Denmark’s TV3 makes glossy drama in HD

Produced by Nordisk Film and featuring some of the top actors in Denmark, the 48 x 30-minute drama will hit Danish TV screens this autumn in a welter of designer fashion, expensive cars, luxurious living and plot twists.

Broadcaster TV3 is hoping that 2900 Happiness — the name derives from the 2900 postcode of the posh north Copenhagen suburb of Hellerup where it is set — will rapidly become event TV, and has pulled out all the stops to make sure that happens. That includes shooting it at the very best quality, which has seen the production use two HDW-750P camcorders supplied by EBH Denmark.

Henrik Jongdal is co-producer on the show and has also worked as a DoP. As a result, he sees nothing remarkable about shooting on HD to faze him. “I have had great experiences using HD in several workshops over the past years and last year I shot a feature film using the Sony HDW-750P,” he says matter-of-factly. And it’s as prosaic as that. No fuss, no bother, HD is just another format. It just so happens that it’s a very, very good one.

The shooting schedule is a long one and has involved Nordisk producing two episodes a week for 24 weeks. Indeed, the series is still shooting all the way through until mid-October. The plot is suitably labyrinthine, involving dynastic power struggles in the Hellerup suburb’s major company, as carefully constructed social façades start to crumble. There have been no such problems with the HDW-750Ps, which Jongdal had used successfully on previous projects.

Filmic style

The adaptability and flexibility of the camcorders has seen the production shoot in a very filmic style, with the makers of 2900 Happiness choosing to mount the P+S Technik PRO35 image converter on the front of the camcorders. This means that the crew has been able to use standard film lenses, giving the production access to the same depth of field, focus and angle of view as with a 35mm motion picture camera. This, says Jongdal, accounts for much of the look of the drama. Jongdal also used camera settings that he says are “close to BBC standard. We then use some time in da Vinci or Lustre to colour grade it to the specific look we want in the scene,” he adds.

Post was either taken care of in the studio facility, or farmed out to Nordisk ShortCut, a Copenhagen-based full-service lab and digital post house. Offline was done in Avid, with the online in Adrenaline and audio being taken care of in Pro Tools.

Jongdal is happy with the way things have progressed so far. HD requires more of a 35mm sensibility when it comes to detail compared to DigiBeta, but that is balanced by advantages in other areas. “Of course, you can immediately judge the technical result through HD and waveform monitors, and we even load the material directly to Avid on the set,” he says. “We then ship the hard discs to the editors during the day, so that next day, around noon, it is possible to see the first cut from the editor.”

And when you’re in the middle of producing 24 hours of some of the highest-profile drama your country has ever seen, that is no bad thing.

22 August 2007