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[Tuesday at NAB]
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Barry Sonnenfeld Chats About TV Viewing Options
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by Craig Johnston,
~ April 15, 2008
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TV TECHNOLOGY
The DTV transition has spurred the viewing public to equip their homes with new video and sound equipment, rapidly changing the way viewers watch television. These changes will offer new opportunities to those who produce programming tailored for this enhanced viewing experience.
Few are in a better position to reflect on this new television future than veteran producer and director Barry Sonnenfeld, executive director and producer of motion pictures “Men in Black I and II” and “Get Shorty,” as well as the critically acclaimed ABC television series “Pushing Daisies.” He will be featured in today’s session “A Conversation with Barry Sonnenfeld,” 2:30 p.m., as part of the NAB Show Spotlight Series.
GREAT SCREEN, GREAT SOUND
Sonnenfeld will discuss the rapidity of the changes in the home viewing environment, which he termed amazing.
“Many people can now have a better viewing experience in their homes than they could in the big theater,” Sonnenfeld said.
He cited the new large plasma and LCD televisions, projection televisions and home theaters as drivers on the visual side. On the sound side, even in smaller living rooms, viewers are installing great Surround Sound systems sporting Dolby 5.1 or 7.1 audio.
“The viewing and sound experience often is better than you can get in your local movie theater.”
He allowed that some of this is the local theater’s fault.
“In my movie theater in East Hampton, it’s a six-plex with only two digital sound rooms, and none of them have working subwoofers.”
In particular Sonnenfeld said he likes the 16:9 wide-screen format of the new DTVs.
“It’s the same, basically, as the 1.85 format that most feature films are shot on. It has very quickly changed the way most directors in television can compose.”
Sonnenfeld said this is much different from television of yesteryear, when TV was known as the close-up medium.
“There were no wide shots, no establishing shots, no landscapes. That’s all changed, and it’s going to change more because of the advent of these new, great, wide-screen, large television sets.”
He’s already seeing a change in the programs the networks are ordering.
“More and more, networks are looking for visual material to put on their networks. Something like ‘Pushing Daisies,’ both visually and also with the quirkiness of its story line, 10 years ago it would never have been picked up by a network. So it’s letting me, as a feature and television director, shoot a very different style.”
TWO EXTREMES
With all the attention paid to the big screen, Sonnenfeld said he will also discuss the small, very small screen.
“The other extreme is that people are watching episodes of television on their iPods, MP3 players, and computers. So the funny thing is that these are two extremes within the field of television viewing.”
Will these extremes convince producers to produce alternate versions of a program for the other screen size?
“I don’t see that happening because I think the iPod viewer is a less visually discretionary kind of viewer. And I don’t see the studios spending that kind of effort. It’s hard enough creating 16:9 and 4:3 versions, so I don’t see that happening.”
Sonnenfeld said he will also look to the future during his session.
“I think theaters in particular and the studios are really embracing 3D to separate themselves from theatrical television broadcasts,” and he sees television following along with its own 3D quickly.
Helping that along is the fact that large-screen makers are starting to build a 3D mode into their sets for displaying 3D games.
“It will start with the gamers,” he said, “and second of all, re-renders of feature films to show in 3D. Then I think it will be shooting new feature films and television shows in 3D. And I see that happening faster rather than slower.”
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