American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 14

Short Takes

I

Testing a Camera With a Trio of Commercials
By Phil Rhodes

Director-cinematographer T.J. Derry has long been enthusiastic
about owning his own camera equipment. "I started off buying video
cameras with my part-time job, because I was into skateboarding,"
he recalls. Before long, this interest landed him on a professional set.
"My uncle, who's a camera operator and cinematographer, found me
playing with a camera when I was 14 or 15, and he asked me to
volunteer. He was working on a David Cronenberg short. I ended up
working with the grips and electrics, and then wound up in the
camera department for six or seven years where I had the opportunity
to work under Dean Cundey [ASC]. Since then I haven't been able to
stop doing it."
Derry's current involvement in filmmaking is principally "in
advertising," he says. Based in Toronto, Derry works closely with
production company Studio M, directing and photographing material
for clients that include Best Buy, Mattel Games, Iams and Canadian
Tire. For recent projects for EZ Seed, Kraft and the Toronto 2015 Pan
Am Games, Derry applied his owner-operator approach while putting
his most recently acquired camera - AJA's Cion - through its paces.
The Cion was unveiled at the 2014 NAB Show and began
shipping later that year. "When [AJA] announced the camera and
showed what it was, I was interested," Derry recalls. "With a first
introduction, of course, there can be a lot of resistance, but I think
that being [an early adopter] gives me the chance to try something
new."
Asked about the camera's colorimetry, he opines, "Expanded
1 [gamma preset] is the closest thing [the camera has] to log, and I
14

September 2015

really like the smokiness it gives. It has almost a European, 16mm,
short-film look to it - that milky low end, but with enough contrast
to call it an image." Derry also reinforces the key imperative of lighting
to a camera's capabilities. "I'm shooting lit spots," he says. "I don't
know anyone who's working on a professionally lit set who needs
16 stops of dynamic range."
Regarding the Cion's sensitivity, the cinematographer notes,
"With the correct settings, the Cion has about 12 stops of latitude.
The base ASA of the camera is somewhere in the 400 range, [but]
it's really tough to say because it's a global shutter, so the end-user
experiences less sensitivity because of that. I like to shoot at 500 ASA
and push the exposure a half or full stop to protect my highlights.
This camera digs into the low end incredibly well and you can pull
tremendous detail out, but you want to make sure your highlights
don't clip."
The EZ Seed commercial, Derry explains, is uncommonly dark.
"The script had an inherently ominous tone to it, and in
preproduction, it was exciting to hear the creative team and even the
client encourage a dark, graphic and moody look and feel." Derry
pursued this ambition with reference to some classic examples. "I
went home and watched some films, including Fight Club [AC Nov.
'99]," he says. "I love [ASC member] Jeff Cronenweth's mixed-colortemperature lighting, as well as his use of practicals."
Given the flexibility of a ground-up set build, Derry "set
production designers Mathew Long and Gus Franco to work finding
a way to include practicals in the environment without looking
unnatural or forced," he says. "We ended up dropping some old
China hats with 100-watt tungsten spotlight bulbs and more or less
keyed the scene with them." Skirted China balls fitted with 19-watt

American Cinematographer

Images courtesy of the filmmaker.

Directorcinematographer
T.J. Derry made
use of his own
AJA Cion
package while
directing and
photographing
advertising spots
for EZ Seed
(pictured), Kraft
and the Pan Am
Games.
American Cinematographer - September 2015

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