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POST, LLC 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, California 91204. with Larr y where I can say, 'How dark is dark?' " VFX for Season 2 are slightly less in number, says Wiegand. The Imprint Chair, where Actives are pro- grammed is one reoccurring effect. The chair is lit with blue LEDs, and Wiegand says the lights are not full spec- trum, requiring further effects. "We've been experimenting with rear-screen projection for driving work," she adds. "There's a good amount of greenscreen." While most of the monitor graphics are shot practically, the large screen that drops down from the ceiling in Topher Brink's (played by Fran Kranz) office, the Dollhouse's genius programmer, is simply a piece of glass that needs effects applied. T H E S U I T E L I F E O N D E C K Disney Channel's comedic The Suite Life On Deck is a spin-off of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, starring twins Dylan and Cole Sprouse. The show ran for three years, highlighting the boys' antics at a fictitious luxur y hotel in Boston, where their mother was a lounge singer. On Deck takes the boys, along with young hotel heiress London Tipton (Brenda Song) and hotel manager Mr. Moseby (Phill Lewis) from the show's luxur y hotel setting to that of a cruise ship, where they've signed up for a semester at sea. The Suite Life On Deck recently entered its second season. Frank Sackett is an associate producer for the show and had a few days off from shooting this sea- son's 28 episodes (there were 21 in the first season!) when we caught up with him. "I've worked in HD before," he says of the show's transition this season. "Walter Barnett, who is the line producer, did a pilot and did a little test, and was able to flesh out the cameras at the facility. It's been pretty painless and we're really happy with the final product." The Suite Life On Deck is shot at Hollywood Center Studios, and according to VP of engineering David Maxwell, the four camera systems used are Sony HDC 1500s with the HDCU1000 control unit and RCP920 remote panel.The cameras are controlled by the MSU950 master set-up unit. Disney, says Maxwell, requires the 23.98PsF format, so the show is recorded using Sony HDWM2000 HDCAM HD VTRs. A Ross QMDX Vision 4 MLE switcher is used along with a Yamaha PM1D digital mixer for managing the show's audio. The show is delivered as just one master, "So we have to do the best of both worlds," notes Sackett of producing a 16x9 that includes a 4x3-friendly version. "We were adamant that, on-stage, we set up all the monitors so that we shot and composed 4x3, and protected 16x9. We're trying to keep all of the action within the 4x3 space. We protect and make sure there is no equipment in the 16x9. "Jerry Dunn, who does our set design, was pretty quick in picking up any of the nuances that would be picked up in high definition," Sackett continues. "We've assembled 16 episodes so far, and per episode, I might have two or three little fixes where I have to do a blow up of something that might have sneaked in the 16x9." The show shoots all day Thursday and part of the day Friday in front of a live audience, who get to see early cuts from the day before. "It's kind of like a play," says Sackett. "We do everything in order and it brings a lot of energy to the set, and the actors are always a lot better in front of an audience." Most of the action takes place on the ship's enor- mous sky deck, though there is also a lobby set and two cabins that get re-dressed as necessary. All of the shooting is done on-set, and one episode for this sea- son proved to be par ticularly challenging, when the show's stars fall off the boat and end up on an island. "It's a very complicated episode," he notes, which includes shooting a lifeboat scene surrounded by water, "and it's a two-parter. We did not shoot that in front of an audience." Visual effects for the show are minimal, with most involving stock shots of a Disney cruise ship, which needs to be places in different ports. "Per episode, we have three to eight stock shots, and if they are out to sea, we have a bank of about 12 shots that we can use — day and night," says Sackett. "I just finished a Swedish episode and I needed to find stock to put the boat in Sweden and London. We've put the boat in places where there aren't usually big ships," Sackett explains. As for the budget challenges that come when tran- sitioning to HD, Sackett says the team "had to open it up a little bit this year.They told me, what I did in SD, I have to do in HD. Some things are a little easier, as far as visual effects. It's easier working in a 24-frame world, but at 16x9, you have more area to cover.They are al- ways tightening the belts on us. Next season, we'll al- ready have a lot of our stock shots done." Post for the show switched studios this season: they are now using Westwind Media (www.wwm.tv) in Burbank for video assembly. Audio has been post- ing at Larson Sound for the past three years. Offline is performed at The Suite Life On Deck headquar ters, with editor Jim Miley working on an Avid Meridien 10+ system. The offline is cut as a 30-frame project, and when it is assembled in Avid Symphony Nitris, it's conver ted to the 24- frame format. Audio is mixed in 5.1. Final delivery is an HDCAM master. The show is delivered long before it actually airs, allowing time for foreign language dubbing. [ cont. from 20 ] H D T V S E R I E S O P T I O N S vary during game playback.That adds an extra layer of complexity to the recording." While the trend is cer tainly to offer content on- line, Dowsett observes that "a lot of what's offered is not up to par in terms of professionalism. Soundrangers is not a community por tal for music and sound effects. We are all professional musicians and sound designers actively working in these media. Our team builds all the content, so we have really good quality control and continuity across all our of- ferings. And for those concerned with rights manage- ment, all of our material is legal and safe to use:There are no hidden issues. We own all the rights." Soundrangers has invested a lot of time in devel- oping a Website where "it's easy to find what you're looking for and check out," says Dowsett. "Since we don't have CDs or DVDs our Website has to work really well." Users can manage their content by creat- ing a soundbox of sounds specific to a project, which can be shared with clients for approval purposes. Users compiling a number of sounds are entitled to volume discounts on their totals. Soundrangers tries to make the online experi- ence enjoyable, too. "We gave the Website a retro '50s sci-fi theme," Dowsett notes. "It's not your typi- cal corporate Website. It's colorful and fun, some- thing we'd like to use!" [ cont. from 43 ] Calabasas, CA's MusicBox (www.musicboxmx.com) contributed to the two-hour History special Holy Grail in America, which aired in late September. Produced by Committee Films, the program fea- tures an original neoclassical score, as well as music from MusicBox's existing library. The show traces the legend of the Holy Grail and the chance that it may have been buried on American soil.