It would be a surprise if Zubin Mistry wasn’t interested in cameras. Shooting film is a family affair for the London-based DP. "My whole family is into the same thing. My father [Jal Mistry] is a director of photography, and my late uncle [Fali Mistry] was a director of photography," Mistry relates.
He began hanging around film sets and loading magazines in his native Bombay, India, in what he calls a great basic education in filmmaking. In ’80, he moved to the U.K. and later graduated from Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, England. From there, he knocked around London as a freelance DP.
Three years ago, Mistry began collaborating with director Mehdi Norowzian of bicoastal Chelsea Pictures and London-based Joy Films. "After months of sending reels and talking, we got together," Mistry recalls. Their first collaboration was on the ’96 Mercedes-Benz spot "Mercury," via Lowe & Partners/SMS, New York, which featured the messenger god racing a cannonball; both were passed by a Mercedes-Benz. The combination clicked and the relationship between the director and DP continues—Norowzian now uses Mistry almost exclusively.
A drive to experiment with new looks is the glue that holds the Mistry and Norowzian connection together. "We’re always trying to find new ways of doing things," Mistry explains. "That’s what keeps it ticking. If it was monotonous, we’d get fed up pretty quickly."
"The Wright Stuff," directed by Norowzian for Teacher’s Training out of Delaney Fletcher Bozell, London, is an example of the common threads that comprise the duo’s style—huge scope and heavy use of black-and-white film. The storyline cuts between wide panoramic black-and-white imagery of the Wright Brothers’ historic flight over a cheering crowd juxtaposed against extreme close-ups of a teacher recreating the flight with a model in a classroom.
Another example of the large-scale productions at which Mistry excels is "Slingshot," one of two new ads for Mercedes-Benz via Merkley Newman Harty, New York, that Mistry shot for Norowzian. The spot features five men who construct a slingshot to propel them across the landscape. Just as they are about to launch themselves, there’s a cut to a black screen and a message that reads "five people have never gone from zero to 60 faster." The scene cuts back to the men, now riding in a Mercedes-Benz.
"I think I’m much better at doing big work rather than small," explains Mistry. "Scale is quite important to me. It doesn’t have to be big lighting-wise—I love making natural exterior light work, but I do tend to do a number of very, very big studio jobs where you have to play with a lot of light to make it happen. Actually controlling that is quite exciting for me."
Crossing The Pond
Mistry has DP’d many commercials for the U.S. market recently, which to him indicates that a shift is taking place in the creative dynamics of the ad industry. "Years ago, we used to say that London’s the place to do commercials because the ideas are much better and happening over here. You can’t say the better scripts come out of London anymore because I think you’ll find that it’s almost at a par. Putting together my show reel, it’s amazing how eighty percent of the work is American, yet I shoot most of my work here [in the U.K.]. That gives you an idea, because obviously you only put quality stuff on your show reel."
Norowzian and Mistry’s recent work includes the aforementioned Mercedes-Benz spots, and on deck are two effects-heavy commercials for New York-based anti-gun group PAX: "Alice in Wonderland" and "Peter Pan," via Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York. The ads are currently being posted at Digital Domain, Venice, Calif. The DP has also worked with other U.K.-based directors, such as Howard Guard of Production International, London, and Steve Green of Freedom, London.
Mistry prefers to capture most effects in camera, as opposed to depending heavily on CGI. "We basically shot ‘Alice’ in a massive green studio," he says. "Digital Domain is going to computer-generate her entire environment. That was challenging because we had to be very precise about what Alice did and what she picked up and put down and the doors she went out. It really is an exact science to make it work well. It is actually quite painstaking. And it’s quite monotonous, from my point of view."
He does, however, appreciate the value that postproduction lends to the filmmaking process. "You’ll find a fantastic location like Montana, where we did ‘Slingshot.’ Unfortunately, the only thing not going for [that location] were telegraph poles going through the wide shot. It’s a lot easier now just to shoot it and say, ‘We’ll paint out the telegraph poles.’ You couldn’t do that a few years ago. You’ve got the best of both worlds now."
Mistry is content to remain a cinematographer and has no plans to direct. "It doesn’t really interest me. I’m more about directing the photography with a director who knows what he’s doing with the actors and their performances," he says. "I’ve found I have absolutely no interest in directing actors to perform. I’m very much interested in playing with light and cameras."
