ‘As long as pricing like that keeps up, film [as a capture medium] is going to stay around.’

Rainmaker is posting an unnamed series pilot for Warner Bros., as well as Orpheus, starring Mena Suvari (American Beauty), for CBS Paramount, both of which are shooting on film and then mastering in HD. And Kodak has come up with a film stock designed to work with HD in post.

‘I see [film] eventually going away on series,’ says Chambers. ‘But it’s not going as quickly as I thought a year ago.’

Perhaps the main reason HD is taking its time replacing both film and SD for broadcast is the mind-numbing array of formats and frame rates that require conversion up, down and sideways. Producers are in the throes of dealing with the complexities of HD post.

‘It’s still a big mystery to them,’ says Rainmaker’s Chambers.

Hammond has his own theory as to why. ‘It’s partially because it’s a moving target,’ he says. ‘You’ve got so many other ways of acquiring. At one end of the market you have the new Panasonic AG-HVX200 camera, and at the other end you’ve got the Viper and the Genesis. And they all have grossly different price points, as well as ways to work. So there’s a lot of confusion.’

Louis Major, Technicolor Toronto’s VP of post-production, agrees.

‘There’s no given A, B, C pipeline in HD,’ says Major, whose facility is doing its share of HD post on series such as Corner Gas, Falcon Beach, Instant Star, Degrassi: The Next Generation, 1-800 Missing, ReGenesis and Life with Derek.

‘Ten years ago, it was A or B,’ Major continues. ‘Every production – whether it captures on film or HD – is customized when it hits us for post. Some are HD origination and some are film, but all of them have a different procedure in post inside Technicolor.’

Major adds that Technicolor has also seen a heavy swing in HD in the past two years.

‘I would say 75% of what we complete now for television – series, MOWs – is posted in HD. And that’s all happened in the last 24 months,’ he says.

He notes, though, that the shop, previously owned by Command Post, has been retooling for eight years.

‘Every time we bought a piece of gear, we made sure it was HD-compatible, because you have to use your money wisely,’ he says.

The biggest challenge for producers right now is mastering and delivering in one format.

‘When you say HD,’ says Major, ‘we’re delivering HD SR to one broadcaster. To another we’re delivering HDCAM, another D5. There have been so many formats introduced into the business. CBS, Disney, ABC, Global, CTV – all of them pick their formats as far as what’s best for them. As a post facility, we have to have [the ability to package them all].’

So, given that a lot of producers master in HD with the expectation of series reruns, which flavor is the way to go to ensure future-proofing?

‘We’ve encouraged our producers during editorial to keep everything at HD 1080 24p, because from that they can derive all of the deliverables,’ notes Major.

From there they can do a cross-convert to broadcast 1080i, or even a PAL version for the European market. And then they’ll have a 24p master on the shelf for future-proofing.

If formats weren’t enough to deal with, HD has also raised the VFX bar on the small screen.

‘As the res goes up, it’s not just the makeup that has to be better,’ says Technicolor’s VFX manager Tom Sinnott. ‘It’s FX as well. Our television FX team is measured by the work done by our film 2K team. We don’t really do the down-and-dirty slap-it-together ‘it’s only standard def’ work. HD is what we judge everything at.’

On various projects, Sinnott’s team is being called on to do everything from removing wires to replacing billboards, and making the coast of Lake Ontario look like it’s been hit by a tornado.

‘It seems that, as with feature films, FX are becoming more and more a component of television, because it can be done quickly and cost effectively,’ he says. ‘It’s become more and more a part of the vocabulary of television production.’

Still, the biggest challenge ahead is keeping the variety of formats straight while keeping ahead of the tech curve.

‘Some [formats] will drop off and some will start up, and I don’t see that ever going away,’ notes Rainmaker’s Hammond. ‘If the manufacturers don’t succeed with one format, they’ll bring out another.’

Sinnott brings it even closer to home. ‘It’s almost like talking about the Maple Leafs,’ he says. ‘It’s something that’s almost been broken for so long and seems to be unending that it’s a standing frustration for everybody.’

www.rainmaker.com

www.technicolor.com