The percentage of national commercials airing in HD on the Super Bowl has increased steadily over the years to the point where a whopping 93 percent are now seen in all their hi-def glory. This finding came from an annual survey conducted by Tom Fletcher, VP of camera and production resource rental house Fletcher Chicago.
Fletcher has been tracking HD activity–or the lack thereof initially–for several years running. For example, he reported that only 30 percent of the national spots on the 2005 Super Bowl appeared in HD. This went up to 59 percent in ’06, 83 percent in ’07 and 93 percent this year.
“We’ve been major advocates of finishing in HD,” related Fletcher. “And it’s gratifying to see we’re now at 93 percent. But we very much need to get that up to 100 percent, not just for the Super Bowl but all commercials. With HD television set penetration increasing, it behooves us as an industry to showcase our work in the best possible light.”
However, the local spot market doesn’t seem to be getting the message. Fletcher noted that no local commercials shown in the Chicago market during this year’s Super Bowl appeared in HD. Though he didn’t monitor the New York feed last year, Fletcher found in ’07 there were also no local spots in the Big Apple shown in HD on the Super Bowl.
Local spots thus have stayed at zero during all the years Fletcher has conducted his annual HD survey. “It’s like buying a full page ad and using only two-thirds of the space,” he related. “And on the Super Bowl, the local ads really looked like local ads when compared to the commercials shown in HD nationally.”
Yorick Le Saux Connects With Writer-Director Steve McQueen On “Blitz”
When opportunity knocked, cinematographer Yorick Le Saux, AFC couldn’t answer in the affirmative--though he desperately wanted to. Scheduling conflicts forced him to turn down overtures from director Steve McQueen on a couple of occasions--the first being for a commercial, followed several years later by a query as to the DP’s availability for what turned out to be the acclaimed Small Axe anthology. Thankfully, though, the third time proved to be the charm as McQueen once again reached out to Le Saux and the two wound up collaborating together on Blitz (Apple Original Films). McQueen, a Best Picture Oscar winner for 12 Years a Slave, wrote and directed Blitz, which makes its streaming debut today (11/22) on Apple TV+ after a wide theatrical release. Blitz, short for the Germans’ blitzkrieg bombing of London during World War II, is told largely through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy, George (portrayed by Elliott Heffernan), whose single mom, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), had made the heartaching decision to send him to the countryside with thousands of other schoolchildren to flee the devastating aerial attacks. The prospect of being separated from his mother and grandfather is traumatic for George who at his young age has also felt the sting of prejudice, having been ridiculed about his mixed-race heritage. Le Saux shared that going into Blitz, his only connection to World War II was what he heard about it from his parents and grandparents. But he was eager to work with McQueen and found that upon delving deeper into the subject matter he felt a profound bond to the story, which carries relevance to today. Le Saux said this gave him a sense of purpose to help realize the writer-director’s vision for the... Read More