High-Definition TV Causes Worry Lines For Stars, Producers
In her 25 years as a star on television's most popular soap opera, "The Young and the Restless," Melody Thomas Scott has survived seven marriages, a newborn's death and a gunshot wound from a husband's ex-wife. But none of that matches her latest dramatic challenge: high-definition television.
"If you didn't quite blow your hair out straight enough, you're going to see a little fuzz," says the 47-year-old actress. "You can't get away with anything anymore."
High-definition television -- which shows pictures that are larger and nearly five times as sharp as those on a regular set -- has the image-obsessed television business worried that a growing audience will see more reality than it wants: the wrinkles on once-ageless actors, the cracks in set walls, the brush strokes on painted backdrops. To avoid turning off viewers, Hollywood's illusion specialists in makeup, set design and lighting are finding ways to counter HDTV's less-forgiving eye.
High-definition "really scared the hell out of us at first because the images are so sharp," says Bruce Grayson, head makeup artist for the Academy Awards, which were broadcast in high definition for the first time last spring. "A blemish on a face becomes a volcano."
HDTV seems to be catching on after years of hype but few buyers. This past holiday season, major retailers for the first time cut prices on some models to less than $1,000 -- the magic price that boosted personal-computer sales several years ago. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. calls HDTV one of its fastest-growing electronics items, and Sears, Roebuck Co. says some models sold out last month. HDTV sales aren't broken out separately yet, but sales of digital television sets -- which can be upgraded to HDTV if they don't have it originally -- rose 56% last year from 2002 to about four million units, according to Consumer Electronics Association estimates.
John Wiedner, an architect in Los Angeles, plugged in his new HDTV receiver a few weeks ago and tuned in his favorite local news anchorwoman. "My first comment was, 'Oh my God, she looks horrible,' " he says. "She looks fine on regular TV. On HD, you see every wrinkle." But he still likes her. "To actually see that they're not that perfect, it's actually kind of satisfying," Mr. Wiedner says.
The major networks have gradually been adding HDTV to their prime-time lineups for several years in the belief that the technology would inevitably catch on. Networks broadcast shows in HDTV, but only viewers with HDTV sets and feeds can see the improvements over regular TV. That means producers have to make their episodes work both on HDTV and on the standard TVs in most homes. So they are checking shots during rehearsals and tapings on two monitors, a wide one for HDTV and a standard one.
Viewers can expect to see that their favorite shows have added curtains to the windows, the better to disguise backdrops that now look as phony as they are. They'll also see more extras in the background, needed to fill in bigger screens that can show a third more picture than a standard set.
On "Friends," the executive producers told production designer John Shaffner that the actors "need to be as beautiful as possible," Mr. Shaffner says. So he painted the main set lavender, an unusual color for an apartment, but one with special effects on high definition. "All their skin tones, their hair tones, everybody looks good in that apartment," he says.
In earlier seasons, Mr. Shaffner hid cracks in the set with masking tape and paint. Now he applies putty to fill cracks and sands down the repair before painting. During a recent taping, Mr. Shaffner spotted brushstroke lines on the backdrop, a painting of a Manhattan streetscape. So he dirtied the set windows to cloud the strokes. Mr. Shaffner also uses a spray gun to spread a thin mist of paint to look like dust on the set, he says. "We were trying to get that New York feel."
To flatter their stars, cameramen on sitcoms and dramas can use a feature called "skin detail" on their lens, and it's getting more of a workout with HDTV. It involves an adjustable setting that blurs flesh tones but keeps the rest of the scene in focus. On "The Young and the Restless," more scenes are now low-lit, or shot in yellow tones to convey softness. "We try to take light off extraneous walls so it has that warm look," says David Shaughnessy, until recently the show's executive producer, who oversaw the transition to HDTV. "The lighting guys are just amazing. There are enough filters in the show so the actors are well-protected."
"The Young & the Restless" also widened a few rooms, mostly small bedrooms and offices, to include more detail for HDTV's bigger picture. The makeup artists on the show are more precise about matching makeup with skin tones, says Patti Denney, the show's head makeup artist. "The one thing is to make sure everything is blended in. I have noticed, in general on television, that a person is made up to just below the chin and then you see this white neck," Ms. Denney says. With HDTV, "now you're really aware they're wearing makeup. If a girl's in a strapless dress, there's body makeup put on, even on her legs."
To prepare for his job making up Renee Zellweger at the Academy Awards, Paul Starr watched high-definition television at a friend's house. He says he was dismayed to see Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" in "very bright" and "very heavy" makeup. He armed Ms. Zellweger with a powder compact to keep in her purse and reapply to avoid shine. He also counseled her to confine herself to air kisses to prevent smudges, says Mr. Starr.
Mr. Grayson, the awards show's head makeup artist, took the precaution of stationing other makeup artists, armed with concealer, powder, blotting paper, lipstick and eyelash glue, at every stage entrance to check whether performers needed last-minute repairs.
Many makeup artists who work on HDTV broadcasts are trying a new technique for actors called airbrushing, named for the method of doctoring photos. Artists shoot a fine spray of foundation with a gunlike machine that applies a delicate film on the skin's surface. Unlike traditional powder and liquid foundations that are rubbed into the skin to fill and cover wrinkles and blemishes, airbrushing coats skin with a smooth and even mask.
Even executives in sports television, who love the detail of HDTV, have their own worries. This season, ABC resumed broadcasting "Monday Night Football" in high definition, after abandoning the practice following a trial run during the 1999-2000 season, when it said too few people owned the sets. Preston Davis, ABC's president of broadcast operations and engineering, said HDTV's broader picture might let viewers catch players on the sidelines "doing something inappropriate for television."
高清晰电视让好莱坞明星"现原形"
25年来，梅洛迪?托马斯?斯科特(Melody Thomas Scott)一直是最受欢迎的电视肥皂剧《活力充沛都市男女》(The Young and the Restless)中的明星，她结过七次婚，经历过自己的孩子刚出生就死去的痛苦，她还挨过丈夫前妻的一枪。但所有这些，都比不上她最近面临的一个戏剧性挑战：高清晰电视。
"如果没有把头发吹得很有型，哪怕只有一条凌乱的发丝，观众都能通过高清晰电视看得一清二楚"，这位47岁的老演员说。
高清晰电视显示的图像比普通电视要大，同时清晰度也几乎是普通电视的五倍。这就使那些与图像息息相关的电视节目制作者坐卧不安，因为高清晰电视会让观众看到他们不想让观众看到的一面：在观众心目中青春常驻的明星，原来脸上也有皱纹；背景墙上的裂纹；彩绘背景上的刷子印...为了不使观众倒胃口，好莱坞负责化妆、背景和灯光的幻觉营造专家们，正在寻找对付高清晰电视的办法。
高清晰电视"开始时真把我们吓得魂飞魄散，它的图像实在太清楚了"，奥斯卡首席化妆师布鲁斯?格雷森(Bruce Grayson)说。去年春天，奥斯卡晚会第一次用高清晰技术播放。"脸上的一点点瑕疵都像火山爆发一样吓人。"
前几年商家大肆宣传高清晰电视，但买者寥寥。直到近来，高清晰电视才开始走俏。在刚过的节日假期里，主要的几家零售商首次把几款高清晰电视机的价格降到1000美元以下──这种不可思议的低价几年前曾使个人电脑的销售量猛增。沃尔玛公司把高清晰电视列为销售增长最迅猛的电子产品之一；西尔斯(Sears Roebuck & Co.)也宣称，有几个型号已经脱销。不仅如此，整体数字电视的销量都在大幅上升。消费电子协会(Consumer Electronics Association)预计，数字电视去年的销量较2002年增长56%，可能达到4百万台左右。没有高清晰功能的数字电视可以升级为高清晰电视。
几个星期前，洛杉矶建筑师约翰?威登纳(John Wiedner)新买了一台高清晰电视，当他插上电源要看平时他很喜欢的一个女主持人主持的节目时，"噢，我的天"，他说，"她的样子真可怕。"威登纳说，"她在普通电视上看起来挺好的，但在高清晰电视上，我能看清她脸上每条皱纹。"但尽管如此，他还是喜欢她。"事实上，发现他们并非那么完美，让人有种满足感，" 威登纳说。
大型电视网都相信高清晰电视会越来越多地进入人们的生活，它们已经开始逐渐在黄金时段播放高清晰节目。只有高清晰电视用户才能看到这些电视节目中改善的画质。这就意味著，节目制作既要满足高清晰电视的要求，也要符合大多数普通电视的标准。因此，他们在排练、录制节目时，要在两种显示器上检查拍摄效果，大屏幕针对高清晰电视，标准屏幕针对普通电视。
观众观看他们喜爱的节目时，也许会发现背景窗户上加了窗帘，这样可以很好地把背景掩饰起来，使它们看起来不那么假。观众可能还会觉得节目里的临时演员多了，这主要是为了填满高清晰电视比普通电视大出的三分之一的屏幕。
《六人行》(Friends)的执行制作人对策划人约翰?沙夫纳(John Shaffner)说，演员"要尽可能地漂亮"。为了做到这一点，沙夫纳把主布景涂成淡紫色，这种颜色很少用于公寓装饰，但在高清晰画面上的效果却出奇地好。"他们的肤色、发色都不错，所有人在那间房子里看起来都很漂亮，"他说。
沙夫纳原先用遮蔽胶带和油漆盖住背景上的裂痕。现在他用灰泥填补裂缝，用砂纸磨平，然后才上颜料。在最近一次录制中，沙夫纳发现背景上有刷子印。这是一个曼哈顿街景。于是他把背景窗户弄脏来掩盖这些刷子印。沙夫纳还用喷漆枪喷上一层薄薄的雾，像是背景上的尘埃。他说："我们竭力营造纽约的感觉。"
为了使明星们看起来漂亮，连续剧和戏剧摄影师们在镜头上使用一种叫"皮肤细节模糊"技术，目前正在高清晰电视上试验。这项技术可通过调节设置来模糊肤色，同时保持其余部份仍然聚焦。在《活力充沛都市男女》中，更多的镜头现在是在低光下拍摄的，或者在黄色调下拍摄，以达到柔和的效果。"我们试图把次要的背景墙的灯光撤掉，这样看起来更温暖，"大卫?肖内西(David Shaughnessy)说。直到最近他一直是该片的执行制作人，负责将其转换为可供高清晰电视用户观看的节目。"镜头师太棒了。他们使用了足够的滤镜，演员的形像得到很好的保护。"
《活力充沛都市男女》还把一些房间扩大了──大多数是卧室和办公室，以便拍到更多细节，满足高清晰电视的大屏幕。该片的首席化妆师帕蒂?丹尼(Patti Denney)说，化妆师尽量使化妆与肤色相配。"我们要确保整个画面很协调。我发现，一般电视拍摄中，化妆到下巴以下就行了，观众能看到明星白白的脖子"丹尼说。有了高清晰电视，"情况就不同了。如果一个女孩穿无带裙，身上和腿上都要化妆。"
为了准备在奥斯卡当晚给雷内?泽尔威格(Renee Zellweger)化妆， 保罗?斯塔尔(Paul Starr)在朋友家看高清晰电视。他说，他十分惊讶地看到杰伊?列诺(Jay Leno)在《今夜秀》(The Tonight Show)中的化妆"非常白"、"非常重"。他让泽尔威格在手提包里带著粉盒，及时补妆，避免脸上出现油光。他也建议她少做见面时的拥吻，以免沾上污迹。
格雷森还让化妆师把守在舞台的各个入口，他们带著遮瑕膏、粉盒、面油纸、唇膏和睫毛膏，检查每个即将出场的人，必要时作最后的补救。 许多为高清晰电视节目工作的化妆师，正在试用一种叫油漆喷雾器的技术，它得名于照片修复技术。化妆师们用一个形似枪的机器在演员的脸上喷一层细致的底膜。传统的化妆是在皮肤上抹粉状或液态粉底，以遮盖皱纹和瑕疵。喷雾技术与此不同，它在皮肤上蒙一层平滑的面膜。
就连酷爱高清晰电视细致画质的运动节目负责人也有担 。这个赛季，ABC重新用高清晰技术播放《周一晚间足球》(deta'Monday Night Football)。而在1999－2000赛季时，他们经过一番试验后放弃了这种做法，因为当时很少家庭有高清晰电视机。ABC的运作及工程总监普雷斯顿?戴维斯(Preston Davis)说，观众可能会在高清晰电视的宽画面上看到有些运动员在边界线上，做一些不适合电视播放的动作。
