"Lopez Tonight" is carefully watched to make sure everything is right.

by Jason Schroeder – Telepictures’ Engineer

Lopez Tonight was a unique challenge for Telepictures. Post-Production systems as a whole, industry wide, are becoming more complex – and because of this – more expensive. The single most prohibitive factor to any project is cost, but HD television in Los Angeles sometimes comes up against a production paradox: How do you meet the bottom line and provide your team with the tools necessary to start the first season of a new HD production off properly? How do you launch a brand new show in this decade without breaking the bank?

In our case, we had committed both to XDCAM as our primary master recording format. We went with their new product, the Avid MultiStream, to gang-roll our production feeds into the centralized ISIS storage. Avid ISOSync allows us to treat both AMS machines as one 8 channel unit, and provides our operator with a simple interface to record with. In addition, the AMS system records in 50 megabit XDCAM, so the media generated on both sides of the workflow were identical in format.

We use Interplay as our primary source for organizing show media, but the XDCAM format allowed us choices when it came to long term storage, proxy viewing, and producer interaction. Using a combination of ISIS, Interplay, OS X Server, XDCAM and its file structure, we were able to put together a workflow that had significant advantages in HD. Between the two resources, we had everything a solid startup needs to give the producers as much as possible to create the show.

Lopez Tonight is classified as a “Day of Air” show. On top of that, it has one of the tightest turnaround times of any Telepictures production. Approximately 90 minutes after the show finishes recording, we have to send a feed to TBS for national distribution. Using the Avid MultiStream product allowed our editors to literally watch the recorded production hit the ISIS as it happened, adding their notes along the way.

To accomplish the challenge of providing such a tight turn around, the staff came up with a plan to meet the deadline. As the show records, two editors swap acts, editing each in succession. The show blocks were edited twice as fast as normal with this process, allowing us to finish the whole show with only four avid bays. Not only did this work very well for the editors, but it gave us flexibility during the edit day as every editor is keen to the tasks of the others. Without the ability to collaborate in this manner, this short turnaround time would have proved insurmountable.

The Avid Transfer Manager, which runs locally on each edit station, is able to send sequences directly to Grass Valley’s K2 Summit over FTP, from inside Media Composer. This one feature alone saved us massive amounts of time, not to mention media costs.

The Lopez Tonight web team utilizes the Interplay system to its full capacity, working along side the show editors in order to deliver day of air content also to the Lopez Tonight website. During production, the web team examines the same clips, same notes, and same information as everyone else working on the system.

The flexibility that both the Interplay system and the XDCAM format provided us allowed us to meet cost targets, while at the same time improving the edit process for everyone involved. We are extremely happy with the end result – a lean, mean editing workflow capable of meeting the demands of Lopez Tonight.  

Geyser nicknamed Old Faithful.

by Bob Fisher

Yellowstone: Land to Life was produced for display at the renovated theater in the Canyon Visitor Education Center at the national park. The 20-minute film premiered on Memorial Day in 2009. The poetic imagery ushers audiences on a journey through the ecosystem that created the park, which stretches over some 3,400 square miles of Wyoming, including mountain ranges, the Grand Canyon, Old Faithful and animal life. A 30-minute version aired in HD format on PBS in September.

The project had special meaning for John Grabowska, who has been producing films for the Harpers Ferry Center of the National Park Service since 1991. His parents visited Yellowstone on their honeymoon and took him camping there during his youth. Grabowska and his wife also spent part of their honeymoon at the park.

The project was funded by a grant from the nonprofit Yellowstone Park Foundation. Grabowska began preproduction planning by scouting with the park geologist. “He told us that during the glacial period, the ground was buried under 4,000 feet of ice,” Grabowska says. “The volcano which erupted 600,000 years ago created the geysers, hot springs and hot spots. The single-celled micro-organisms which emerged from acid hot springs like those at Yellowstone were the beginning of life on Earth.”

“The geologist also explained that when the glaciers melted after carving the valleys, they created a perfect environment for grasslands, which attracted bison, moose and elk,” he says. “That attracted wolves and other predators. I decided to make those connections clear in a lyrical, poetic way rather than creating a science textbook on film.”

Grabowska took his 16-year-old daughter Hilary on hikes through the park. She took photographs at places he selected to feature in the film and he used her pictures to augment notes about places, times and his vision for telling the story.

Lower Falls in Yellowstone National Park

He also recruited Jeff Hogan, who has specialized in shooting still and moving images in the region since he moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 1980. Hogan offered suggestions. “For example, I told John about a canyon where ice is squirting through cracks in the ground,” Hogan says. “It’s a fascinating example of geology in action.” Additional cinematography was done by Bob Landis, another local cameraman who specializes in shooting nature films.

“Their eyes lit up when I told them that we would be producing this project on Super 16 film,” Grabowska recalls. “I prefer film for natural history projects, because of its organic look. It is also a proven archival medium. That is particularly important on a project like this because geology isn’t static. Future geologists, historians and filmmakers will be able to see what Yellowstone was like in our time.”

Hogan shot film during all four seasons over a two-year period in virtually every type of weather, including rain and snow, and cloudy and sunny days with temperatures ranging from 25 degrees Fahrenheit below zero to more than 85 degrees above. He carried a lightweight ARRI SR camera, an Angenieux 11.5:138 mm zoom lens and an ample supply of KODAK VISION2 7201 50-speed film, which is balanced for daylight. The camera was modified to enable him to shoot slow-motion effects.

“I shot when and where the light was right,” Hogan says. “You can perform magic in postproduction, but it begins with painting natural scenes with light on film.”

The film was processed at NFL Films in New Jersey, and transferred to HD format for postproduction by colorist Jim Coyne. Mike Majoros at Boston’s Northern Light Productions edited the digital master file with Grabowska, who narrated the script.

“Jeff and I created a detailed log about the archived footage, describing when and where it was shot and other details for scientists, filmmakers, historians and anyone else with a need to know in the near and distant future,” Grabowska concluded.  

Cinematographer Wally Pfister/The Dark Knight.

by Bob Fisher

Wally Pfister, ASC, likens two commercials that he recently directed and shot to 30-second documentaries with cinematic values that make an emotional connection with the audience. He credits Ty Baker and Alonso Davila, creative directors for Momentum, the advertising agency that developed the concept for their client Anheuser-Busch.

“Every successful commercial campaign begins with an appreciation for the lifestyles and tastes of potential customers,” Pfister emphasizes. “The product was Rolling Rock beer. The theme was ‘Born in a small town.’”

They shot one spot at McSorley’s Old Ale House in New York’s Greenwich Village. The bar has been at that location since 1854. The second spot was filmed in a bar in a small town with a population of about 3,500.

Pfister shot both spots mainly with a handheld Panaflex 35 mm camera mounted with either a 15-40 mm or a 27-68 mm zoom lens. The zoom lenses enabled him to make intuitive decisions about composition. Images were framed in the 16:9 format and rendered on KODAK VISION2 5218, a 500T negative that provided the latitude needed to record nuanced colors, contrast and details in dark shadows and bright highlights.

“It’s voyeuristic, like peeking through a partially open door to get a glimpse of hip-looking people enjoying themselves,” Pfister says.

After Technicolor processed the film, editor Trish Fuller at Whitestone Post Production in New York did the final cuts for the two spots in HD format in collaboration with Pfister. He provided colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld at Company 3 in Los Angeles with selected still photos as visual references and asked him to match the look.

“When Stefan was ready, we went into a timing session and found the final look,” Pfister says. “There’s a little color saturation, but it is primarily a somewhat monochrome look with a slight green tone as a nod to the color of the Rolling Rock beer bottle.”

In addition to his portfolio of commercials, Pfister has earned three Academy Award® nominations for best cinematography in the past four years for Batman Begins (2006), The Prestige (2007), and the Dark Knight (2009).