The Mediacorp HD production experience

Two years ago, when my boss, Mr Lucas Chow, CEO of MediaCorp Pte Ltd, told me to produce purely HD documentaries for the global markets, only three countries in Asia were in the comfort zone of HD technology - Japan, Korea and China. The rest of Asia was still operating in the digital BETA phase with only an elite few honed on HD productions due to their consignments with overseas broadcasters.

Then, mention HD and almost every producer would say, “Oh, it’s very expensive and more time-consuming.” The initial apprehension, if I might call it that, is due to a lack of exposure and hands-on experience rather than complete ignorance.

When Caldecott Productions Int’l went out into the region to seek new stories produced on HD, we had no lack of talented and independent documentary makers in Asia, earnest and willing to take on the challenges of producing on HD.

Our collaboration with NHK (still the pioneering leader in HD technology) to create a new pitching event called The Asian Pitch for Asian directors, also became a great catalyst to inject new hype and blood into a dormant industry that is still working on the SD format.

As Mr Lucas Chow had put it then, “HD is not a flash in the pan. It’s going to do what colour TV did for the global industry. And it’s not just pure HD that’s the driving force of quality TV. Sound is also very important and HD will not be HD without the 5.1 audio aspect.”

So, armed with this vision of creating the best quality Asian documentaries possible within manageable budgets, we bravely went where few had ventured before. I asked my production manager for a list of problems she faced initially and her list came in fast and furious.

• Producers lacked knowledge in operating HD cameras, hence footage sometimes tend to turn out badly.

• Post-houses tended to down-convert HD format to standard definition, due to lack of HD facilities and knowledge of format.

• Producers unsure about complicated technical specifications of deliverables such as their aspect ratios and audio specifications.

• Producers being unsure about the differences in shooting in progressive or interlace formats for HD.

The level of HD experience with all the regional producers we had used so far was nil. One of the biggest challenges they faced in countries like Indonesia was something as basic as the cost of tapes. It was very expensive in Jakarta and we ended up supplying the crew with tapes from Singapore. Storage of data on the XD cam was another issue. We had a mini nightmare when one of our productions when the crew could not download the files onto their hard disk because of the format requirements.

One of our pioneering winners from The Asian Pitch 2007, Faiza Khan, has this to relate of her ‘battle’ with HD: “While we were trying to work out a way to shoot on HD, we realised that no one really knew what cameras were compatible with what recorders, which in turn would work with what edit systems. So the camera rental guys could not assure us of anything beyond shooting. There was an editing house that had their own HD camera and compatible recorders and edit machines, but when it came to storage of data, no one really knew if we should store it offline or online.”

It wasn’t uncommon to hear of ‘horror’ stories being exchanged among the producers on their first ‘date’ with HD production. But once they got into the craft, they appreciated what HD technology could do for a picture and then cleverly use it to their advantage.

Sanjeev Sivan, one of the winners from The Asian Pitch 2008, also an experienced Bollywood film-maker, said, “First, it’s tough in situations with extreme contrast ratios - we found that softer even-lights work better with HD. In Indian conditions, where there is a riot of colors in a crowded location like Dharavi, it was tough getting the contrast right. In some places, we really ended up with DV like quality. Also, we took care to avoid over exposure - because the format is prone to get over exposed. In situations where it’s not always possible to carry a monitor, like when we were shooting the morning rush of Dharavi, we had to use the auto-exposure mode and found it troublesome. “

Definitely, it was a rough start for all but we did it. We opened up the elite space for HD productions to include many more independent producers around Asia and hopefully, generated more activities in the use of HD technology for documentary making. Our company has always believed that there are great stories to be told in Asia and what better way to tell them than to do so on the best video and audio technology available. The best is yet to be and we have only just begun.