Cinematographer Rohn Schmidt had never shot HD before he was tapped to helm Huff, a new Showtime original series (and Sony TV production) starring Hank Azaria, Oliver Platt, and Blythe Danner and executive-produced by Scott Winant. Making that first-time switch to HD could have been a perilous venture, fraught with pitfalls. But Huff, and Schmidt’s first experience with HD, demonstrates just how much the industry has matured when it comes to HD production. "I’m thankful the producers were able to look at my reel and figure out that I could figure HD out," says Schmidt (currently lighting FX’s The Shield). "It’s been an easy transition."

Schmidt took liberal advantage of the experiences of those who had gone before. "When I got the show, I sent myself back to school," he recounts. "I read whatever I could and contacted as many cinematographers as I knew who had worked in HD. By now there’s a body of experience, which was lucky for me."

Among the cinematographers Schmidt consulted was Charlie Lieberman (Joan of Arcadia, Everwood, Once and Again), from whom he got a unique perspective on how to shoot Huff. Joan of Arcadia is shot without much color-correction on set, a somewhat controversial technique since the HD camera affords so many capabilities in shading and coloring, either on the fly or with pre-sets. But, after considering the idea, Schmidt realized the advantages of this style of shooting HD.

"My feeling is that this is closer to shooting film," he says. "Just like shooting film, I control the fill light and contrast ratios with the lighting and less so with the camera. I shoot it much like I would shoot a film negative. I might put gels or colors on the lights or filters on the camera, but the actual recording is done as neutral as possible."

On a stage in Sylmar outside of Los Angeles, Schmidt used the Sony HDW-F900 outfitted with two Canon zoom lenses as well as some DigiPrimes, which were also used for a second camera in Steadicam mode. While Schmidt and the director worked with the main camera, designing the blocking, lighting, and shots, the Steadicam operator was instructed to go rogue. "We let him go wild, under ladders, on the fringes shooting through things," says Schmidt. "It adds spice to the visual mix and editors love to change the rhythm of the scene."

Though the decision to shoot in HD came before Schmidt was attached (Lloyd Ahern shot the pilot last year), he points out that, in addition to any financial benefit, Huff is an ideal show for the format. "Huff is primarily a stage show," he says. "It’s a very controlled environment. With HD, it’s fairly inexpensive to keep rolling and we do take advantage of that. Performance is so important on this show, and HD allows the actors to keep going through a couple of takes."

Schmidt also realized early on how important lighting was in achieving the best results from HD. "HD is really pretty – and really accurate," he says. "I’ve found that you have to be very good with your lighting. Bad lighting shows up." Schmidt reports that he’s using chimeras on the actors to achieve a "soft, flattering light" that’s easy to control on a small set. He’s also using Kino Flos quite a bit, although he notes that even the fluorescent is too strong and needs to be softened with a light grid.

"One of the things I love about shooting in HD is that I can see with 100 percent accuracy the lighting on a scene," he says. "I can run in between take one and two and make small lighting adjustments to do that final polish on the image."

With the neutral shoot, telecine played an important role in achieving the final look for Huff. One of the people whom Schmidt sat down with early on was Encore colorist Kevin Kirwan, who discussed the more limited latitude in shooting HD and the necessity to nail the lighting on set.

Having used the da Vinci 2K+ for tape-to-tape color-correction, Kirwan says the look is very straightforward. "The blacks are rich, and once you do that to any picture, especially with his neutral look, it causes the chroma to saturate a bit more so you get a little more colorful picture," he says. "That’s basically the look they’re going for. And since Rohn does a beautiful job and shoots right on the money, I don’t really do a lot of work."