Unless you’re in the first 25 rows on the 50-yard line, there’s an old adage that you can probably see more of the game in the comfort of your living room, as TV coverage-particularly for the Super Bowl-will provide you with views from every conceivable angle. There’s also instant replay in slo-mo, half speed and real time. The only incentive to leave home would be if you didn’t have a DTV set because last month’s Super Bowl was the first to have been telecast in HDTV. But even if you had a friend or could find a venue with a state of the art digital television, you’d be among the disappointed if you were hoping to see assorted hi-def commercials on Super Sunday.
When ABC-TV and Panasonic announced last year (SHOOT, 6/4/99, p. 1) that Super Bowl XXXIV would be shown in HD, it fueled speculation that some of the game’s big ticket advertisers would experiment in the DTV medium. Indeed, they discussed the possibility. However, according to informed sources, there were but two HD spots that came to pass on Super Sunday. One was the previously-aired Panasonic ad, "Just A Bit of Magic/HDTV," directed by David Cornell of bicoastal Headquarters for Grey Advertising, New York. As earlier reported (SHOOT’s DTV and Advertising Supplement, 9/17/99, p. 6), the commercial included excerpts that were shot with a digital camera; the rest was lensed on film. HD finishing was facilitated by artists at Manhattan Transfer, New York, and The Tape House’s Advanced Imaging Center, New York.
The other Super Bowl spot was believed to have been for the upcoming release of a feature film, but that could not be verified at press time. Riot, Santa Monica, and Encore Hollywood-a pair of post/effects facilities that are part of the 4MC family of companies-confirmed that they finished a commercial in HD that aired during the Big Game, but declined to identify the advertiser due to a nondisclosure agreement. For the assignment, Riot and Encore transferred film to HD, created visual effects in HD, did the final edit inside the Fire, and converted the spot to 720P for ABC.
Neither the perennial Super Bowl advertisers nor any of the dot-com company sponsors elected to invest in an HD ad. Their reasons for not dipping their toes into HD water were articulated by key executives at a couple of major agencies that have become synonymous with the Super Bowl: BBDO New York and DDB Chicago. Among BBDO’s clients on Super Bowl XXXIV were Federal Express, Charles Schwab & Company, Visa and Mountain Dew.
"We talked about the possibility [of HD spots] at the management level," related Cate Donovan, senior VP and TV production manager at BBDO. "But given the fact that the percentage of homes [with DTV sets] is so small, we decided not to. I’m sure once the [DTV set] penetration gets bigger, we’ll investigate it. Until then, though, we didn’t want to take a chance on it, especially with the Super Bowl being such an important venue for us."
Donovan remains enthused over the long-range prospects for HDTV. "We like to be on the cutting edge of things," she said. "Anything that can make commercials look better and more vibrant is something we’ll be involved in when the time is right."
POPP ASSESSMENT
Greg Popp, senior VP/executive producer at DDB Chicago, is a key point person on Budweiser’s extensive inventory of Super Bowl spots. "We looked at it [HDTV] very carefully," he said. "Facilities involved in posting hi-def work were soliciting us…But you have to take into account the crazy days in January leading up to the Super Bowl. For example, Budweiser’s "Rex" spot, which was ranked number one in the USA Today poll, was still being shot on January 14.
"Generally," continued Popp, "we’re handling so much Super Bowl work that we need the time for what we routinely encounter in the process-what I call ‘a patch stage.’ We’re tweaking and fixing, changing versions, throwing in a stock shot, doing focus groups. We need all the time we can get for the minor digital enhancement that goes on. And to divert some of that time to high-resolution HD needs didn’t make sense. We couldn’t take away from what we needed to do in terms of our usual digital enhancements, transferring and other creative options we try to explore."
Popp gave an example of why it would be logistically difficult at this juncture for some Super Bowl spots to even consider going the HD route. He noted that a Navy destroyer spot for Budweiser incorporated two important stock shots that weren’t found until the eleventh hour. The stock shots were in a low-resolution letterbox format, and those elements would have been difficult to incorporate into a hi-def spot at the last minute. As it turned out, the ad didn’t make the Super Bowl, but will probably debut during an upcoming Anheuser-Busch convention. The spot was directed by Dave McNally of bicoastal Omaha Pictures. (McNally helmed last year’s lauded Budweiser Super Bowl spot, "Lobster," for DDB Chicago.)
Like Donovan, Popp also cited the lack of significant household DTV set penetration. "The additional cost and time factor weren’t warranted when weighed against the few people in the audience who would benefit from a hi-def picture," observed Popp. "There’s also the issue of having to work in two aspect ratios. Film is naturally a hi-def medium, and recomposing and reconsidering aspect ratios is not that big a deal. But it is another time-consuming element that we couldn’t afford the luxury of, in the case of the Super Bowl. The size of the HD audience didn’t justify that. If we were advertising some sort of high-tech product, versus a popular beer, looking for high entertainment value, maybe we would have considered it [HD] more seriously. We look forward to working in this area, but it just doesn’t work for us at this point. The number of [HD] sets in the marketplace isn’t there yet. It will be someday, but certainly isn’t now."
EDUCATION
Larry Chernoff, president of 4MC Television-parent to such facilities as the aforementioned Riot and Encore-said that the shortage of hi-def spots on the Super Bowl could be attributed in part to reluctance within the spotmaking community at large.
"Many people are intimidated by hi-def because of ignorance," contended Chernoff. "The production and advertising communities are generally uneducated about the process, and are gun-shy as a result. They have the feeling they are going to be overburdened. But we know that the process is a lot simpler than they’re projecting it to be. … Historically, some circles of the ad community have been very impressive in terms of adopting new technology. But advertisers can also be conservative about paradigm shifts; they were the last to give up D2, and many are somewhat reticent about making the move [to HDTV] in advance of the [FCC] requirement."
As a result, continued Chernoff, some of the 4MC facilities have stepped up their HD seminars. A dozen such sessions have been conducted for various ad agencies in California, the most recent at press time being TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles.
"The seminar program will show producers that they can work within the HD format economically and derive the necessary masters for both the hi-def and standard-def worlds," said Chernoff. "Once they’re exposed to the process a little more, they will be less gun-shy about doing the work to begin with. The community needs to open its eyes and understand that this is coming, and for the most part, it’s here. They’re depriving their clients of a venue in digital TV that ultimately will be the only venue. By not moving forward in this arena, they’re depriving themselves of the necessary educational foundation they’re going to need for interactive television."
Last month, Atlanta-based post/effects facility Crawford Communications, in conjunction with The Atlanta Ad Club and the Creative Club of Atlanta, co-hosted a seminar on hi-def and advertising. Diana Costello, director of business development for postproduction at Crawford, said the event was necessary because the time is right to educate the advertising community and clear up some of the confusion surrounding hi-def due to the rapidly changing technology. Costello remarked that "the future is digital television, and it’s right around the corner. Already, primetime programming is being broadcast in high definition. I’m sure advertisers will want their commercials to look as good as the broadcast programming surrounding it. We’re prepared to do that for them."
Additionally, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers’ Minnesota chapter (AICP/Minnesota) was slated at press time to hold its second annual all-day symposium (3/6) on HDTV. Experts in hi-def will bring the latest info on the medium to AICP members, ad agencies and other sectors of the commercialmaking community. HD demos and exhibits from companies such as Sony, JVC, Kodak and Discreet Logic will be running concurrently in an adjacent conference room. The event is being held at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis.
INEVITABILITY
Flame artist Johnnie Semerad, the principal in New York-based Quiet Man, is a veteran of Super Bowl advertising-his latest entry being Federal Express’ "Oz," directed by Joe Pytka of PYTKA, Venice, for BBDO New York.
Quiet Man recently wrapped its first HD spot: "The Future of Television," a :30 for RCA via Lowe Lintas & Partners, New York. Quiet Man’s Semerad and Pete Amante composited effects on the Flame for the commercial, which was helmed by Graham Wood of bicoastal/international @radical.media.
"The Future of Television" is set in a TV museum, where a night watchman is making the rounds. He passes displays depicting television’s historical development. One TV set from the ’50s shows a rocket blasting off; another highlights the ’60s, with Godzilla playing on a wood-paneled set. The guard makes his way to a futuristic living room, equipped with a flat-screen, hi-def TV. He plops down on the couch, seated next to two mannequins, to watch a football game. As a voiceover explains the benefits of HDTV, the guard becomes so excited about the football game that he knocks the head off one of the mannequins. The spot ends with spokesdogs Nipper and Chipper watching the RCA hi-def television. Quiet Man’s visual effects work centered on compositing the film footage into the TV sets throughout the museum.
Semerad said that while the exact timetable is yet to be determined, it’s inevitable that his Super Bowl endeavors will entail HD. "One day, it’s all going to be hi-def," he said. "This business is a constant revolution. Hi-def is coming. It’s one of those things that drips, drips, drips-and then it pours. You have to be ready for when it comes. People ask me, ‘Are you going into hi-def to get more work?’ My answer is that I don’t expect to get any more work. We’re doing it so we don’t lose any of the work we have."
Semerad noted that hi-def "is going to have a huge impact on postproduction companies, to the point of driving some out of the business. The emergence of hi-def as the industry standard will require a huge new investment in equipment, and many will not be able to keep up. We are already upgrading our systems to hi-def and have done a number of final resolution projects. We’re ready now as the RCA project shows."
R&D TAX CREDIT
The cost of re-tooling facilities can be considerable, and even more daunting when you factor in a yet-to-develop DTV revenue stream. To balance out those marketplace dynamics, the Association of Imaging Technology and Sound (ITS) has been lobbying for a federal investment tax credit (SHOOT, 10/29/99, p. 1), which gained support during a recent public hearing on runaway production attended by several key Washington, D.C. legislators.
The proposed R&D credit would be computed at 20 percent of a domestic post company’s current capital expenses incurred for digital post machinery and equipment, minus a dollar amount equal to the facility’s average annual gross receipts from DTV post services during the prior four years. The intent is to encourage the domestic construction of an advanced digital post infrastructure when the current demand for such services may not justify the required expense. The proposal would be structured to effectively increase the threshold for tax credit qualification, as revenue generated by digital television post services grows.
Digital postproduction equipment would be defined in the context of the Advanced Television Systems Committee standards, which have been adopted by the FCC for digital TV. Among those qualifying for the proposed R&D credit would be digital video and audio post facilities, animation houses and post equipment rental companies.
During the aforementioned public hearing (SHOOT, 1/28, p. 1), Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said that the R&D investment tax credit proposal represents a legislative "opportunity" in that there’s "tremendous interest in helping technology on both sides of the aisle [in Congress]."
