Success Stories:
Bose Breaks Ground with HD
By Rule Broadcast SystemsBose Breaks Ground with HD
By Erin Trahan
Producer Patty Dahlgren had never shot HD. Neither had director Nubar Alexanian. And neither had their client at Bose© Corporation. Dahlgren immediately called Rule Broadcast Systems.
“Bose is world class. Our client at Bose will not compromise – ever,” says Patty Dahlgren, a local producer and partner of Dahlgren Creative Inc. Dahlgren may be new to HD but not to doing whatever it takes to meet her clients’ needs. Often that means working with Rule Broadcast. “I’ve been in this business almost 20 years and have been working with Rule from day one,” says Dahlgren. Her team was charged with producing visual sequences for True to Life, the latest of Bose’s audio/visual/live-action experiences for customers at their retail outlets around the world. These shows had long featured high-definition still images. Dahlgren knew that the first “Bose Music Show” in High Definition video had to be more than perfect. It had to be stunning, delicious, and bold.
Dahlgren was fortunate to have exceptional creative collaborators. In addition to directing, Nubar Alexanian shot all the stills and video. His photography has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Life, National Geographic, and several other publications, including three books. For the Bose project, Alexanian and the client wanted a dramatic staging of movement and color. They traveled to Spain to find the finest authentic Flamenco dancers. The plan was to shoot the dancers, in crimson dress, on black. Another complicated scene would consist solely of shadow puppets, again on black.
Dahlgren faced a technical conundrum. Not only is black especially tricky in HD but current projectors can’t produce a real black. Her first instinct: to call Rule Broadcast. She confesses that she spent 10 hours on the phone with Rule the first week, which was just the beginning. Rule became a valuable production partner, coordinating countless test shoots and offering suggestions for technological integration and efficiency. Staff support came from multiple departments, and above all Rule provided what Alexanian calls “perfect” equipment. But Dahlgren needed more. “There are all kinds of places that rent equipment. But it’s just equipment. The support and service of a place like Rule are far more valuable,” she says. Alexanian adds, “John Rule did something no other production house did. He came to Bose and saw what we were doing. So he understood what we needed.”
What they needed was a man named Z. “We call him Z because we can’t pronounce his name,” laughs Dahlgren. Zbyszek Twarog is Rule’s chief engineer, and according to Dahlgren, chief magician. Z doesn’t go out on shoots. Period. But with all that black to shoot, Dahlgren knew that Z was what this project needed. John Rule agreed, so Z packed his bags for Nova Scotia. “Z would literally sit in front of the monitor and watch this graph-I don’t even know what the graph meant-and as soon as it peaked, he would jump up,” says Alexanian. He goes on to describe Z’s patience, his competence, and reliability. It was as if Z translated a language neither the director nor producer understood, and they were overjoyed to have him on board. Because in the end, the creative team got their black and the producer got her scenes.
Z may have the flashy, memorable nickname, but Dahlgren was just as impressed with Rule’s supporting cast. “I think I asked Joe [Rule’s general manager] for 30 quotes on the same shoot. He never once flipped out or went crazy.” And she says Rule gave her “great pricing.” With four major cancellations and a production schedule that spanned 18 months, Dahlgren relied on Rule for filling in countless gaps, even through postproduction. Rule never tired of fielding her calls. “With a major production with that many shoots, when you don’t have to worry about something, that’s huge. I felt like they were working in the same company with us,” says Dahlgren.
For Alexanian, this project marks a potential transition-from one love, still photography, to what may be his true love, filmmaking. “It’s rare that someone in my position gets to reinvent themselves so completely, and this whole gig has allowed that.” He credits the leadership at Bose, his colleagues on the project, and the technical support of the Rule crew. Though Alexanian is an artist, not a technician, he acknowledges that as both video and photography become more technical, the options increase. “But the amount of technical know-how increases too,” he explains. “I don’t want my brain cluttered with that stuff. I want to be free to have ideas about how to approach something visually. My approach can get me into trouble if I’m not surrounded by people who can keep me from falling off the cliff.”
With the cliff a safe distance away, and looking rather beautiful in HD, Patty Dahlgren is anxious to see and hear the final results. She’s not the least bit worried. With such a confluence of artistry and technology, she’s certain that the result will be, like Bose itself, world class.
