Leading national experts will present the latest information on the de-velopment of and future prospects for HDTV at an all-day symposium hosted by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers’ Minnesota chapter (AICP/Minnesota). The event is slated for Monday, March 6, at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis.
The symposium will explore recent transformations in high definition media and new venues for HDTV advertising. Experts will discuss digital origination, transferring film to HDTV technologies, up-conversion/down-conversion and surround sound.
There will also be demos of HD ware and equipment exhibits from Sony, JVC, Kodak and Discreet Logic. Equipment vendors will conclude the conference with a Q&A session.
"Education is key," related AICP/Minnesota president Kirk Hokanson, executive producer of Voodoo Films, Minneapolis. "It’s what we need to provide our [AICP] members with so they can best deal with new media and technologies."
The first AICP/Minnesota HDTV symposium took place in December ’98, and drew more than 200 people from the production, post and ad agency sectors. AICP/Minnesota estimated that roughly 70 percent of attendees were from ad agencies, and another 20 percent came from the production company community.
Agenda
Here’s a brief rundown of the agenda.
8:00-9:00 a.m.: Registration, breakfast & product demos.
9:00-10:30 a.m.: Session One: HDTV Overview.
Where is the technology today, and where might it be five years from now? How have things changed since our last seminar a year ago? New venues for HDTV advertising. Presenters include engineer Mark Schubin.
10:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.: Session Two: Origination—Digital and Film.
Presenters: Pierre de Lespinois, director/producer, Evergreen Films, LLC, Vancouver, B.C., will show HDTV digital origination material including the new 24p 1080I camera. DPs Steven Poster and Bill Bennett will show film transferred to HDTV. Oscar Loboza from Hi-Wire, Minneapolis, will address pertinent issues in telecine technology.
1:00-2:00 p.m.: Lunch
2:00-3:45 p.m.: Session Three: Post-Production: Dual Finishing-NTSC & HDTV.
How can we develop cost-effective ways to finish each format at the same time? What roles will up-conversion and down-conversion play? Will commercials move to surround sound? Presenters: de Lespinois; Leon Silverman, executive VP, LaserPacific Media Corporation, Hollywood; Chris Wheeler, senior development engineer, Eastman Kodak Corp., Hollywood.
4:00 p.m.: Session Four: Tech Talk. Panelists and equipment vendor representatives will be available to answer questions.
Separate from his AICP/Minnesota duties, Hokanson also serves as chairman of the national AICP’s new technologies committee, which seeks to educate AICP membership about evolving media and their impact on spot production. Citing such advances as DTV, DVDs and the Internet, Hokanson said that the work of the new technologies committee will ideally enable AICP "to be proactive in terms of researching these and other areas. We’ll be able to formulate recommendations and help companies make decisions about how to approach new technologies and what to invest in. Rather than companies always finding themselves having to react to what’s out there, they can take the initiative to make the most out of new technology and new media opportunities."
