HD Seminars at a Glanc

Sometimes when you help your clients understand a new technology and
new way of working, it helps your business as well. With the demand for
HD post-produced commercials projects on the rise, Pat Portela, an
executive producer at New York-based post house Nice Shoes, found
herself spending more time answering questions about HD and less time
growing her business.
The facility had to hire another producer because she was spending so
much time speaking with ad agencies, production companies, and offline
editors, trying to explain the process to them. “Somehow, through the
work I’ve done at Nice Shoes, I’ve become this [HD] expert, which was
never the original plan.” After years as a demo artist for Quantel, she
started at Nice Shoes in 2002 as a Flame artist.
Tired of answering the same questions over and over, Portela came up
with the idea of presenting HD seminars on site at ad agencies and
production companies. The agencies were her initial focus, since that’s
where the HD business is coming from, and the agency producers found it
helped them explain the process to their clients. The seminars have
also boosted business at Nice Shoes.
Entitled “HD at a Glance” and “HD: A Post-production Primer,” these
hour-long seminars are held for as many as 50 people, and Nice Shoes
serves lunch. “If you feed them, they will come,” Portela said, only
half-joking. To date she has held seminars once a week since March, in
both New York and Boston. They are scheduled through the month of
August. Seminars for production companies and offline editors are soon
to follow.
Some HD reels are screened, followed by a discussion of how using video
instead of 35mm film can be beneficial for some projects. Rich Schreck,
Nice Shoes senior online/visual effects artist, and Chris Ryan, senior
colorist, help lead the discussions. They also hand out a brochure that
lists the right HD questions to ask.
Portela said the seminars don’t usually promote HD over film, but
rather help the agencies understand what HD technology can bring to the
table. They explain key terms and framing issues that are necessary to
communicate the correct information in the most concise way. The
end-to-end post process, moving from the telecine to digital effects
and animation and HD delivery (DVD, videotape, cinema, trade shows,
etc.), is also a focus.
There are a lot of misconceptions about production costs throughout the
industry, Portela said. In general, an HD project costs a bit more to
post than a film project because you are making two masters, one in
standard-definition resolution and another in HD. Portela has found
that while HD production cuts down on film stock and processing costs,
more engineering staff is required.
Some people also think that using video means you can shoot more
footage, but they wind up spending more time in the offline editing
suite. HD projects also spend as much time in color correction as film
projects do, so the costs most often are equal.
Nice Shoes is seeing more HD post projects coming in for shot-on-video
independent features and music videos, but the majority of its high-end
commercial work remains predominantly 35mm film. Three years ago Nice
Shoes posted about one HD job a month. Today they are doing three a
day, or sometimes more.
Portela said educating the industry has become easier, but she is still
surprised by some of the elementary questions she is asked at her
seminars. “A lot of people still don’t understand HD,” she said.
“That’s why the seminars have been so successful. The agencies have
been very appreciative and it has generated a lot more work for us. I’d
call that a success all the way around.”
Portela said that since the seminars have begun, the calls haven’t stopped – but “at least they are more productive calls.”