Eric Saarinen–an acclaimed director and cinematographer who made an indelible mark on the worlds of film and advertising–passed away last month (12/21) at Heart to Heart Hospice in Troy, Michigan, where he was surrounded by family and friends. He died due to complications from cancer at the age of 82.
On the commercialmaking front, Saarinen was best known for his long and successful tenure at Plum Productions, a shop he founded with executive producer Chuck Sloan and Holly Goldberg Sloan. Saarinen’s prolific work as a TV commercial director/cinematographer garnered 13 Clios, four AICP Show at MoMA honors, a pair of Gold Hugos and assorted other awards, including the Film Grand Prix at the 1994 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
The latter honor came for Jeep’s “Snow Covered,” an iconic spot which represented a major breakthrough in car advertising–without ever showing the vehicle. The commercial featured an unseen Jeep–created in CG by Digital Domain–burrowing under layers of snow, and stopping and turning at a stop sign that pokes above the snow’s surface.
Saarinen’s exploits over the years helped to redefine the advertising landscape, including the automotive sector. In addition to “Snow Covered” for Bozell Worldwide, he turned out such classic work as the lauded documentary series of “Road To Rio” spots for Nissan Pathfinder via TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles; the Land Rover “Discovery” commercial from GSD&M in which a 180-degree orbiting camera seemingly takes us around the world to depict Land Rover as the most well-traveled vehicle on Earth; and a whimsical Fiat spot for Italy that thrusts us into a harried, heavily trafficked city commute featuring people who are riding aboard animals.
The Fiat piece demonstrated Saarinen’s affinity for comedy which was also reflected in his feature cinematography, prime examples being a trio of films from writer-director Albert Brooks–Lost In America, Real Life and Modern Romance.
Also in Saarinen’s filmmaking DNA are documentary sensibilities demonstrated in his camera work on the Rolling Stones’ concert film Gimme Shelter, the TV series The Underwater World of Jacques Cousteau and several National Geographic specials. He additionally shot the acclaimed 70mm film Symbiosis for Disney’s Epcot Center. Saarinen’s cinematography earned him an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) designation as well as induction into the Finnish Society of Cinematographers.
Artistic genes
Saarinen was born into artistry, his father being famed architect Eero Saarinen and his mother, the sculptor Lily Saarinen. The director’s grandfather was another accomplished architect, Eliel Saarinen.
Surrounded by the creative forces at Cranbrook Art Institute, Eric Saarinen was deeply influenced by figures like architects/industrial designers Charles and Ray Eames, who were his godparents, artist/designer/sculptor Harry Bertoia, and architect/interior designer Florence Knoll. As for how he gravitated to filmmaking, Saarinen recalled in a SHOOT interview a conversation his dad had with celebrated designer/architect/creative maven Charles Eames. Eero Saarinen had asked Eames to make a short film showing the airports of the future; the project was linked to Eero’s design and architecture of mobile lounges for Dulles Airport. When Eames screened the film, an impressed Eero Saarinen said, “I should have been a filmmaker.”
Eric Saarinen was a teenager at the time working in his father’s office. He heard his dad reference filmmaking as an art and something clicked for the younger Saarinen.
“I was interested in the arts but not that much in architecture as a youngster,” he related. “My dad’s mention of film, though, struck a chord for me.”
Eric Saarinen later went to graduate film school at UCLA. His filmmaking journey began with art-focused projects, music videos and/or live performances for artists such as The Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. Saarinen’s lensing endeavors included Bobby Kennedy’s California presidential primary victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the night he was assassinated and the subsequent Democratic National Convention in Chicago marred by civil unrest and police violence against protesters.
Among Saarinen’s first professional gigs were films for producer Roger Corman. Saarinen, for instance, did second unit camera work on Corman’s Death Race 2000 and served as cinematographer for The Hills Have Eyes, one of horror-meister Wes Craven’s earliest films. Saarinen went on to lens such projects as the Oscar-nominated short Exploratorium and served as a director/cameraman on Jimi Plays Berkeley, chronicling legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix’s concert performance in Berkeley, Calif., which turned out to be his next to last concert engagement before his death.
Eric Saarinen–whose innovative vision, artistic heritage, and passion for storytelling will forever inspire filmmaking–is survived by his sons, Evan and Eliot Saarinen, their mother and ex-wife Toni Saarinen-Jorden, his sister Susan Saarinen, girlfriend Liina Tooming, ex-wife Nancy Saarinen, ex-wife DG Fisher, Evan’s partner Linnéa Moore and newborn son Espen Saarinen, Eliot’s wife Kristyn Saarinen, Susan’s children Erik Wilkinson, Mark Wilkinson and Kate Bergman and their spouses, children and grandchildren, and Nancy’s son Scott Eisner.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the endowed Saarinen Family Scholarship at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Checks can be mailed to:
Cranbrook Advancement Office
P.O. BOX 778761
Chicago, IL 60677-8761
Please indicate Saarinen Family Scholarship in the memo line and checks should be made out to Cranbrook Educational Community
Or donations can be made at: https://cranbrookart.edu/giving/
There is a notes section in the giving form where donor should indicate it is for the Saarinen Family Scholarship
