Cinematographer Danny Hiele takes nothing for granted. The first time the Belgian-born DP shot a commercial in America—three years ago, at Raleigh Studios, Hollywood—he asked if he could turn on the camera himself. "I was completely overwhelmed. I remember I got really emotional," recalls Hiele. "I was in Hollywood in the kind of studio where they shot Bogart films. When I turned on the camera, I got cold shivers."
This past month Hiele, who is represented by Dattner and Associates, Los Angeles, got another bout of the cold shivers. After the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, he received a reel of a spot in the mail from director Gregor Nicholas of bicoastal/ international @radical.media. It was Visa’s "Broadway Poem," which Hiele had shot for Nicholas. The ad, out of BBDO New York, touted Visa’s sponsorship of the Tony Awards, and had garnered Hiele honors in the cinematography category at the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show this past June. "Broadway Poem" had been re-cut as a tribute to New York and Broadway after the WTC attack, with a new soundtrack and supers.
After receiving the new version of the spot, Hiele was quite moved. "When I saw that, I had the feeling that we really made a timeless tribute to New York," explains the DP. "When we made it, we knew that we were making something very honest, and I’m really proud I worked on that job."
"Broadway Poem" takes on an entirely new meaning in its second release. While the images in the spot have not changed, they somehow seem more beautiful and poignant than ever. The commercial was re-cut to a hauntingly slow rendition of "Give My Regards to Broadway," as performed by Judy Collins. The viewer’s eye is filled with black-and-white images of Times Square—theaters, performers, bums, the privileged and the lonely. It captures all aspects of humanity coming together and moving apart, giving visual meaning to what is sometimes referred to as "The Crossroads of the World." The new end tag simply reads, "The curtain will never go down on New York City." A discreet black-and-white Visa logo then appears on screen.
"We wanted it to have that snapshot feeling," explains Hiele of the shooting of "Broadway Poem." "So that every scene has its own light and its own atmosphere."
Hiele insisted on using a black-and-white film stock for the ad. During the shoot, he flashed and underexposed the film, which created the timeless look that he and Nicholas were going for. "I didn’t want what you normally see with black and white: deep blacks and high whites. I wanted to just play with this whole scale of grays," he recalls.
Visual Artist
Hiele has spent his lifetime studying light. He began painting at age 13, and at 18 planned to attend the Royal Academy of Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, to study painting. The summer before starting school, he met a film director, Armand Van Coppenolle, who explained to Hiele the role of the cinematographer, which intrigued the young artist. "I thought I would do a couple of films and go back to painting, but I did just the opposite," relates Hiele, who still feels that his film work is an extension of his painting.
Instead of art school, Hiele attended the National Radio and Film Institute in Brussels. He also spent a year at Prague’s Performing Arts for Film and Television (FAMU). After graduating in the early 1980s, Hiele shot over 500 newsreels for a cinema in Belgium, working with an old ARRI IIC camera that had only one lens. He also shot and directed short documentaries, and commercials for the local butcher, which aired in the cinema.
While working at the cinema, Hiele got the chance to contribute on a few local feature films as a second-unit cameraman. He considers one experience in particular as being his real education in cinematography. He worked as best boy and gaffer on a black-and-white film called A Strange Love Affair, with acclaimed French DP, the late Henri Alekan (Roman Holiday, Wings of Desire). "I never learned so much about light before that film, and it gave me the confidence to do it myself," Hiele recalls. (The movie was co-directed by Eric De Kuyper and Paul Verstaten.)
By the late ’80s Heile had started DP-ing in France and Ireland. In ’91 he shot a commercial for Belgian newspaper The Standard that won the Diamond Award for cinematography from The Creative Club of Belgium.
Hiele continued to work in Europe, shooting several spots in Poland with director Marek Dawid, who is represented stateside by Gotham Central (formerly The Sussan Group), New York, and in Europe by Stillking Films, which has offices in Prague and Warsaw. In ’98, Hiele received a Clio certificate in the cinematography category for LOT Polish Airlines’ "Close to Home," out of Corporate Profiles DDB, Warsaw, and directed by Dawid. Around the same time, French director Olivier Venturini, then with bicoastal/international Propaganda Films—the director recently signed with A Band Apart, Los Angeles (SHOOT, 9/14, p. 7)—asked Hiele to DP for him on an American job. Although that assignment ultimately did not come to fruition, Hiele was still interested in working on spots in the U.S.
At that time, Fay Dattner, principal/agent at Dattner and Associates, had been given a copy of Hiele’s reel by a producer. She liked what she saw, and contacted the DP about representation in the States. "I always have this joke at home," relates Hiele. "When the phone is ringing in the evening, I say to my wife, ‘Hmm, must be Hollywood.’ One morning the phone was ringing and I picked it up and it was Fay. I said to my wife, ‘Hollywood.’ She couldn’t believe it."
Shortly after signing with Dattner and Associates, Hiele shot a film called Shades, starring Mickey Rourke. After wrapping that project, he focused his attention on the U.S. market. Since signing with Dattner and Associates for representation, Hiele has been highly sought after in the States; at the same time, he has continued to shoot work in Europe. He DPs regularly for directors such as Venturini, Dawid, and Marcel Langenegger of Propaganda. Nicholas is one of his most frequent collaborators, and invariably when the director gets a job, he calls Hiele first. "It’s only when you get to work with great directors that you really get to manifest yourself as a DP," states Hiele.
In August, Nicholas and Hiele collaborated on a Nokia ad titled "On," out of The Richards Group, Dallas. It features a couple overlooking a city with no lights. The man and the woman each has a go at turning on the electricity at different places in the city with their cell phones, eventually creating a sparkling skyline. "I was really thrilled, because the way I managed to light that couple—it was like a Hitchcock movie," Hiele says.
In the past two months, Hiele has also shot spots for Verizon, Nissan and Mazda; at press time, he was preparing to DP on a Langenegger-directed commercial for Campari. "On every project it’s extremely collaborative [with the director]," says Hiele. "My aim is not to copy things, but to find the right [angle] for every job, and to find a new look or a new approach," he explains.
For example, in his latest project for Campari, Hiele wants to try to use light to mimic the feeling of speed. "I am approaching light in a pure, philosophical way," he relates. "I am always trying to look further into things."
