HDTV will need to make strides in several key areas in order to receive viable support from advertisers and their agencies, related Jim Gosney, associate director of commercial production for Procter & Gamble, a company that, as chronicled in SHOOT over the past two years, has taken a lead role in hi-def spots.
Addressing a Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers’ (SMPTE) gathering during an HD symposium last month at American Production Services, North Hollywood, Gosney noted that HD receiver sales are vital. "For ad media people who buy eyeballs, the numbers are still quite small. My understanding is 265,000 sets [in the U.S.] is the latest figure. Obviously costs are a factor and thankfully, they are coming down, which should help."
Asked what level would have to be reached before more advertisers would start to seriously consider HD, Gosney explained that "some people believe it will take a million. The latest [Consumer Electronics Association] estimate is that 10 million sets will be sold by 2003. Those are the kinds of numbers it will take to get broad scale attention from the advertising community."
Another priority, he observed, is education of different industry segments. "Broadcasters need to be sure their own sales forces are knowledgeable. They in turn can help educate advertisers and agencies about the new medium and its benefits. But many of the creative folk at ad agencies who will determine how this technology will be used to help sell our product and services still don’t understand how they can use the capability. Frankly, ad agencies are focused on deadlinesanext week or next monthaand immediate revenue opportunities. It’s difficult for them to have a long view. Seminars should target agency and advertiser people as much as possible. There’s a real need for the technical community to educate both consumers and the advertising community."
Gosney also called upon his SMPTE audience to help clear an additional hurdle. "The various industry parties must push quickly to resolve remaining standards issues so consumer confusion can be reduced and manufacturers can deliver a product that meets consumers’ long-term HDTV needs… Edward Fritts, president and CEO of NAB [the National Association of Broadcasters] said that receiver standards are by far the most pressing issue for NAB. Many of you serve on industry standards committees. You can do a great deal to push resolution of the remaining standards issues so that the receiver manufacturers can produce a receiver that will not quickly become obsolete so that retailers can encourage consumers to make a purchase."
And, continued Gosney, in order for retailers to sell sets, there must be more HD programming. He noted that "broadcasters are still not [yet] trying to get advertisers interested [in HD], according to our media buying folk." Also part of the classic chicken-and-egg scenario is the audience measurement issue. "We need a method that tracks HDTV viewing habits," said Gosney.
Despite the considerable work ahead to make for a successful transition, Gosney affirmed that P&G remains bullish on HDTV and other aspects of DTV, namely data and interactivity. "They afford us the opportunity to improve and enhance communication with our consumers," he explained, noting that HDTV will deliver up to 1080 scan lines, more than double those of today’s TV signal, with many times the resolution, greater detail and richer colors.
Gosney then cited an observation made by accomplished cinematographer John Alonzo, ASC, who directed and shot in HD video a Mountain Spring Fragrance Tide spot, simply titled "Mountain Spring," for P&G and agency Saatchi & Saatchi, New York. "Alonzo has said that he thinks that television has ruined audience’s taste in the visual sense because everything is a close-up," said Gosney. "But now [with HDTV], the artist will have a broader canvas, 33 percent more than today’s TV. The impact of the 16×9 format is both immediate and stunning. For the first time, commercial directors have a tool that approximates more closely our natural sense of perception.
"HD will give us greater opportunity to utilize negative or empty space in a way never before possible in television commercials," continued Gosney. "It will allow for a better and more realistic use of movement and spatial relationships. It will be possible to block actors in more psychologically comfortable and realistic ways. The wider format gives you a feeling of being there in the picture … The additional width of the image with the additional peripheral information it allows us to include is both compelling and engaging. It allows for much greater freedom of composition and staging…foreground and background… And perhaps the most underrated aesthetic feature of HDTV is the possibility for CD quality 5.1 channel Dolby SurroundSound, which allows for three speakers in front, two in the rear and a subwoofer." Gosney related that an HD spot for Noxzema, a first-place winner at the International Electronic Cinema Festival held this past May in Portland, Ore., represented P&G’s first ad foray into SurroundSound.
Gosney added that it might be "a serious mistake to automatically dump all the production and postproduction techniques we’ve developed for 4×3 standard definition into HD. … Some of those techniques will be unnecessary and others will be unnerving, unsettling and overbearing in the wider aspect ratio, which contains much more visual information."
From a cost perspective, Gosney said that it’s hardly daunting for advertisers to get involved in HD spots. "The good news for advertisers interested in making HD versions of their commercials is that there should be little or no incremental cost during production… There is an incremental cost for postproduction and distribution, of course. Many national commercials today originate on 35 millimeter film, which is itself a high definition medium. Most of the commercials we’ve made for HD were shot on film. And in many cases…no thought was given during production that a digital version might be made later. Many were framed strictly for NTSC 4×3. So we learned from preparing spots for those early HD broadcasts that it is possible to extract an acceptable 16×9 picture out of a normally shot original 35 millimeter film negative.
"However when the two aspect ratios are planned for during production as they were in the Olean commercials [one of which was screened for the audience], it makes completing two versions even easier….We’ve also had good results originating on HD video [i.e.athe aforementioned ‘Mountain Spring’]. And in that case, the cost of production might actually be less than today’s cost of film origination."
Gosney estimated that currently some 95 percent of commercialmaking is originated on 35mm film, with the remaining five percent being a mix of digital video formats and conventional videotape. "But I think it’s going to change. People like George Lucas making the next Star Wars in HD could have an influence. Creative people at the ad agencies think it’s interesting enough to give it a try. The good news is that there are a number of commercial directors I’ve spoken to who are interested in trying HD video origination but they need [the cooperation] of the ad agency creatives."
Gosney called on the industry segments involved in digital television "to send a clear, positive message to American consumers and indeed to the advertising community…that HDTV and the other digital services are really on their way to being the television of the future, which will make our lives better and more enjoyable. The potential of HDTV is big and exciting. I really believe that it is ‘a killer app’ for broadcasting and for the production and postproduction communities. There are many obstacles but HD affords us greater opportunity to communicate better to our viewers and consumers, and to greatly enhance the dramatic effect of our advertising message."
