Ready for Their Close-Up?
HD's Wide Angle, Unforgiving Detail Challenge TV Producers

By Steven Levingston
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 25, 2006

Meteorologist Howard Bernstein was pointing out the range in temperatures around D.C. recently during the midday weather report on WUSA (Channel 9), the only area station that broadcasts local news in high definition.

"Look at these readings," he said, standing in front of a map, during a recent show. "It's 43 in town, 54 in Fredericksburg, and over toward the Shenandoah area 73 degrees right now."

High-definition viewers watching on their wide-screen TVs had no trouble seeing Shenandoah off to the west. But those watching on an old-format television, still the majority, saw only part of the locale on the map. For them, the temperature was 73 degrees in "doah."

Since making the HD switch last year, the WUSA news team has mostly worked out the kinks. The broadcast is shot for the rectangular screen, but producers take care to frame the picture for the narrower dimensions of the standard television. Still, surprises sometimes creep in.

"We're living in both worlds right now," said Randal Stanley, news director of WUSA 9 News.

With its disarmingly clear picture, high-definition television is showing up in a growing number of U.S. homes. Falling prices and wider consumer awareness made 2005 a banner year for HDTV sales. Now, as programming expands to meet demand, networks, stars and production companies are encountering an array of challenges from the new technology. The transition to HDTV -- considered by some as momentous as the move from black and white to color -- is requiring new attention to sets, lighting, makeup, camera angles and the syncing of sound and pictures.

From the earliest days of HD, broadcasters have worried that the sharpness of the picture would magnify acne, wrinkles and subtle production defects. Sets could no longer be made of cheap materials and tape slathered with paint. So, too, celebrities would have to take extra care over their appearance.

Phillip Swann of Arlington was watching the Academy Awards in high definition this year when nominee Keira Knightley, the 20-year-old star of "Pride & Prejudice," appeared on the red carpet. The camera moved in tight. Swann, an expert in HDTV, could see her exposed shoulder in a gown by Vera Wang and her necklace by Bulgari. He could see something else, too.

"She was covered in pimples on her forehead," Swann said.

He then studied the scene on a standard-definition television, and Knightley's pimples were gone. "Only in high definition can you see it," said Swann, president and publisher of TVPredictions.com, which tracks TV technology. "HDTV is the ultimate reality television."

He believes high definition has lifted the veil on the glamour industry. Among the handsome leading men who suffer in HD, Swann said, is Brad Pitt.

"He's a really good example of somebody the Hollywood glamour machine decided would be a sex symbol," Swann said. "But when you see him in high definition, you see all these pockmarks in his cheeks and he looks like an entirely different person -- and you go, 'Wow, is that Brad Pitt?' "

The menu of HD programming now includes sports events such as the Super Bowl, prime-time shows including ABC's "Desperate Housewives," soap operas and late-night shows where viewers can catch glimpses of the freckles on the back of Conan O'Brien's hands.

Though the audience for HD is still small, it's growing rapidly. Last year, 30 percent of all TVs sold in United States were high definition, up from 8 percent in 2002, according to Jupiter Research. In 2002, just 4 percent of U.S. households with a TV had a high-definition model. By last year, that figure had climbed to 20 percent, and Jupiter Research predicts it will grow to 48 percent by 2008.

"I would definitely say 2005 was a turning point," said Joni Blecher, home theater analyst at Jupiter Research.

Shooting the WUSA news requires much less light because of the nature of the cameras. But high definition demands a more skillful mix of lights, angles and shadows to create the illusion of depth. Without those elements, the camera would make the "talent look like they were sitting against a wall," said Victor Murphy, WUSA's production manager.

The new WUSA set is a third larger than the one used for standard-definition broadcasts to fill out the wings on the screen. It is also taller. Viewers may notice a balcony running the length of the set behind the news desk. But they'll never see a human up there. The balcony is fake -- constructed for the extra height that's needed when the camera pulls back for a long wide shot.

"If you went up there, it would collapse," Stanley said.

At WRAL in Raleigh, N.C., the first to broadcast local news in HD, in 2001, the new technology sometimes left viewers a little confused. Since high-definition video must be hugely compressed, it takes longer to transmit than audio, so the pictures would lag behind the sound.

"We had what we call 'lip flap' like in the old kung fu movies -- the anchor would be talking to a reporter in field, and the audio didn't match their mouths moving," said John Harris, WRAL's director of programming.

When "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" went to high definition in 1999, becoming the first network series in HD, producers agonized over how guests -- particularly women -- would look on a screen significantly sharper than standard television. Of course, not many viewers had HDTVs at the time, but NBC still went through all the steps to produce the show, redoing the control room, refurbishing the studio, adjusting the lights and ensuring that guests would be happy in the chair next to Leno.

"It was a critical thing -- and we probably spent too much time on it -- but we wanted to make sure women would be comfortable being on the show," said Rick Ludwin, NBC executive vice president of late-night and prime-time series.

Key to that comfort was getting the makeup right for the prying lens of the HD camera. Some stars have gravitated toward a lighter layer applied by airbrush, worrying that the heavier cosmetic used on traditional broadcasts would look cakey in high definition. But WRAL's Harris rejects those concerns. "I disagree that you have to have special makeup up for anchors -- that's absolute malarkey," he said. "It's consultants trying to drive the business."

Nonetheless, airbrushing is gaining in popularity. An airbrush delivers a thin, skinlike covering that minimizes blemishes and looks invisible in high definition, according to Doug McAward, president of Kett Cosmetics, a company that sells an airbrush makeup system for high-definition production.

"The HD camera sees more than the naked eye," McAward said. "If you can pass an HD lens, you can pass any test."