SPECIAL AWARDS SECTION
Oscar's Switch Hitters
Technical Directors Win Best Performance by a Team of Multi-Taskers
by Michael Kunkes
 John B. Field, left, and Kenneth R. Shapiro in a Denali production truck. Photo by Gregory Schwartz |
It never did become the awards show that didn’t happen, but the 80th Academy Awards, broadcast on ABC this past February 24, was almost a very different kind of happening, due to the Writers Guild of America’s battle with Hollywood’s power elite. It took the combined talents of a core group of seasoned, award-winning professionals to put on a show that may not have been a ratings success, but was a behind-the-scenes triumph for a trio of highly talented and veteran technical directors––John B. Field, Kenneth R. Shapiro and Allan Wells––who have worked together and separately on Oscar shows for more than two decades.
Field started working in television in 1965, helped build the first live television color mobile unit for Video Tape Enterprises in Hollywood, was instrumental in developing a high-definition television camera system as far back as 1972, and became a full-fledged technical director in 1974. This year marked his 12th Oscar telecast as head technical director, seated at the right arm of director Louis J. Horvitz. He has also been the TD for at least 27 Primetime Emmy Awards shows and 28 Grammy Awards telecasts (eight more as video control and engineer-in-charge). He has also won two Emmy Awards, in 1995 for Sinatra––80 Years My Way, and in 1991 for Paul Simon’s Concert in the Park.
Effects TD Shapiro, the man who creates all the on-air HD electronic effects and controls the winner walk-up effects, has been “flying the boxes” on 16 Oscar telecasts, going back to 1989. He won a 1994 Emmy for his work on the show, as well as a 2004 Primetime Emmy as TD for Sting: Inside––Songs of Sacred Love. As a DGA member, Shapiro has directed numerous episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond and dozens of live musical events, and also has his own production company, CDK Productions.
Screens technical director Allan Wells met Field in 1981 in Wells’ hometown of Las Vegas, where he was doing chyron and creating on-air graphics for local sports. Field hired Wells for the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, and they’ve been working together off and on ever since, teaming for 12 Oscar shows. Wells also won a 1993 Emmy for his TD work on The Arsenio Hall Show. As Screens TD, Wells’ primary duty from his high perch in the Kodak Theatre, is to feed images—stills, packages (special segments), win clips, walk-ups—onto any projection screen or display on the set.
Oscar Prep
Usually, Field begins his Oscar show planning a couple of months before air,
but the WGA strike left an air of uncertainty about how the event would be
staged. There was never any doubt that there was going to be a telecast, and
as late as February 1, there were a couple scenarios being considered. There
was the “A” version, the regular show. Then, barring an end to
the strike, a “B” version was planned with some stars as presenters,
but with “non-celebrity” recipients getting more on-camera time,
and an audience of industry professionals.
But the writers strike ended February 12, negating any alternate scenarios. With 12 days to put a show together, it was decided not to re-invent the wheel. Oscars production designer Roy Christopher created a set that called for only four screens––two on stage at the Kodak, and two for audience viewing. “We’ve had all kinds of screen gadgets over the years—transderms, marquees, media server projectors, versatubes, columns and even a screen wagon that rolled onto the stage to show just a single clip,” recalls Field. “Roy has a long association with the show; he knows what the stage managers need to coordinate for entrances, how scenery moves and how to make it all elegant and beautiful. And this year, he and executive producer Gil Cates felt there was no need for heavy screen usage. A lot more effort then went into featuring people and packages.”
 Allan Wells. Photo by Frank Rainey |
Wells says that the apogee for screens work was at the 72nd Oscar telecast at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium in 2000, when he built a modular rig that consisted of five towers––each four screens high––that when brought all together, formed a wall of ten squares that was 35 feet wide and 30 feet tall with material projected asymmetrically across the screens.
“That setup was the first high-visibility, hi-tech screens show,” says Wells, who is the founder of his own screens production design business, Fontastics, and a broadcast design company called Mdots. “After that, the tide started turning and producers started to go more generic. No one will ever spend that kind of money again.”
Though the number of screens varies from show to show, Wells says the basic process is the same. “Because we’ve worked together so long, John and I have developed a verbal and visual shorthand––to the point where certain conversations and processes can be skipped altogether. We all know his system and adapt our areas around that,” Wells says. “At the Oscars production meeting, Horvitz hands out marked copies of his script of over 200 pages [much longer with revisions], with very specific cues. When we sit down to rehearse for the first time, the crew becomes part of that shorthand and it becomes one big unit, all working together.”
Field recalls, “At the first tech meeting [held on February 11, just a day after an exhausting Grammy telecast on CBS that Field TD’d], Tad Scripter, the engineer-in-charge, provides as much information as possible in terms of ironing out the screens and camera requirements, and the multiple feeds–– as well as a complete overview of the show as he sees it technically. I will work on figuring out some of the video playbacks with ProQue [co-owned by technical director Rick Edwards and partner Jonathan Aroesty], our vendor who handles the Grass Valley Profiles, extremely high-performance, high-resolution DDRs [digital disk recorders] that we use for all our still and video archiving and screen feeds, in both standard and high definition. We also discuss camera lenses, positions and mounts, video and cable requirements, router control, and how much archiving we’re going to need––in what standard and for whom.”
HD Dilemma
Then there was the 800-pound gorilla in the room. In 2002, the Academy Awards
moved to the Kodak Theatre, and ABC decided to broadcast the program in HD
for the first time. The network required a “dual-role” broadcast––two
different simultaneous feeds, a 720p HD feed as well as a 4:3 “center-cut”
SD feed. Explains Field, “It’s tough for us to shoot in 16:9 and
favor 4:3 in this world of two television aspect ratios. It seems like everything
we get is in different aspect ratios, including some of the old movie and
TV clips that were already in 4:3 or 1.85:1. It’s also rough on the
cameramen, who have to serve two masters and shoot tighter in order to frame
for 4:3 and 16:9. The networks still seem to think that people will assume
something is wrong with their TV if the top and bottom of the picture is black––if
the show is broadcast in letterbox and shot only in 16 by 9 for the HD and
SD broadcast combined. That day will come, but it’s still a headache
for us right now. ”
Two television production trucks were used to produce the Oscars, both owned by NEP Denali in Burbank, California. Horvitz and Field worked out of Denali’s flagship HD “Silver” truck, while Shapiro, located in Denali’s SD “Gold” vehicle, was faced with a major challenge. To prep the clips two ways, Field would roll HD Profiles containing all the clip material in sync, then send a downconverted 4:3 version to Shapiro, who then had to cut away from Field’s program to a special output of an M/E (mix/effects) bus that is a duplicate of Field’s, and sync his SD transition perfectly with the HD. “That meant that a good number of cuts in the SD show are being left to someone else, and that can be very, very dangerous,” says Field. “I trust Ken implicitly; that’s why we’ve been working together for more than two decades.”
Shapiro adds, “With the Grass Valley Kaylpso HD switcher, John will incorporate multiple Profile keys that layer as many as two or three video playback rolls on top of the HD feed, so that every form of definition [including a 2.35:1 for the screens] gets the maximum possible picture. The Academy requests that we stay true to the films and show each film clip in its original, theatrically projected aspect ratio. We required the second truck to feed these downconverted extra levels of Profile playback, and I would switch in and out when the playbacks occurred so that the right Profile source got to the right definition feed––all in perfect sync.
“I have a Kalypso mini-panel from John’s production switcher that enables me to control Mix Effects One from his truck and source my own inputs for the 12 channels of Dveous MX [digital video effects system] from my laptop and routers in my truck,” Shapiro continues. “John and I have a high trust level, and the only thing we could get trapped in was if we were both creating an e-mem [a programmed-in timeline] or macro at the same time; the switcher might record an incomplete or erroneous effect. This was all worked out during rehearsals.”
Also at the tech meeting, Field decides on the disposition of 22 cameras, one of them a “piano cam” used for just a single reverse shot during the Best Original Song-winning “Falling Slowly” number, and another dedicated to capturing red carpet beauty shots for bumpers and commercial ins and outs. Six dedicated hand-held cameras were used for audience and celebrity shots. “We saw a lot of Jack,” Field says with a laugh, referring to the ever-present Mr. Nicholson.
There were also two steadicams and five jib arms employed. “Lou does a lot of work creating marked scripts and camera plots, and makes it a point to know where everyone in the audience is sitting. That’s how we’re able to find the proper zone for each camera operator and get the celebrities into the special effects nominee boxes,” Field explains. “We also employed a pair of specialty ‘tower-cams,’ Sony HD Cams mounted on remote jib heads, one of which towered from a position in the orchestra pit and another stationed beyond the stage right proscenium arch and used for reverse angles. “We also used one at the Grammys, and they are quite sensational.”
February 12, the day after the tech meeting, the production meeting was held—part media circus and part business. Two hundred people crowd the Kodak Theatre lobby, where a large table and PA system have been set up, with Cates and Horvitz running the meeting. Every key production person takes the mic and introduces himself, while the “big board” with the show rundown remains draped. The press is then ushered out, and the first preliminary run-through takes place. It’s also the time when everyone gets his or her questions answered. “At this point, the writers haven’t even touched the tip of the iceberg, and everything waits for the last few days to truly develop the feeling of the show,” adds Field.
The Home Stretch
The Oscars rehearsal schedule is crowded into the very long and sometimes
stressful week before air. The trucks load in on Sunday and Monday, by which
time Field has marked his scripts and completed his tech specs. Tuesday, the
cameras arrive, tech prep is completed, engineering sets up shop, and wiring
and cable are laid. The first full-speed rehearsal with Horvitz is held on
Wednesday, with full dress rehearsals on Saturday night and Sunday morning.
“Many script revisions and format changes transpire by the time we get to Sunday morning,” explains Shapiro. “We have to keep up with it every minute. Rehearsal is always the most difficult part for John and me. The effects are always the first thing Lou rehearses. We work as hard as we can those first few days, preparing different scenarios and programming all the nominee effects, win clips and keys, then pray that we get everything sourced and patched correctly and nothing gets changed by mistake. It’s a crash course every year.”
Have awards telecasts become too complex? “It’s one thing to walk into a studio that is set up to do one type of program and it’s just an engineering matter of re-patching and sourcing,” Shapiro responds. “But when you add the amount of equipment the Oscars has––with all the routers controlled through computers and the countless analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue conversions, as well as the aspect ratio conversions, it’s amazing the show comes off as clean as it does. The team of engineers from NEP Denali deserve a lot of the credit.”
“It’s important that people understand that ours is a very creative and technical job; we are not just a bunch of button-pushers,” states Field. “I think of myself as more of a production TD; to do the job right, you must have a strong sense of timing and the ability to multi-task your senses, listen to the audio and work closely with the director. I don’t want to be the one to fly the boxes on these shows and that is why I surround myself with the most experienced and talented technical directors I know and trust so they can take certain burdens off my hands.
“This nucleus has been together for many years, and the confidence I have in Ken, Allan and Rick gives me the freedom to learn the dialogue, music and effects so that I can really understand the show,” field concludes. “It’s a total team effort.”
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