American Cinematographer - September 1990 - 29

Wagner appears
from the future;
arbitrates the
battle of the
sexes;

and dis¬

covers

she's

shrunk her
in

scenes

three

new

spots

for Ford.

Transparencies by Videostill

"... If the
a

scene

doesn't work, put a

dog in it and everyone

child or
will love it!..."

ness.

Yet in the viewer's mind, we try to
establish that she is a real person some¬
where doing things that real people do.
An example of this is one of the spots we
did last year. For technical reasons, the
dealers had to have a spot that included
all of their price information - what cars

way you want to light a beautiful woman.
They are almost opposites. It took a little
bit of experimentation to work out how
we could keep the car dramatically toplit and keep Lindsay properly down-lit
from the front. We were very fortunate to
develop our method almost immediately

cials."

selling at what prices. Normally in
a commercial like that the dialog becomes
very difficult. People don't really talk in
lists. Nobody quotes exact prices. It was
a very hard-sell spot.

and we've stuck to it. It's almost a for¬
mula.
"The basic lighting for the cars
is a soft source light box that hangs above
the cars. It's about 20 x 30 feet with a silk

The latest three commercials of
the campaign are now airing in Southern
California. Each one is a good example of
the kind of savvy that has kept the series
fresh and alive for three years. In a futur-

above. It's all tented in so tf
have light spilling everywhere.

pears in front of a black marble podium
with a computer console on it. She is
dressed to represent the future and her

were

around this
was out

shopping for

car," continues
holding brochures
a

Sorenson. "She was
from various car dealers and she had
written the prices all over them. Rather
than reading the information like she had
rehearsed it, she read it right off the bro¬
chure. That, of course, is exactly what a
person
a car.

would do if they were shopping for
We created the role of

a woman

shopping for a car astounded by the prices
she finds, but it all took place on our limbo
stage."
The spare stage and lack of
props creates some special concerns for
Sorenson the cameraman. "As

a

cinema¬

tographer, the most difficult part of these
commercials is showing both Lindsay
Wagner and the car at their very best. The
way you want to

light for a

car

easier to compromise
with another person.

with yourself than
In general, I think,
when doing television commercials it's
more expedient for the director to be the
cameraman. I also do my own operating.
It's really not that unusual in commer¬

was to

put Lindsay in the role of somebody who

is not the

Lindsay's
light source is a combination of a nice soft
fill and a little edge to help separate her
and make her hair flow.
"The way we've combined
them is to make sure that although Lind¬
car, there is a
between them that she doesn't
cross. That way she is always in her light
and the car is in its light. Of course there
are those times when she is getting in and
out of cars-that's another problem. We
do spend a lot of time adjusting lights and
say

is always close to the

zone

getting everything to its optimum before
do a take, and it helps."
Although Sorenson admits that
occasionally there is some conflict in him

we

dialog is a description of the qualities of
a car

of the future. As she talks, she

pushes buttons on the console and a ro¬
tating 3-D wire frame of the Escort is built
in front of her. In the final frames, the car
transforms, through an optical wipe, into

red Escort 6T. Wagner announces that
the car of the future is here and then she
a

disappears in a breeze.
Says Sorenson, "This was not
as complicated as you would think. The
computer animation was the most diffi¬
cult part and it was done in post at Ac¬
tion Video. We shot several elements to

lay the animation

over,

including

some

between the role of director and the role
of cameraman, he points out, "It's much

plates that in dailies were surprisingly
boring. They were shots of a blank stage.

September 1990

American

Cinematographer

dog

from

27
American Cinematographer - September 1990

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