CRAFT HIGH-END TELEVISION


PRODUCTION


LIZ PEARSON


People don’t realise how critically sharp and clear HDR is. You need to carry out wig and make up tests because everything’s visible. You can look at a beautiful actor and they’ve got a mole in shadow or virtually a Pancho Villa mustache. Things you wouldn’t normally think about you must think about when you’re shooting it in HDR. Make up has always been designed for film, film’s a lot more forgiving. HDR is a whole new level. You’re able to see wig lines or makeup defects. You’ve got a lot more paint outs now of crew, make up and mustaches that shouldn’t exist, any blemish, anything at all like that, it will see it. It is warts and all. You do get asked a lot for beauty passes all the time because this is the actor’s mainstay.


Shoot a test on your make up and costume. People are forever asking, can you bring that costume down? Can we isolate a costume because it’s distracting?. That’s particularly true when it comes to high viz, police stripes


and so on. It just blows off the screen in day glo.


You don’t have the budget allotted all the time for testing. But then that’s a false economy. Because you end up having to paint out and do visual effects to get rid of things. And that costs a fortune. Getting it right is about monitoring, it’s about shooting the test. The amount of times somebody will say, ‘Oh, God! look, look at the makeup lines, can you smooth them?’ and then you end up adding huge amounts of cost to paint out things that people were not able to see on set? Never assume that you’re not going to see it because you are. Testing is key. Time and effort has got to be put in beforehand because it’s going to save you thousands and thousands when you come into post.


If crew stand behind the camera, they think they’re out of the way or in the shadow but when you go into HDR you can see them


Post Production Supervisor CREDITS The Great, Bulletproof, Good Omens, The End of the F***ing World, Fleabag, Cucumber


as clear as day. They won’t know unless they’re looking at an HDR monitor and even then it’s really difficult. Even though you may not see it on your return monitor. It will see everything. You just can’t be too careful. If you go into the shadow in SDR or film, you’d be able to conceal yourself. But with HDR there is nowhere to hide because of the latitude of this thing it sees into everything. If you can see it with your eye on set you can see it in HDR.


I think there’s a lack of awareness. Very few crew actually come in to post and


see the full HDR grade. It’s only normally the director of photography and possibly the producer who get to see the finished results. If they do get a cast and crew screening, it’s very rarely in HDR unless it’s a big feature.


It is critical that visual effects have got to be spot on because it will stand out a mile if you haven’t got really fantastic visual effects.


HDR is like shooting under a magnifying glass. But when you get it right it looks stunning.


Winter 2020 televisual.com 69


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