September 02, 2009

2005 Next TV Conference

The day-long Next TV confab, featuring panels, workshops and demos, assisted members on their march into our industry's future. Story and pics.

When Andrew Lippman and some fellow scientists from the Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology met with CBS executives in New York to demonstrate a new-fangled device in 1982, they showed network brass what would become the personal computer—and demonstrated how it could manipulate images on a television.


“Lippman,” the skeptical execs responded, “we’re going to be broadcasting television long after you’re gone.”



Maybe so, but technology has caught up with television, influencing it in ways that, sooner rather than later, may render traditional broadcasting obsolete.



So said Lippman, now a senior research scientist at MIT, during his keynote speech at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences conference, “Next TV: Managing Your Future in the Changing Landscape of Television.”



He went on to illustrate how society has moved with with technology as well: today’s techno-savvy young people have not known life without computers and appear completely comfortable with them.



Lippman and the day-long Next TV conference sought to assist Academy members on their march into our industry's future. Held Nov. 5 at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre and plaza conference center, conference featured panels, workshops and demonstrations.


To that end, the first panel,“Your Talent in Tomorrow’s Market,” offered ways to transfer analog TV talents to new technologies.



“There is a healthy appetite for creative content” on cell phones, said Dale Knoop, Sprint’s general manager of multimedia.



“You still have to tell stories engagingly, so the skills you already have as a writer or producer are the same in the new media as in the old,” added Marlin E. Davis, whose specialty is guiding entertainment industry clients into the digital age.



Davis suggested forging alliances with companies exploring new outlets for their brands, while MobiTV’s Dave Whetstone advised remembering that most consumers watch cell-phone TV in short fragments, when they have some downtime.



In the second panel, “The A List: Are You on Top of Your Game?” new-media executive recruiter Linda Nicolai cautioned, “Don’t get hung up on whether you’re a technologist or not. You’re used to programming.”



The new skill sets, she said, include visionary thinking and a recognition of today’s multiplatform world (Forget linear!).


New-tech job hunters who want their resumé to stand out should include a mission statement summarizing what they have done and what they can offer, said Wendy Corben, vice-president of talent acquisitions at Yahoo! Media & Entertainment.



“The [existing] talent pool is finite in this area,” she said, in encouragement. “Not many people have experience.”



During the next panel, “Low-Budget High-Def Revolution: Breakthroughs in High-Def Television and Postproduction,” representatives from JVC, Panasonic, Canon and Sony demonstrated their newest lower-cost, high-def cameras, A technical discussion followed, with an audience Q&A.



The final panel, “Meeting the Demands of High Def,” addressed the challenges of a format that provides television viewers with ultra-clear images. Star Trek makeup master Michael Westmore warned that makeup must be blended perfectly and cover completely — in high def, a tiny facial line can look like a crack.



Production designer Mimi Gramatky, who worked in high def on V.I.P.,  noted that, with so much detail, she can’t tape up a set for a quick fix if it has been taken apart and reassembled; there must be a painter standing by.



Titles and graphic designer Melinda Lawton said she loves the variety of textures but had to scale down her images to accommodate regular TV sets as well.




High def provides not only a savings of $40,000 per episode, but the benefit of greater momentum, said Marvin Rush, director of photography on E-Ring: “If you’re on the third or fourth take and the actors are popping, you don’t have to [stop to] reload.”



The only downside, he added, is a lesser-quality resolution in daylight exteriors.



Dan Curry, visual effects producer on Star Trek, lauded the increasingly realistic effects the format allows, while John Amodeo, producer-director for Arrested Development, said that his show — with its verité style and last-minute editing — wouldn’t be possible without high def.



Afternoon workshops covered such topics as successful business relationships, career action plans, financial survival for freelancers, getting projects greenlighted, public relations, new income sources and casting secrets.


Throughout the day, demonstrations demystified Surround Sound and previewed the future of audio in production and postproduction.



“Surround Sound is the mix that is required today by the networks,” said Gary Lux, vice-president of audio at 5.1 Production Services.



“If the piece is going to be broadcast in standard, it will still be archived for high def, and that means high-def sound and picture.”



“Next TV” was produced by Karen Miller, Kay Sumner, Brian Zink, Linda Nicolai, David Simon, Annie Tien, Wendy Mogul, Jerry Edling and Ted Steinberg. Miller chairs the Academy’s activities committee; Sumner, chair of Next TV, is the committee’s vice-chair of professional development.


Click here to view the full list of Next TV conference participants. – Libby Slate

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