American Cinematographer - January 1993 - 32

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for

a

spots I do are more visceral."

esting look." Fash located the cin¬
ematographer, Michael Butler, and
asked him how he got it. The cin¬
ematographer had overexposed

Holahan is less involved with high-

the film a bit, used coral filters, and

then, when he wasn't quite satis¬
fied, had taken it a bit further.
"That's what everyone

should be
doing in this field," says Fash. "Ev¬
eryone should want to go one step
further, to go beyond the obvious.
As

a

result, the whole creative at¬

mosphere right now is pretty bad."
Fash did have creative in¬

put on an Americares spot for a cli¬
ent who had never advertised. Fash

and an art director sat around a
table and discussed the spot "En-

glish-style." The idea was to tie an
airplane to a runway with red tape,
then have it break away and fly off
to deliver goods to the needy. "A
model with wires, which was what

they'd been planning, would look
phony," says Fash, who suggested
live-action shoot. He did the
board himself, and shot the spot at
an old Miami airport using a
a

grounded jumbo aircraft. The jet
was

towed down the runway,

bursting out of its red tape in the
morning mist, and another plane
was

cut in for the take-off scene.

"I've been

doing this for 30 years,
and I know what kind of shots are
says Fash.
directors know that."

possible,"

"Not all art

Paul Holahan

Paul Holahan likes to

ers

do

Some commercial shoot¬
motion control, but

more

tech work. "I

try to have the visual
style say a lot, serving the picture in
the same way I would a dramatic
feature but with the pace of a com¬
mercial."
Holahan's unorthodox
moves come from his roots in MTV
and short films. "I try to be innova¬

tive, but you can't go overboard.
Agencies are putting a lot of money
into commercials and you have to
get exactly what they want. They
can be
very picky, spending hours
deciding on which shade of blue
something is going to be." That's
why Holahan likes to work with
aesthetically compatible directors.
"A good director can run interfer¬
ence for
you on commercials. Direc¬
tors know what they want, are very
savvy about visual styles, and are
the ones the agency has hired to
make these decisions." The agency

presence on a commercial shoot can
make the director and cinematog¬

rapher into

a closer team: "You're
his team, trying to get what he
wants, and vice versa. He does the
on

interacting with the agency."
Holahan has

some

words

of wisdom for those

hoping to
break into the field: "Hook up with
young directors who are just begin¬
ning in commercials. You won't
make much money in the first
couple of months, but once you get
one
job you'll get another - al¬
though sometimes it's hard to be¬
lieve that." Once the work

comes

shoot commercials because they
allow him the opportunity to take
chances. He shot "The Bic Man"

in, Holahan advises cinematogra¬
phers to "try things. Go out on a

using a simple Arri 3 on a Sachtler
head, with a dutch head on top of
that, allowing him to skew the
frame for a dutch angle. He also
exploited the setup to do a series of

matic series

manual snap zooms.

menting, because commercials

his

He describes
as "the

maneuvering for Bic

kind of

thing you'd

Rockport, Maine 04856

Phone 207-236-8581

up

trying to create as much energy as
you are with commercial photogra¬
phy. The trick to shooting commer¬
cials is to energize the moment. The

a "Western" look, he did
his homework. "I found a film, The
Missouri Breaks, with a most inter¬

job with

*

Weekend

was

feature film. If you were to watch
the dailies, you'd get a little sick. In
feature photography, you're not

January 1993

never

do

on a

limb. If you're used to shooting dra¬

films, you may be
simply shooting and get¬
ting a clean take. But cinematogra¬
phers from rock videos should be
familiar with the idea of experi¬
or

used to

aren't that different."
American Cinematographer - January 1993

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