While the practice of "protecting" television programs for HD in post is well established, and a handful of programs are using older, 30fps HD technology, Sony's 24p high-def format only recently arrived in the TV production universe. This season, Fox's second-year sitcom Titus became one of the first multi-camera network shows to evolve from 35mm film production into full-blown 24p HD production.

Titus is currently shooting 22 new episodes (seven were finished at press-time), using four Sony F-900 HD cameras, configured with Panavision Primo Digital 11:1 zoom lenses. Titus producer John Amodeo says Fox's decision to greenlight his 24p proposal was simply a logical extension of their need to protect episodes for future HD broadcast.

"In its first season, Titus was shot on film and then transferred to, and edited in, PAL, in order to protect for HD," says Amodeo. "We began wondering that if we wanted to protect for HD, why not just shoot in HD? As it turned out, Fox officials were investigating HD as well, and they agreed to let us pursue it."

Under DP Bobby Byrne, virtually the same film crew that worked on Titus in its first season transitioned in a matter of weeks into a 24p crew.

Byrne - an established film and TV DP who had never worked with HD - conducted early shoots almost exactly as he would a film shoot, with only minor concessions made for lighting and other issues. He says he eventually learned enough to "make progress" in compensating for HD's main "drawback" related to episodic television: its superior clarity regarding depth of field.

"I wouldn't say we've conquered the depth-of-field problem, but we have made progress," says Byrne. "One thing I learned was to shoot with an almost totally open lens, making the depth of field more shallow. The second thing we did was physically widen our camera aisle. This lets our cameras roam more, since they are on dollies, film-style, and not on pedestals. We opened the aisle to about 18 feet, which lets me get the cameras physically further from the actors, which also reduces depth of field. We also made the background more muted, by using darker paints and lights. Finally, I added more diffusion on the lens, using different filters, which reduced some of the sharpness."

Amodeo says the switch to 24p has resulted in modest cost savings. He explains, however, that what were once hypothetical debates about how to staff crews and budget TV productions in an HD world are now reality for shows like Titus.

"We have saved money, mainly in post," says Amodeo. "We have no film stock costs, no developing costs, no telecine costs, and that saves many thousands of dollars. On the other hand, you need to add engineers and cable pullers to your crew, and the camera packages themselves are not cheap to rent - a little higher than a typical 35mm package. So we end up spending some of the money we saved in post elsewhere. We made a conscious decision to use the same crew we had during the first season and shoot film style - with assistant camera operators, dolly grips, and so on.

"One of the looming issues to be decided is whether high-def shows like ours will be produced under union film agreements or tape agreements. We shot this year under the IATSE film agreement, deliberately choosing not to save money with a tape crew. I'd estimate that while our post savings might be as much as $25,000 per episode, we have probably actually saved closer to $10,000 per episode, which is still significant."