LOS ANGELES—From shoot locations to Kodak’s Vision2 500T 5218 motion picture film stock, several top cinematographers and director/cameramen discussed the tricks of their trade during "The Art of Great Commercials," a panel held at the Entertainment Technology World conference, which took place last month at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The panelists were John Schwartzman, ASC (Seabiscuit, Pearl Harbor), who’s repped as a spot director by bicoastal RSA USA; cinematographer William F. Bennett, who’s repped by Sherry Rousso Associates, New York; director/cameraman Michael Werk of Zystar Films, Marina del Rey, Calif.; and DP Michael Negrin, ASC, of Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann, Beverly Hills, Calif.
The old real estate adage "location, location, location," also applies to commercial lensing, according to the panelists. "The first five seconds [of a spot] have to be the most stunning seconds possible [to have an impact on viewers]," Bennett said. "Location is so very important. It takes up seventy-five percent of the frame. I spend thirty or forty percent of my time looking at the background. One of the least understood aspects of cinematography is focal length—its purpose is to choose how much of the background you’ll see."
Werk agreed: "Location is everything. The stronger ones are usually the most simple, and you want strong lines. It’s usually a graphic [setting] that gets my attention. If I can look at something on three-times [normal] speed and it grabs my attention, I know it’s pretty good. That’s how agencies generally view reels, anyway."
For Schwartzman, a spot’s concept is critical. "You can’t polish a turd," he said. "It really starts with good storyboards. If the hook isn’t good, the commercial won’t be good."
Innovation is also key, according to Negrin. "The name of the game is to keep searching for ways to put a new twist on [the presentation]." As an example, he mentioned the development of rise/tilt/shift lenses to achieve a unique look people hadn’t seen previously. Negrin also noted that where a commercial will air can impact the choices he makes in order to "make the spot pop out from the show."
The panelists agreed that there’s less room for experimentation on spot shoots nowadays, due largely to economic factors like shrinking budgets. "Shoots used to be three days and now they’re far less on average," Werk noted. Added Bennett: "There are opportunities to innovate, but mainly in ways that save money."
That said, advances continue on several fronts. On filming the upcoming Seabiscuit, Schwartzman noted, "I used most of the tricks I’d learned on commercials. [Spots] are so specific and clients will spend the money to get exactly what they want." The irony, he said, is that directors/cameramen have "less control" on commercial jobs. "You’ve got twenty-five people in a room trying to figure out if the kitchen cabinets are the right color," Schwartzman pointed out. "On Seabiscuit, we’re doing the whole movie ourselves. No one from the studio is going to come in and tell me it’s too blue." In spite of the fact, he added, far more money is invested in a big budget feature than in a :30 spot, which he finds "mind boggling."
Furthermore, the panelists agreed that advances in postproduction, particularly with coloring tools, are taking decisions away from the cinematographer and director. Nowadays, Werk noted, "If you shoot in color, you can get any look you want electronically," including what essentially appears black and white.
"A lot of tools we used to use in the field we don’t need anymore because it’s done in post," added Negrin. "So we’re not committed [to a look up front]. In spots where there are shaky ad people, in telecine we can back off and give something else [than was originally planned]. It’s a double-edged sword, though, because we can lose [stylistic] control."
Other advances the panelists touched on were the mobile technocrane vehicle (MTV) and Kodak’s 5218 stock, which Bennett called "the single most significant thing to happen to filmmaking in the past ten years." The color stock was unveiled last year, and according to Kodak, it offers superior image structure, improved color and skin tones, and cleaner telecine transfers, among other benefits.
As for the MTV, Bennett explained that when the technocrane was first developed, it couldn’t be moved, which meant a lot of guesswork when setting up for a shoot. Having it mounted on a maneuverable vehicle turned it into an "extremely versatile" piece of equipment, he said.
To that end, Bennett noted, the MTV is indicative of an ongoing need for cinematographers to communicate with suppliers and vendors. "You don’t have to accept the equipment you see in the hall," he said. "You can say ‘I need this,’ and cause things to happen. They listen to us in terms of what to build, so we drive technology."
