Producers of the FOX drama Lie to Me sought to change the show's look and switch from film to digital cinematography for the show's second season, which begins airing this month. Sidney Sidell took over cinematography duties, and after much testing at Encore Hollywood, he selected the ARRIFLEX D-21 camera for the show.

We spoke with Bill Romeo, senior vice president for entertainment television at Ascent Media, Encore's parent company, about the show's new file-based workflow.

What did Encore do during the test that was out of the ordinary for a post facility?
Romeo: Not too long ago, tests like these might have been among film stocks, or between film and a single flavor of HD. Our tests involved a combination of different cameras and data formats. We are able to help the cinematographer customize the best workflow for the chosen format.

There are so many ways to work with the D-21. What configuration did the Lie to Me production team use?
Sid shoots with the camera in log mode and records directly to [S.two] OB-1 drives. Each day we bring the files into our very large SAN from the drives and they stay in their original form. These log image files retain all the picture information captured on set. We don't "bake in" any kind of color grading until it's time for final delivery.

How is that approach better than a more traditional TV post workflow?
Traditionally, in telecine dailies followed by tape-to-tape, color picture information is lost that otherwise exists in the negative or camera masters. With our all-data workflow, nothing is lost.

Tell me about the color grading.
Our colorist, Pankaj Bajpai, works in his [Autodesk] Lustre bay from original files in log space utilizing the full dynamic range. All grading decisions are added to the files non-destructively as metadata, so, again, nothing is "baked in." In our tapeless data workflow, you definitely get the most out of the D-21 cameras.

How important is it for a company like Encore to be flexible about working with different cameras and formats?
It's absolutely essential to stay competitive in the world of episodic television. You have to have experience, R&D and the massive firepower of a facility like Encore. We are always prepared, should a producer call to say, "By the way, this week we shot part of the episode on a Canon DSLR and another part with RED's new camera, and three scenes are on film. Make it all work."