Comedy Central to air Friends in true HD

Do they still do that on US multicam shows? Shows like 'Big Bang Theory' certainly look like they're shot on film.

Surely that's really expensive to do? I'm surprised in the days of studios cutting costs, that they spend the money to shoot on 35mm film, when HD video is now good enough quality. Perhaps future proofing? So they can blow the film up to whatever format replaces HD and sell the show again like they've done with HD and shows like Seinfeld.

Super-expensive, I shouldn't wonder.

More likely to be digital acquisition at 24fps - but I'd love someone to come along and say for sure.

Yup I recall the model of the Enterprise D shuttlecraft being particularly crummy looking closeup. They always look so odd IRL too when they are whiter rather than the shadow / internal lighting appearance on TV.

I'd expect they'd just CGI most of it. The 90s CGI certainly looks crummy enough on modern monitors in SD. I always blur my eyes slightly for the final shot in DS9 to try and avoid seeing the crummy pullout effect.

It's so strange how much you can see on a modern LCD monitor compared to what you didn't notice back in the days of smaller CRTs.

I'd prefer a mix myself. The better shots in Star Trek TNG like the ILM stuff looked fantastic, and i imagine would look brilliant in HD. An early shot of TNG that always sticks in my mind is in the first series, when they dock in the Starbase. It looks fantastic. One of the best model shots ever made I feel. I recall it was a reuse of one of the models from the films, but still!

If it is the one I'm thinking of its basically Kirk's Enterprise coming into spacedock at the start of the third movie that then has the Enterprise D overlayed. Course you then have the issue that D is meant to be considerably larger than the ship its overlaying but still.

Spacedock, I seem to recall, was the size of a room. and I will right away admit an adoration for the look of the refit enterprise models, esp in the 5/6 movies.

Actually would the ILM model shots be done on 35mm too? My fear is more that the models themselves don't have the detail on them at that res. The final shot of DS9 for example was due to the model, massive as it was, not having the level of detail on the windows needed to zoom out from the shot of Jake looking out of it.

ILM only ever produced effect shots for the first series. It was the intention to produce a range of Enterprise shots which could be reused throughout the series. It become quickly apparent that this wasn't practicable, as the stories dictated a galaxy (pardon the pun) of angles they simply hadn't anticipated.

Consequently, the rest of the six seasons effects shots were produced in-house, but they'd contractually obliged themselves to credit ILM for the run of the show, resulting in the common misunderstanding that Lucas' effects house produced everything.

I seem to recall tha ILM only ever shot on the six foot long Enterprise model (which came apart into two pieces for those murderously expensive, so seldom used, "saucer separation" sequences). The majority of the in-house shots utilised a four foot model - which, ironically, was far more detailed.

The motion-control rig was 35mm.

The footage ILM did of the Enterprise exterior for Season 1 of TNG was shot on 35mm, as two angles from it were re-used in Star Trek: Generations in 1995 (one for a Captain's Log scene, the other a closeup of the saucer separation).

It's official. Saturday 1st October at 8am. Friends in HD on Comedy Central:



So official in fact they don't even use the real logo!

Matthew Perry, and yes he was very good in it.

It was axed because - relative to its ratings - it cost too much to produce. ('30 Rock' started at the same time and had lower ratings but was cheaper to produce, so was renewed.) Which is a crying shame, although Aaron Sorkin admitted he made mistakes with the show which hes learned from. Always suspected that he'd be best suited to HBO, where he'd have a lot more freedom and that's where hes ended up- really hope the pilot for 'More As This Story Develops' works out well and there will be a series commissioned, been far too long since theres been a regular dose of Sorkin to enjoy- excellent as 'Charlie Wilson's War' and 'The Social Network' are, with 'Moneyball' out towards the end of the year.

In which case, if they've got the EDL (edit decision lists) from the software it'd be a time consuming, but straightforward, process to go back and 'recreate' the edit having rescanned the film.

Wonder if they've done the extended edits that were on the later DVD releases- I suspect they were the finished episode before it was then cut for time. If they were planning on a future Blu Ray release it'd make sense to have them available.

One thing that will be interesting to see is whether the Comedy Central airings are as cut as the E4 ones were- reading some comments they might have been using the versions intended for syndication in the US- because there were reports of cuts beyond those simply for content. If the daytime showings are cut you'd hope evening / nightime showings on Comedy Central would use the uncut versions, but I have a feeling they'll show the cut versions all the time.

Seems that from next week, Friends is removed from its usual slot in the schedule.

Scrubs at 5, Big Bang Theory at 6, Hollyoaks & HIMYM at 7, My Name is Earl at 8.

I'd imagine they will still be showing Friends at some stage this month, but it's probably a smart move to take it out of its regular spot before they're "forced" to do so, so to speak.