Art of the Commercial

7/30/2019 Art of the Commercial

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Part I

Learning to Communicate With Images

"Don't tell 'em, show 'em." That was the mantra of David Ogilvy, the man

credited with perfecting the modern advertisement. Ogilvy knew that as TVevolved, communication with images would be faster, more memorable andmore interesting -- in a word, effective.

Television advertising has been evolving at breakneck speed in the decadessince Ogilvy offered his sage advice. Globalization, channel surfing, theadvent of cable, including MTV, and the evolution of hybrid imaging -- thetechnological revolution wrought by telecines, electronic editing andeffects, and the computer -- have all influenced the art of deliveringcommercial messages on television.

The reality is that contemporary TV viewers -- generation X, the main targetfor most advertisers -- see things differently than their parents did. They aremore skeptical, more visually literate, and much more likely to tune out.

In other words, Ogilvy's dictum still rings true. The globalization ofcommerce is motivating advertisers to use moving images to transcendlanguage and cultural barriers. Sophisticated channel surfers aren't linearTV viewers like their parents who routinely spent entire evenings watchingprogramming on one network. Today's audience will predictably beginsurfing within seconds if the content on the screen doesn't grab and holdtheir attention. Many were nurtured by MTV which taught them how to read

images like words. Daniel Pearl, a cutting edge cinematographer whopreviously explored undiscovered visual territory at the beginning of theMTV revolution, observed that people who watched the music video channelduring the 1980s tend to remember the images as well as the words thatwent with the music.

Images and Image

All TV commercials are ultimately about life styles and the sponsor's image.According to Robert Gordon of GMS Productions, a director-cinematographer with an impressive array of international TV commercial

credits, "Ultimately advertising has to hit people inside. It has to make themhappy, or evoke some kind of emotion. That emotion becomes theirinterpretation of the client, of the company that's being represented."

Audiences subliminally perceive even subtle differences in image quality,including film and video looks. That becomes an integral part of theirperception of the sponsor and their products. "We're trying to associate theclient with quality," says Carin Zakes, senior vice president and director of


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broadcast production at the New York agency The Lord Group. "Part of thatassociation is good image quality, good production values and interestingshots. We're trying to build a series of images that communicate quality."

That sense of quality can be influenced by context -- how a spot compares to

the images coming before and after it on the television screen. Duringrecent years, changing tastes augmented by rapid advances in film andhybrid imaging technologies have facilitated remarkable gains inentertainment and production values. Flip through the dial and see foryourself. The blending of dramatic images and music has virtuallyeliminated "talking heads" in primetime narrative entertainment. Even sit-coms are now mainly produced on film because of this trend. For example,DreamWorks SKG makes everyday use of a fifth film camera mounted on aSteadicam during the filming of Spin City.

This trend has raised the bar for TV commercial producers. "We don't know

where a spot will be placed," says Zakes. "It may come after a movie, or thenews, or a sit-com. We always have to be prepared to go for the quality, sothat if the spot comes on after the best movie, with the most beautifulcinematography, our spot will compete visually."

The effects of the higher benchmark can be felt all the way down the line, tolocal spots and promos. A rising tide lifts all ships. As the audience learnshow to associate a quality image with a film-look, regional and localsponsors are striving to keep pace by switching from a static video look,defined by the patented used car sale spot, to film.


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What's On TV?

Some studies show that viewers now take only three to six seconds todecide whether to watch a spot or switch channels. "Channel surfing is oneof our biggest challenges," says Gordon. "We must provide exciting visuals

that people want to watch and make them feel good about the company orproduct we're portraying. In a 30-second commercial, every frame has to bepowerful and dynamic. It has to grab you."

The Good News

Revolutionary breakthroughs in film, digital and hybrid imagingtechnologies are providing the creative community with powerful new toolsfor advancing the art of producing television commercials. A newgeneration of Kodak Vision films offers incomparable freedom for capturingmoving images with incredible tonality, a remarkable range of subtleties in

colors and textures, and total creative flexibility at the moment ofphotography. And a new generation of telecines and telescanners provides amore seamless interface for putting film-like images onto television screens.

The Future

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission hasprescribed transmission standards for a future Digital Television System(DTV) which will gradually replace NTSC. The FCC has defined a futurewith open-ended boundaries and no barriers blocking progress. The DTVstandards encourage open competition between the computer and

broadcasting industries, ultimately leading to the transmission and displayof more filmatic images on widescreen television sets and computers.

In the following pages, the creators of many of today's best commercialsponder these trends and speculate on the future.


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Part II

Creatives on Commercials

During the past 50 years, the television commercial has become an integral

component of our value system. At their best, commercials are a reflectionof our perceptions about our lives and our aspirations for a better future.

"Many of our beliefs about society get communicated through televisioncommercials," says Rick Boyko , executive creative director for Ogilvy &Mather/New York. "A feature film from 10 years ago might hold up today,but most television commercials would be out-moded, because they reflectmainstream culture at the time they are made."

In ad agency offices, creatives are constantly meeting challenges andcoming up with new solutions to an old problem: how to make their spots

stand out at a time when the visual quality of TV programming is spiralingupwards.

Advances in technology enable creatives to execute almost any vision theycan imagine." It was always possible to translate almost any idea to film,however some concepts were too costly," says Allen Kay, chairman/chiefcreative officer for Korey Kay & Partners in New York. "With todaystechnology, we can execute just about any idea without digging down intothe bottom of the sponsors pockets."

It Begins and Ends With the Concept

The creatives say they must always be on guard to make sure that theclients message doesnt get lost in the lust for high-tech production values.Every great spot begins and ends with a great concept involving branding.

"Branding comes from a great idea, from a concept based in solid thinking,"says Jim Noble, associate creative director for San Franciscos GoldbergMoser ONeill.

Carole Christie, senior vice president/group creative director at DMB&B inSt. Louis says that when commercials are all flash, "You dont remember

those spots. Theyre not the great campaigns that are around for a longtime. Im pleased to see less mindless technique and more neat little storylines that have the product central to the action."

TV Shows With Great Production Values

To many observers, the environment in which commercials appear hastaken a quantum leap forward. They cite shows like E.R and The X-Files,


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which are rich in production values, and Seinfeld and Frasier withempathetic character development. Creatives believe that in suchsurroundings their work must be visually competitive.

"Production values for shows are higher than theyve ever been, and the

same goes for commercials," states John Adams, director of broadcastproduction for DDB Needhams Dallas office.

"If you have to compete in that environment, you have to be equal," saysLarry Tolpin, regional creative chairman for BBDO Worldwide andPresident and CEO of BBDO South in Atlanta. "Even though you dont haveJerry Seinfeld in your commercial, you have to be equally entertaining,otherwise youll pale in comparison."

Dale Scarberry of Lone Star Films in Amarillo, Texas, says, "It's my theorythat the casual viewer of television compares everything they see with the

Coca-Cola, Miller Beer, Fed Ex and other major national spots because it'sall on the same box. The viewer is very aware of the quality or lack ofquality in the images they see. There are so many channels and so manyspots running that anything you can do to make your visuals stand out inany way is certainly worth the effort."

Since the average viewer will see a commercial many more times than eventhe most popular TV series, Richard ONeill, Director of BroadcastProduction for TBWA Chiat/Day in Venice, California, believes itsincumbent upon creatives to make each appearance memorable. "Anaverage viewer may see a commercial 10 to 15 times," he says, "so we have

to be better than anything thats out there in terms of concept andexecution. When you know youre writing spots that are going to run onhigh profile shows, theres no better incentive for a creative team."

Producing TV Spots for the World to See

With the evolving global economy, the television commercial has alsobecome a worldwide communications vehicle. In many cases, a campaignmust appeal to a wide array of cultures and tastes

yet another challenge the agency creative must conquer.

"What plays in North America doesnt necessarily play in Europe, and viceversa," explains Tolpin. "Some things can share the same umbrella concept,but the executions have to be tailored to the individual cultures."

Stating that clients are looking for cost efficiencies, ONeill says, "If you canproduce something that can run in the U.S., Europe and Asia etc., you havea phenomenal cost savings."


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These factors are filtering down to regional and local markets. "People whoare sponsoring regional ads expect them to look like national or globalspots," says Adams, "so theyre driving production values upward." He notesthat hybrid technology for transferring film to digital format for image

manipulation and editing is becoming more accessible and affordable forregional and local spots.

There is general agreement that the most pervasive advance in technologyis the remote control device. "You have to capture people's attention morequickly and keep them with something that is entertaining," says Boyko. "Ithink humor is a huge part of capturing people's attention and being able totell a story in a broad-based way that everybody can nod along to. Theadvertising industry is becoming much more about entertainment. Even thelarge marketers have gone from straight side-by-side comparisons toentertainment."

Tolpin agrees. "I dont care if youre writing a speech or producing a TVprogram or commercial. You have to be entertaining, especially in a visualmedium. If its not exciting enough, people are just going to flip channels."

Nothing Like a Film Look

Creatives agree that nothing matches the power of film for conveyingmessages.

"Film has a richer, more beautiful, more believable look," says Adams.

"Nothing else looks like film," ONeill agrees. "Nothing captures light likefilm."

Although the Internet and other new media are at the center of manydiscussions on advertisings future, creatives agree that for now, thetelevision commercial is still the best way to reach mass audiences. When itcomes to advertising on the Internet, Tolpin says, "Youre not reaching themasses, youre reaching a select market."

With all the changes that have occurred in the world of television

advertising, one truth remains: A good idea that promotes the clientsproduct in an entertaining and intelligent way will capture more viewersand create a positive impression.

"Every once in a while," says Kay, "youll see a commercial thats soelegantly simple and so bright it stands out. I dont think you need millionsof dollars to produce a great idea. You need brains."


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Part III

Commercial Directors and Cinematographers

Talent is Versatility

In the brave new world of commercials, where almost anything goes, its thetask of the director and cinematographer to transform words and drawingsprovided by ad agencies into 30- to 60-second visions captured on film. Theymust ensure that the concept connects with the target audience andconveys the client's message. "The most important thing is what theaudience feels, and that you get beneath the surface, under their skin," saysHong Kong-based director Louis Ng of The Film Factory Ltd. "If you can stiran emotional response and touch the audiences heart, you have a betterchance of selling the product."

Australian director Michael Robertson of Michael Robertson Films inSydney, believes that unless the viewer likes the company presented in thespot, they arent going to buy the product. "Fads come and go," he says,"and so do trendy techniques. Successful commercials are usually visuallystriking. They have to be above the pack. People can tell if a commerciallooks cheap, and that makes a negative statement about the sponsor."

According to Robert Gordon , the director is the person responsible forconveying the basic concept to the viewer. "Sometime clients come to uswith developed ideas, and other times its just the embryo of an idea," hesays. "Either way, we have to develop the concept it into something that's

very special and magical that will cut through the clutter of all of thosemillions of other commercials."

Gordon believes that todays successful commercial director needs todevelop a strong work ethic and dedication to his craft. "I worked as a triallawyer and competed as an athlete in the past and I find that being adirector and a director of cinematography requires probably more devotionand more skill than all those things combined." Although many commercialsare tightly scripted, a veteran director like Bob Giraldi of Giraldi SuarezProductions in New York will get a great deal of creative license intranslating an idea. "I need some leeway," Giraldi says, " but some

[commercials] are scripted so well that they just need to be executed.Because I started in advertising, I'm sympathetic to the process and I try tostay true. Its a very fine line. In the end I really am trying to sell an imageand therefore a product or service, so I hold back a little and try to make itas entertaining as possible, so people like it, or are moved by it."

When London-born, Los Angeles-based director/cinematographer Tony Kayetakes on an assignment, hes more than just a director. "I light and shoot


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the things myself," he explains. "I tend not be collaborative in that area atall. Its very much a team process once I get the images. But the gatheringof the images, I do. I'm very receptive to other people's advice in certainareas of my life. I want everyone's ideas. I just want to be the sieve, theperson that captures what I consider to be the good things and get rid of

what I consider to be the bad things."

Bring a Point of View

Todays commercial directors and cinematographers come from a variety ofbackgrounds, from still photography to feature films to music videos. Inmany cases, their work reflects the ideas and trends they bring from otherdisciplines. Director/cinematographer Peter Nydrle of G.M.S. Productionssays, "I prefer to shoot my own films because I know whats in my mind.Commercials can be a form of art, but first you have to master the craft. If acommercial connects with the audience on an emotional level, then its art.

Its what the film makes people feel about the sponsor thats important.Thats what they remember."

Like Nydrle, director Paula Walker came into commercials from musicvideos. Originally a dancer, Walker was drawn to the movement andnonlinear sense of music videos. Although shes moved into the commercialarena, she doesnt like to be categorized in one camp or the other.

"When youre inside of it, the work itself is more important, so the categorydoesn't matter so much," she explains. "I think a lot of directors now movebetween the mediums. You have feature directors who do videos and

commercials, I think all the mediums now are going to be intertwined."

Walker views her music video days as a great learning experience. "Musicvideos were just a tool, a way to experiment and have fun," she says. "It wasa way of free form experimentation. A lot of times with music videos andcommercials, you experiment on a technique that will show up later on inyour work. It's always a process of development. I think just having a pointof view about your work is the most important thing and the hardest thingto discover."

Francois Merlet of Yarra Films Australia in Melbourne and Sydney was an

illustrator and art director for some of Frances most prestigious adagencies for 18 years before he was given an opportunity to write a scriptfor a commercial and then direct it. Since then, Merlet has been directingcommercials in Asia and Australia with occasional sorties to Europe and theMiddle East.


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Merlet says this an exciting time to be a director because there is a lot morefreedom to explore new paths. "There is a revolution in advertising," hesays. "Every year, theres a different style. True talent is versatility."

The collaborative process of creating the commercial is a driving force for

Merlet. "Its like being the captain of a ship," he explains. "We start with ascript and we give it life. The most exciting part is when you receive a scriptthat gives you the freedom to explore a new path. I love spontaneity andcreating on the spot. There is always a defining moment when everything isperfect. Suddenly theres a cloud that gives you the exact look you want andboom! you go."

Like many of his peers, Henry Sandbank of Sandbank Films in New Yorkbegan as a still photographer, working as a photojournalist and in printadvertising. In the 1970s, he made the transition to television commercialwork. Sandbank says commercials have had a pervasive influence in

defining the American lifestyle. "I can see the President of the United Statessitting with his feet up having a drink watching one of my spots and notpaying much attention to it yet it influences him," Sandbank explains."There's something about the commercial when no one pays attention to itbut after a while they get the message. I think it's almost a spy-like medium.I think it's very influential, not always for the best."

Location: Earth

In todays global arena, a commercials locations may be anywhere onEarth. Director/cinematographer Toby Phillips had such an assignment for

Merrill Lynch that took him to Prague, Jakarta, and the south of Spain.

Designed to point up Merrill Lynch's prowess in overseeing industrialprivatization, the project saw Phillips shooting exteriors at the Opera Houseand interiors at Ministry of Culture in Prague. These staid images arecontrasted with high-tech industrial sites: a natural gas pipeline,telecommunication installations, and an oil drilling platform.

"We wanted the effect of the old meeting the new," says Phillips. "Wechoose really Gothic, old style buildings in Prague with lots of reds andluster. Inside there was a lot of wood, very warm and red tones. Then,

what's being talked about on the outside are these bright, whitetelecommunications dishes against blue skies. These are images ofmodernization -- guys in orange overalls working on a modern high-tech oilrig." Although based in the small beach town of Folly Beach, South Carolina,director/cameraman Bryan Elsom of Kingfisher Productions has shotcommercials for European and South American ad agencies. They havetaken him to such exotic locations as an Alaskan glacier, a Caribbean island


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and the wilds of Patagonia at the tip of South America. He says the role ofdirector is viewed differently in other parts of the world.

But no matter where the spot is being seen, some things remain the same."Whether youre telling an interesting story or creating intriguing imagery,"

Elsom explains, "commercials have to be entertaining."

Attention, Please

One of the challenges directors have to face in todays over-saturated mediamarketplace is breaking through the clutter of TV channels and choicesavailable to the consumer. The major challenge of directors andcinematographers is to make sure their clients product stands out from thecrowd in a memorable fashion. This was the case whendirector/cinematographer Jeff Zwart was hired to do a spot for HollywoodChewing Gum, a major European brand. The agencys idea called for a

storyline involving five young people hiking in a mountainous area. They getto the edge of a cliff, and instead of standing there and admiring the view,they jump off together, their back packs revealed to be parachutes.

"The idea of the commercial is to set it up that the viewer doesnt have anyidea that these kids are base jumpers looking for a good place to jump,"Zwart explains. "We found out that at Angel Falls in Venezuela, you can freefall for nearly 15 seconds, which is an eternity."

Zwart and his crew traveled to Venezuela to shoot the spot, which proved tobe a winner for the client. He says the spot more than met the clients

desire to establish brand recognition.

"From what I understand," Zwart explains, "with the television commercialsthat they produced from this shoot, their brand recognition has gone up in amajor way. It's because this particular film was so dramatic that everybodyremembered and associated it with the product. So the goal was not to sellthe gum itself, but to have that brand recognition."

Zwart believes that spots like the Hollywood Chewing Gum commercial area good example of how to retain the viewers interest. "I think you've got tolook at how it can capture a person and how it can become entertaining so

that it doesn't become such a normal 30-second obstacle, as opposed to a30-second advantage to watching TV," he explains. "Commercials are thereto sell products and any time we can maintain interest visually, we get alittle closer to that goal."

Walter Carvalho, director-cinematographer for Julio Xavier Filmes, in SaoPaulo, Brazil, believes an important part of the art of filmmaking lies in thedetails. A commercial Carvalho shot for Bic illustrates this obsession. The


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spot won Best Film in its category at the Clio Festival in 1978. In 1985, thatsame spot won first prize in a retrospective, at the Clios, for the bestcommercial produced during the past 20 years.

"We wanted to show the audience they could rely on a Bic lighter to work

every time they needed it," Carvalho recalls. "We lit 3,000 matches andtossed them one at a time into a pile next to the lighter. I exposed one frameevery time another match was thrown onto the pile. At the end, there was ahuge pile of matches next to the lighter." That spot, shot frame-by-frame,made an unforgettable impression that has endured for decades: Biclighters always work.

Ng believes that honesty is an important factor in breaking through theclutter and reaching the audience. "Television is a mass medium but whensomeone is sitting in front of a TV set watching the images, you arecommunicating one on one," he says. "It's like me and you talking face to

face. If one of us isnt being truthful, the other person knows."

Robertson believes that whats needed is a memorable look that tells theaudience there is something different about this product and this sponsor."The look of a film is such a subtle thing," Robertson says. "Its so subjectivethat everyone has an opinion. There are a lot of talented directors andcinematographers who are consistently pushing the edge. But, unless youstart with a strong idea you cant impress the audience with great images ortrendy postproduction techniques." Ng believes todays audience is visuallyliterate and skeptical. "I believe the goal is to personalize the company in away that makes it more approachable, more human and more touchable,"

he says. "You dont always want to paint a perfect picture. You can do somesilly things. You dont want the images to be too slick and unapproachable.Sometimes bad weather has more character than shooting on a sunny day.If the light is always beautiful, it can become a clich."

Be Prepared

Robertson believes Alfred Hitchcock was right when he said the mostimportant work is done prior to the shoot. The shoot, he claims, is justexecution. However, he says there are magic moments where somethinghappens that wasn't planned. "We were shooting a spot in the Australian

bush and suddenly there was a whirlwind like a miniature tornado," herecalls. "It came sweeping down the road. All we had to do is point thecamera and capture it on film. It wasnt in the script but we put it into thecommercial because it created a little bit of magic."

Cinematographer Jean Yves Escoffier, who has been behind the camera fora number of visual striking commercials and feature films, believes thatgood commercials come down to presenting a strong vision. "When you look


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at a painting or a great photograph," he explains, "you are looking at thevision of one person. Either you can see the vision or its not there. This isalso true of television commercials. There are not many people in the worldwith a truly great vision."

Working with the best people, Escoffier feels, is the way to bring out thebest work. "I look for directors who maintain a kind of innocence," heexplains, "who see as a child sees. I need to feel that what hes trying to getacross is pure and sincere. And also, like a child, you must have no fear."

When it comes to the technical side of commercial making, Escoffier saysthat fear should also be absent. "With all the recent advancements inimaging technology, you can do almost anything," he explains. "Its such abig opportunity. Today you have two technologies

the photochemical silver process and the electronic or digital process. To

me, it makes no difference how you combine them. The best way is to knowthem, to keep doing research on them and discover an unexpectedcombination of techniques."

Director/Engineer?

When it comes to creating commercials using special effects, tabletopspecialist Michael Schrom of Michael Schrom & Co. in New York believesdirectors need to think like engineers. "You have to pre-visualize theresults," he explains. "Its like designing a building from the outside in,where you take whats visual about the building and then figure out how to

make it work structurally. The aesthetics come first and then you try tofigure out how to make it support itself."

Schrom tries to find simple solutions to what might be considered complexproblems. For example, on an assignment involving liquid gasoline Schromand his crew spent four days experimenting at his Manhattan studio,substituting water for gasoline. The mechanical effects equipment used tocreate splashes, waves and bubbles was adjusted to account for thedifferent weights of water and gas. "Most special effects jobs are likescience projects," he says. "I like the discipline and the planning itrequires." Like the creatives, directors and cinematographers say that

nothing can replace the look of film. "I always use film because imagequality is important when you are selling a product," says Carvalho. "Ifsomeone asks about video, I say thats for news."

"Film speaks a unique language that allows the audience to see the words ofscript," says Sandbank. "It is always changing like street art or graffiti.Today you can capture the slightest nuances on film. If you have the guts,you can do almost anything."


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"No one has ever been able to define why film looks so good," says CharlesVanderpool of Vanderpool Films in Baltimore, Maryland, "why it looksbetter than reality. Videotape always makes things look harsh and 2-D like acardboard cutout. With film, people are drawn in and affected by the quality

of the image, whether theyre aware of it or not."

Art and Commerce

Although their work is done to sell a product or service, the directors andcinematographers involved believe that commercials should be judged as anart form. "If you read the poetry that someone wrote 2,000 years ago, itgives you a feeling for the people who lived in that time," says Ng. "Maybe1,000 years from now, people will dig up our commercials and say thatshow those people lived. Film is a powerful form of expression that caninfluence human behavior."

"Anything can be an art, including the creation of commercials," saysSandbank. "The art is in how you perceive and create something. Its notenough to dream, you also have to be able to paint the picture. Theres somuch clutter on that small TV box today that part of the art is to createclarity."

Nydrle also believes that commercials can be considered an art form. "Ibelieve that these two terms do not necessarily contradict themselves," heexplains. "You know there is no such thing as artsy commercials without acraft. You have to master the craft first. It's a tool to sell but if it connects

with you on an emotional level then it's a piece of art."

"In the end," says Gordon, "what makes a great commercial is thewillingness to stop at absolutely nothing, to bring home that great product.It's trudging through whatever mountains you need to get through. Itsbeing there for the sunrise when the sun comes up and you darn well betterhave your camera set up and ready to shoot. The fact that you had to gothrough all kinds of hell and high water to get there doesn't matter. The endresult is the only thing that's important because that's ultimately what yousee. That 30 or 60 seconds of film ultimately becomes the most important."


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Part IV

The Technology Behind The Spots

Evolution in the art of creating commercials has always gone hand in hand

with advances in imaging technology. A giant step in that evolutionaryprocess can be traced to the introduction of the modern telecine whichprovided a seamless gateway between film origination and electronicpostproduction and distribution.

Rank Cintel, in England, introduced the Mark III telecine in 1975. The firstunit used for TV commercial production was installed at Devlin, in NewYork, in 1977. That transition made it possible to capture high qualityimages on film and transfer them to video format for image electronicmanipulation. It marked a clear delineation in the evolution of both the artand science of TV commercial production.

A story: During the early 1980s, Daniel Pearl was shooting a music videowith director Russell Mulcahy. The song was called "It's Raining Again," andthe group was Supertramp.

"[Mulcahy] played the song for me, and said he needed 65 setups becausethat was what the music required," Pearl says. "It couldn't be 55, 58 or 64setups. He needed 65. He told me to light and photograph the performanceas well as I could, but not to worry, because I could fix any problems intelecine."

"Fixing it in telecine" was still a new concept in 1982. Rock video creatorswere among the first to recognize the potential for manipulating colors andother visual content in creative ways. By the mid-80s, Pearl and hiscolleagues were inventing new ways of thinking about film.

"We photographed the unphotographable," he says. "A minor example is theuse of DayGlo paint makeup and black light which has very low intensity.It's a wonderful look. It's the same thing with argon laser light. It'spractically invisible to most film stocks. The majority of the light output fallsbetween the blue and green spectrums but when you combine black light orargon laser light with the new high-speed films and the great lenses we

have today, you can record images that no one ever saw before."

The pace of progress is accelerating. A new generation of Kodak Visionfilms is providing a diverse range of palettes for image capture in virtuallyany situation to achieve any imaginable result. This new generation of filmsis capable of capturing images with richness and depth in tonality andcolors which were unimaginable only a few years ago. Meanwhile, telecineand telescanner technology is evolving in remarkable ways. With the


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invention of the Spirit Datacine much more of the image informationcaptured on the original negative can now be transferred to digital formatfor manipulation. With the advent of a new generation of Digital Television(DTV) receivers seemingly on our doorstep, the possibilities for the futureare unlimited.

Working Together

Film images and electronic images are fundamentally different and thedifferences begin at the moment of image capture. Film captures an imagewhen light -- electromagnetic energy -- strikes silver halide crystalsrandomly embedded in color negative film and causes a chemical reaction.Billions of silver clusters form a latent image. The slightest changes in thequantity of light results in a subtly lighter or darker image, with an infinitenumber of gradations in color and contrast.

Video systems, both analog and digital, also start with photons, which strikean electronic sensor, typically either a CCD (charge-coupled device) orcathode ray tube (CRT). These devices convert light energy into tinyelectrical charges. These charges are temporarily stored on video tape ordisk. Resolution and subtleties in tonalities and colors are limited by boththe sensor and the ability to store and transport data. Contemporary colornegative films are capable of recording the analog equivalent of 40 to 50megabytes of digital data per 35 mm frame. Film can be recorded at anyframe rate. That is generally an artistic decision, however 24 frames persecond is typical.

In contrast, the image capture device on current professional-quality CCDcameras is a chip with a geometric array of approximately 600,000individual opto-electric sensing cels for each of three colors.

The images that result from these two dissimilar image capture systems areinherently different in texture, feeling and emotional impact. Film, with itsuncountable billions of light-sensitive crystals, is able to capture much moresubtly the different shades of colors and tones. That is what enables thefilmmaker to reveal and conceal details in shadowy areas, and manipulatetextures and colors which evoke emotional responses. Some people say thatit doesnt matter because television displays are locked into the parameters

defined by NTSC, PAL and other contemporary transmission systems. Theyalso point out that current CRT displays are only capable of reproducing acomparatively limited 100-to-1 range of contrast.

Glenn Kennel, a digital imaging technology expert for Kodak ProfessionalMotion Imaging has another point of view.


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"A big advantage of film origination is the creative flexibility it allows you inpost production," he says. "The more picture information you capture at themoment of photography, the more you have to work with in digitalpostproduction. Thats where you amplify the work done by the director andcinematographer and fine tune the tonal scale to create the emotional

response that the creative team envisioned.

"With a digital camera, you're dealing with a much more limited dynamicrange," he adds. "You're sampling the image in a three dimensional grid oflines and pixels, so you're already dividing it into a discrete set of samplesand a discrete number of code values that represent its gray scalecharacteristic. The nice thing about film is it a continuous tone. The cameranegative usually captures far more than you end up translating through thetelecine, so it gives you a lot of creative flexibility in postproduction.

"When you're shooting with a digital Betacam, you need to make your

creative decisions on the set before you store the data on tape," Kennelexplains. "When you're shooting film, obviously you make a lot of creativedecisions on the set as well but because the film medium captures anextended dynamic range, you've got a lot more freedom to manipulate theimage, and pull details out of the blacks or whites, or to grade it in adifferent context for your creative purposes. With video you don't have thatopportunity, because once it's clipped it's gone, and you can't get it back."

The New Generation

The Philips Spirit Datacine was co-developed by Kodak and Philips

Broadcast Systems as a bridge which provides a higher level of artisticfreedom with more headroom for creative expression.

John Dowdell, co-founder of The Tape House in New York, is already in thefront lines of this revolution. The Tape House installed one of the first SpiritDatacines as the centerpiece of its Advanced Imaging Center during thesummer of 1996. "Film is capable of recording an incredible amount ofinformation," says Dowdell. "Subtle details in color and contrast renditionsare part of the emotional content of the story being told. The idea is totransfer as much of that information as possible into the digital realm. Withthis new telecine, we can scan film into the form of a digital file, not a video

picture. You have 2000 scan lines to work with. We can sample the negativeat near-film resolution, in real time."

State of the Art

A recent television campaign for a swimwear manufacturer illustrates howthe evolution of hybrid imaging technology is reshaping the art of producingcommercials. The spot was originated on black-and-white film and scanned


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into digital format for image manipulation with the Cineon system installedat Dfilm (Digital Film Services), in Sydney, Australia.

A high contrast, black and white look was the goal and the spot had to workon both cinema and television screens.

Exposures were difficult to match as the spot involved a lot of underwaterand poolside images. Dfilm used the Cineon system to digitally boost thecontrast and grade the color so that the spot looked perfect in bothdistribution situations. The rich image capture strengths of film werecarried through the cinema screen, while the broadcast images were alsorich, sharp and dense, according to Dfilm's Peter Doyle.

Film's format flexibility was another big edge. "The incredible advantage isthat it's a piece of film and they can play it anywhere," Doyle says. "Thereare no discussions about NTSC, PAL, or any broadcast standards. It doesn't

have to conform. We're supplying a fully graded negative. Using the Cineonsystem, we're able work on film, not videotape, which is an advantage intranslating to various broadcast standards."

Film and Emotion

The way film sees and records images is crucial to the creative freedom offilmmakers. But ask a commercial filmmaker why he or she loves film, andthe answer is more likely to involve the emotions their filmed images evokein viewers. Words like "dreamlike" and "interpretive" come up again andagain.

A recent high-end international commercial for the Germantelecommunications giant Siemens, shot on four continents, provided agraphic example. Prior to the shoot, commercial director/director ofphotography Robert Gordon, of Flying Tiger Productions N.Y./L.A., agreedto take part in a test comparing the suitability of digital Beta to that of filmfor photographing commercials. Whenever possible, Gordon set up a digitalBetacam on the same mount and performed the same move on the subject,using the same lighting and filter package when practical. Both sets ofimages were put through the normal postproduction processes and viewedon digital Beta.

Gordon's penchant for frame rate changes was immediately stifled for thevideo shots, but he was impressed with the image quality of the videoimages after color correction. "It looked better than any tape I had seenbefore, but it was still a video look. The film had what I consider to be apainterly quality. It had the look of a piece of art, whereas the tape lookedlike a very, very good news or live TV show transmission. My clients cameto the same conclusion -- tape looks like tape. You can degrade it and key


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grain onto it and do all kind of postproduction work to try and give it a 'film'look, but my feeling is, why do that when you have film? "

Gordon says that the ultimate goal is show the audience something theydon't see in their everyday life, that they find engaging and compelling and

that makes a lasting, favorable impression.

Dale Scarberry had a similar experience while shooting a spot forBoatman's Bank for McCormick Advertising in Amarillo, Texas. The spotfocused on a middle-aged marathon runner. Scarberry shot the same scenesside-by-side with an ultra-fine grain 35 mm film and a digital Betacam forpurposes of comparison.

"In one instance there was no comparison -- the film stood head andshoulders above the tape," Scarberry recalls. "There was a rich, dreamlikequality that is only characteristic of film -- with very subtle gradations of

exposure -- and you could see things in the shadows on the film that I couldnot see on the tape."

The Future is Bright

"In the near future, we'll be dealing with multiple digital delivery systems,some of them being NTSC and others being HDTV or another digital highresolution format," says Dick Sehlin, a Kodak film imaging technologyexpert. "We have the ability to customize the design of new emulsions totake maximum advantage of the parallel advances being made in digitalpostproduction and TV transmission and display technologies."

Sehlin says that Kodak researchers have enormous headroom which can bemeasured by orders of magnitude for advancing film imaging technology.The possibilities for on-going advances in film imaging technology arepractically limitless. One possibility for the future are new types of filmscalibrated for optimal performance with digital tools.

"We tend to characterize film as a mature technology," says Sehlin, "but ithas huge areas of potential growth with the evolution of a wonderfulmarriage with electronic imaging and computer-generated imaging that wehaven't even begun to tap. Hybrid imaging will add another dimension to

the richness of the final images and the artists ability to create imageswhich evoke powerful emotional responses.

Art of the Commercial

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