As reported in this week’s HD Essentials column, broadcasters and advertisers have formed a coalition to help prepare the advertising community for the Feb. 17, 2009 transition to digital television (DTV). The coalition–which consists of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Television Bureau of Advertising–will keep the industry informed of the implications of the changeover from analog to digital-only TV broadcasts in an effort to identify and address any concerns or issues specific to the ad biz.
Already the broad-based coalition has a recently released central piece of research to tap into and share, an ANA white paper from its Production Management Committee titled “The Digital TV Transition: Production Implications for Advertisers.”
Akin to the coalition itself, the white paper was born out of collaboration. Spearheaded by the ANA Production Management Committee, the white paper received valuable input from assorted sources, including such organizations as the NAB, AAAA, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, the Association of Independent Creative Editors, Advertising Production Resources, Bird Bonnette Stauderman, CBS, DG FastChannel, Level 3 Vyvx Service, MRA Advertising/Production Support Services and NBC Universal.
ANA Production Committee chair Nicholas Lemesh, who is manager, creative production, for GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, noted, “A lot of hard work and collaboration among industry sources created this simple, easy-to-understand document for advertisers.”
Among the ANA Production Committee members most involved in the white paper’s development were Lemesh and Laurence Grunberg, senior manager, commercial production at Clorox.
For Grunberg, there are several important lessons to be gleaned from the research. “You really have to start planning your images well in advance of shooting,” he said. “This is not just a situation for the director to solve because he or she is now shooting in hi-def. Creatives have to start working with images as they’re designing your ad–designing for 16:9 and 4:3 at the same time.”
HD programming, including commercials, is transmitted in the 16:9 wide screen format. If a viewer has a 16:9 television set, HD programming will fill the entire screen. Meanwhile standard-definition TV sets are 4:3, which isn’t wide enough to display full HD content. Thus the left and right sides of HD commercials can be cropped off on 4:3 television. Advertisers producing in HD need to make sure that all essential information (character action, logos, titles, legal disclaimers) resides in the center portion of the frame. This is called center-cut protection, ensuring that nothing essential is lost when HD spots are viewed on SD sets. The downside is that this approach can limit full creative use of the 16:9 format.
“I just had lunch with a friend at Pixar, [general manager] Jim Morris,” related Grunberg. “He was saying, ‘Our goal is to fill every inch of the screen with wonderful things.’ We too ask our agencies, directors and DPs to fill the screen with wonderful things–but we can only have the significant stuff in the center. We can make a gorgeous 16:9 image but just can’t have significant material on both sides….And unfortunately right now if we provide 16:9 for the networks, we have no assurances how their affiliates will handle the down-res to 4:3–letter box or center cut? I suspect eventually we’ll have that choice and a bit more control but for now, we don’t.”
And while HD set penetration is on the rise, SD will continue to be prevalent for some time. Grunberg noted that even in HD households, 4:3 remains a format that advertisers must strongly consider. He explained that while there might be an HD set in the living room, invariably there are SD sets in the bedroom or kitchen. If your target audience happens to be watching TV in one of those other rooms, advertisers have to be concerned about how their message is being presented in that context.
On the flip side, with more commercials being finished in HD and more consumers capable of viewing HDTV, the hi-def universe is expanding. This steps up the concern that SD spots running on HD broadcasts may appear inferior.
HD finishing The ANA white paper outlined key considerations for finishing in HD:
• The costs for editing and finishing in HD are greater than those for SD–approximately 10 to 15 percent, or about $5,000 to $7,500 for an average 30-second commercial. Spots with computer-generated imagery elements and digital effects may cost substantially more.
• The costs for dubbing and shipping HD spots are also higher than HD–anywhere from three to 10 times more expensive.
• And the cost for turning existing SD spots into HD could be substantial due to factors like re-transferring film and redoing graphics.
On the latter score, Grunberg observed, “Those costs can get pretty steep very quickly…Seemingly everything has some sort of special effect component to it. It’s part of the toolbox now. A background is enhanced, a new color is tracked onto an image. To go back and upgrade that to hi-def can get expensive.”
As for dubbing and shipping costs, Grunberg related, “Standard def trafficking involved electronic delivery at a pretty small rate depending on your volume. Until electronic hi-def delivery becomes the norm, broadcasters are requiring tapes. So the costs, particularly for a large advertiser, can be quite significant….Simply put, for our ’09 budgets, we have to sock away quite a bit of money for these and other HD-related considerations.”
Best practices The white paper offered the following best practices:
• Confirm with your media partners the specific requirements each has for commercial submissions.
• Be sure to discuss center-cut protection with your agency early in the creative process. The need for center-cut protection will impact all aspects of production, from concepts and storyboards to camera framing, graphics, titles and special effects.
• Consider making an HD master the universal master from which other versions can be created. These may include an SD master, international versions, and materials for media on the web, mobile, cinema, etc.
• And budget accordingly when considering the HD format.
For more on the transition to DTV, see SHOOT survey below.
Director Cassandra Brooksbank Joins Monument Content For Spots and Branded Content
Monument Content has signed director Cassandra “Cassie” Brooksbank for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She brings to her directing and storytelling the experience and skills of a writer, conceptual artist, editor and visual effects artist.
Her body of work as a director includes Pepsi’s “Selfie” featuring Lionel Messi amid a flurry of fans, Barclays madcap women’s Soccer League spot where she collaborated closely with the agency to develop the creative, ultimately winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Sports Industry Awards, and a grass-roots campaign for Fellow Coffee. The latter just didn’t brew buzz; it helped raise $1.2 million on Kickstarter.
Prior to joining Monument Content, Brooksbank had been repped in the U.S. for commercials by production house Hey Wonderful.
On the long-form front, she is repped by CAA for film and television. And on the horizon is her debut feature, My Masterpiece, produced by Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions and backed by Amazon.
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