The tabletop work of Derek Case of New York-based Steel Film Productions has a certain humor and edge, leading one to ask, "How does he create personality in an inanimate object?" The answer is as philosophical as it is technical. "I do bring a light-heartedness to it, but it really is a personality thing, I suppose. It’s how you view life," says Case who is originally from London and claims that his British upbringing adds humor to the way he sees things. "I suppose a person who grew up in New Mexico would shoot something with bright vivid colors but if you were brought up on a small island with lots of clouds, I think there is a certain light quality that you find with British directors," explains Case.
Thirty years ago, Case worked as a photographer’s apprentice in London, and later emigrated to Toronto where he started working as a fashion photographer with Canada’s largest magazine publisher, Toronto-based MacLean Hunter. But for Case, shooting fashion wasn’t satisfying.
"A British apprenticeship is pretty thorough and I always found that fashion didn’t encompass all I’d learned so I used tabletop as a breakaway from fashion," explains Case, who calls himself a "studio potterer." "It comes from my stills days. I’m constantly testing and re-testing and I am always learning something," says Case.
In ’89, Case opened Magic, a Toronto-based tabletop production company where he worked on hundreds of commercials for the Canadian market for clients such as Kellogg’s, Pepsi, Kraft, Crabtree & Evelyn, General Foods and Kentucky Fried Chicken. After 10 years of making Magic in Canada, Case decided he wanted to seek U.S. representation because he felt the market for tabletop directors North of the border was diminishing. "I do tend to push the boundaries on food because it is part of my personality," says Case, "but I found that in Canada that was harder to do and people were more conservative."
This past month, Case completed shooting the tabletop portion for the Dairy Queen campaign titled "The Best of Summer" via Grey Advertising, New York, and at press time he had just signed to shoot for Russell Stover Candies via Bernstein-Rein, Kansas City, Mo.
There are only so many ways you can shoot a hamburger, admits Case who says that he finds his biggest challenge is keeping his tabletop work fresh and contemporary. His mantra is to keep things moving. "Either the camera has got to be on the move or the food has because if it’s not, it just becomes a still photograph with a zoom," says Case.
"I’m constantly battling to find new techniques," asserts Case, who taps the resources of high-speed cameras (originally military spy cameras) and a small entourage of technical support. "I don’t think people quite realize how technical the whole thing is and how long it takes," relates Case. For any given job he will do a large amount of testing ahead of time and often on his own dime.
Part of Case’s secret to staying edgy is a healthy dose of watching music videos to see what, in his words, the "young kids" are doing, technically. He then draws on that, as well as his knowledge of lighting, to come up with new and innovative ways to shoot food and other products. "I have a vast amount of tricks up my sleeve and it’s not the usual mash potato tricks people talk about either," says Case.
Case also shoots live-action (last year he directed a series of spots for Nova Scotia Tourism) and will sometimes be hired to do both if the client is comfortable and familiar with his work. But he says he keeps the live- action off his reel so as not to confuse a potential client. "I’m not known in the states so I’m just trying to solely bill myself as a tabletop director," he explains.z
