Commercial Interest

by Andrew O. Thompson

In today's production arena, the domain of commercials and music videos has become a training ground for up-and-coming directors and cinematographers. And as commercial directors segue into feature filmmaking -- often with a background in photography -- it's more common that the techniques employed to sell 30- and 60-second spots are making their way into major motion pictures. Such a situation can make for an exciting working environment for cinematographers matched with directors who have exposure in both fields.

One such cameraman is John Schwartzman, ASC, who has photographed "The Rock" and "Armageddon" for director Michael Bay. Their relationship actually predates their artistic collaborations, as the two have been friends since their junior high school years. They began working together when Bay was a student at Pasadena Art Center and Schwartzman studied at USC. After graduation, they paired up at Propaganda Films, a production house for whom they shot a slew of music videos and commercials. While at Propaganda, Schwartzman also shot advertising spots for such directors as David Fincher, Jeremiah Chechik, David Hogan and Marco Brambilla. Not surprisingly, his initial entrÚe into the feature-film market -- on Chechik's "Benny & Joon" -- was with a commercial director. Wanting to remain creatively fresh, Schwartzman is quite active on the commercial scene, shooting spots in between features. Thus far, the cameraman has found the creative synergy between himself and directors with a heritage in commercials to be a definite plus.

"What I enjoy about working with Michael Bay and commercial directors is that they come from a strong visual background," says Schwartzman. "Any cinematographer that tells you that he does not want to work with a director with a strong visual sense is lying. As a photographer, it's wonderful to collaborate with another photographer who completely understands what you are doing. The best way to describe Michael's visual style is not to say that he has one per se, but that Michael likes to put the audience right in the middle of the action. Granted, 'The Rock' and 'Armageddon' are different in terms of their visual style: On 'The Rock,' we were tearing the images apart, whereas on 'Armageddon,' we had the time, money and set design to lend an almost David Lean-like richness to the images, even though Michael ended up cutting it very quickly. But the end effect [on both] is similar, in that Michael is always trying to make you feel exhausted by the time the movie is over."

The most favorable aspect of being involved in the commercial world is the experience. The high turnover rate of shooting spots over the course of a couple days lends a cameraman a wealth of technical know-how that can prove bountiful on a movie set. Schwartzman found this to be the case when faced with a difficult shooting situation onboard a facsimile of a Russian space station during the making of "Armageddon."

"We realized that even a Steadicam would have a hard time getting through to the Mir set, which is all round with very small doorways," he says. "So instead of using a Technocrane, which wouldn't have been fast enough, we decided to take an Eyemo -- and we put two gyros on it so that everything could be stable -- and shoot the scene while running up and down the halls. That type of decision comes out of ingenuity, and the fact that Michael and I have done so much of this type of shooting in commercials. In four years, Michael and I have shot maybe 800 days of commercials, and within those 800 days came every situation you could imagine. What that experience does is give you something to draw upon. How do you get the kind of experience that Conrad Hall got in a lifetime? You shoot commercials for 10 years, and you end up doing 4,000 days. There's no substitute for the amount of time spent on a set."