Something Different

COMMENTARY

AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
Broadway Crosses the Hudson River

by Peter H. Putman, CTS

There was plenty of talk about "alternative cinema" to be heard at ShoWest 2001. The following Saturday evening (March 10), Broadway Television Network of New York, NY put their money where their mouth is and screened a special HD version of the musical "Jekyll and Hyde" to sold-out audiences in seven U.S. cities - Plano (Dallas), TX; Cleveland, OH; Peoria (Phoenix), AZ; Randolph (Boston), MA; Cincinnati, OH; Edgewater, NJ; and Merrifield, VA.

These special one-night-only screenings were the first of what BTN hopes will be regular offerings of Broadway musicals and plays. The thought behind BTN is that there is a large audience hungry for top-drawer live theater, but can't attend the performances in person due to financial or time constraints.

My wife and I secured a pair of tickets to the 7:00 PM screening at the Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas, right across the river from New York City and so close we could see the lights from Broadway. Right away, we knew this would be an unusual event - ushers walked through the pre-show audience offering fresh fruit, cheesecake, and other delicacies.

This screening was attended by several of the original cast members, as well as the show's producer. Projection was handled by a Barco D-CineStar "dark chip" chassis, set-up and supervised by Barco's new director of digital cinema, Harry Mathias. A regularly-scheduled performance at New York's Plymouth Theater was shot in 1080i, with the playback master converted to 720p and transmitted to all theaters by Boeing Digital Cinema's satellite network. The on-site 1280x720 server was supplied by (surprise!) QuVis.

Our screening was in one of the larger Edgewater theaters, complete with stadium seating and Dolby E surround sound. Due to a large number of "reserved" seats, we wound up at the very back of the theater, but the projected image was large enough to judge many aspects of image quality.

It quickly became apparent to me that the projected image had some "crushed" whites and compressed black levels. This seemed to be a combination of the current limits of TI's DLP Cinema technology and the HD master. Lighting on Broadway is all about moods and intensities, and "Jekyll and Hyde" was full of low-light challenges that strain the dynamic range of current HD cameras.

Many of the shots were in tight closeups, so much that you could see the mesh from wig, flaws in makeup, and even the small wireless microphones not apparent to Broadway patrons. This raised several questions: (A) Should the director of the electronic cinema shoots use closeups, or provide a view no better than that available from front-row center seats? (2) If closeups are used, should diffusion be employed to disguise makeup defects otherwise satisfactory for live theater?

Obviously, translating Broadway to the big electronic screen is not a simple task. There's also the process of "getting into the story", which happens much more quickly in a live theater presentation. That's why most successful musicals have extensive re-writing before placed in front of a camera, and also why some of those musicals just don't translate well to film.

After the screening, I spoke to actor George Merritt, who played lawyer John Utterson in the original cast. He was quite taken with the quality of the images and the ability to dissolve, pan, zoom, and split-screen to focus the attention on specific characters. He also thought this an advantage in identifying individual singers performing as part of a chorus.

Our audience obviously had a large number of regular Broadway theatergoers. How else to explain the applause in the theater between numbers, or the cheering when cast members David Hasselhof, Coleen Sexton, Andrea Rivette, and Barrie Ingham made their first appearances? (By the way, applauding during the performance was encouraged!)

Regardless of the technical quality of the presentation - which will no doubt get better - the big news was that both the 7:00 and 10:00 PM shows at all seven venues completely sold out. And the bottom line is what's driving electronic cinema right now. Look for more companies to test the waters of alternative electronic cinema as the year goes on.

Copyright ©2001 Peter H. Putman / Intertec Publishing
This article appears in Millimeter magazine.


						COMMENTARY
					AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Broadway Crosses the Hudson River


					by Peter H. Putman, CTS There was plenty of talk about "alternative cinema" to be heard at ShoWest 2001. The following Saturday evening (March 10), Broadway Television Network of New York, NY put their money where their mouth is and screened a special HD version of the musical "Jekyll and Hyde" to sold-out audiences in seven U.S. cities - Plano (Dallas), TX; Cleveland, OH; Peoria (Phoenix), AZ; Randolph (Boston), MA; Cincinnati, OH; Edgewater, NJ; and Merrifield, VA. These special one-night-only screenings were the first of what BTN hopes will be regular offerings of Broadway musicals and plays. The thought behind BTN is that there is a large audience hungry for top-drawer live theater, but can't attend the performances in person due to financial or time constraints. My wife and I secured a pair of tickets to the 7:00 PM screening at the Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas, right across the river from New York City and so close we could see the lights from Broadway. Right away, we knew this would be an unusual event - ushers walked through the pre-show audience offering fresh fruit, cheesecake, and other delicacies. This screening was attended by several of the original cast members, as well as the show's producer. Projection was handled by a Barco D-CineStar "dark chip" chassis, set-up and supervised by Barco's new director of digital cinema, Harry Mathias. A regularly-scheduled performance at New York's Plymouth Theater was shot in 1080i, with the playback master converted to 720p and transmitted to all theaters by Boeing Digital Cinema's satellite network. The on-site 1280x720 server was supplied by (surprise!) QuVis. Our screening was in one of the larger Edgewater theaters, complete with stadium seating and Dolby E surround sound. Due to a large number of "reserved" seats, we wound up at the very back of the theater, but the projected image was large enough to judge many aspects of image quality. It quickly became apparent to me that the projected image had some "crushed" whites and compressed black levels. This seemed to be a combination of the current limits of TI's DLP Cinema technology and the HD master. Lighting on Broadway is all about moods and intensities, and "Jekyll and Hyde" was full of low-light challenges that strain the dynamic range of current HD cameras. Many of the shots were in tight closeups, so much that you could see the mesh from wig, flaws in makeup, and even the small wireless microphones not apparent to Broadway patrons. This raised several questions: (A) Should the director of the electronic cinema shoots use closeups, or provide a view no better than that available from front-row center seats? (2) If closeups are used, should diffusion be employed to disguise makeup defects otherwise satisfactory for live theater? Obviously, translating Broadway to the big electronic screen is not a simple task. There's also the process of "getting into the story", which happens much more quickly in a live theater presentation. That's why most successful musicals have extensive re-writing before placed in front of a camera, and also why some of those musicals just don't translate well to film. After the screening, I spoke to actor George Merritt, who played lawyer John Utterson in the original cast. He was quite taken with the quality of the images and the ability to dissolve, pan, zoom, and split-screen to focus the attention on specific characters. He also thought this an advantage in identifying individual singers performing as part of a chorus. Our audience obviously had a large number of regular Broadway theatergoers. How else to explain the applause in the theater between numbers, or the cheering when cast members David Hasselhof, Coleen Sexton, Andrea Rivette, and Barrie Ingham made their first appearances? (By the way, applauding during the performance was encouraged!) Regardless of the technical quality of the presentation - which will no doubt get better - the big news was that both the 7:00 and 10:00 PM shows at all seven venues completely sold out. And the bottom line is what's driving electronic cinema right now. Look for more companies to test the waters of alternative electronic cinema as the year goes on. Copyright ©2001 Peter H. Putman / Intertec Publishing This article appears in Millimeter magazine.