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by Anthony Vagnoni |
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On the Super Bowl broadcast last January, American TV audiences were treated to something a bit unusual—a broadcast promotion spot for a cable network that was not crammed with the usual quick-cut program highlights and blaring tune in info. Instead, this sixty-second spot for the USA Network, a unit of NBC Universal, titled “Characters Blitz,” took a different approach: It showed off the main characters of the network’s engaging original series by placing them into the mundane activities of a regular guy as he goes about his day—getting up, going to work, then going out. Wherever he is, so are characters from USA Network’s most popular shows. In the process, the spot plays off the network’s branding and identity as the home of interesting programs. As its slogan says, “Characters Welcome”—a nice differentiating factor in an increasingly unscripted world of reality TV.
The spot itself is a story told wordlessly, except for a quick voiceover at the end. A regular-looking guy, a bit of an Everyman, hits the alarm and bounds out of bed. In the bathroom the obsessive-compulsive detective Monk can be seen in the mirror, straightening up behind him. In the kitchen, the hero of “Burn Notice”—a disgraced spy now freelancing as he helps people out of jams—rigs his toaster as a detonator, which in turn triggers an explosion just outside his window. In his minivan, as he’s about to head off to work, are the star detectives from “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”—played by Vincent D’Onofrio and Jeff Goldblum taking a scared looking criminal off to jail. Our guy is next seen striding past Debra Messing of “The Starter Wife” on his way into his office—she just happens to be out front, standing on a red carpet, waving to celebrity photographers and autograph seekers. Inside, our hero stands nonplussed as a gunfight breaks out between unseen bad guys and the lead character from “In Plain Sight,” whose job it is to protect people in the US Government’s Witness Protection Program. He next steps out to the park for lunch, where heavily-muscled stars of the network’s World Wrestling Entertainment slugfest smash a park bench with their fight moves. The workday ends with a dinner date, at which the two leads from the comedy detective show “Psych” flank his date, with one of them oh so subtly putting the moves on her. “Characters so original, they stick with you,” goes the simple tagline. That they do.
To bring this to life, Jason Holtzman, VP of Creative, and Sandra Schron, Director of Production, for USA Network’s Brand Marketing and Promotion department, turned to comedy director Tim Hamilton of L.A. and New York based GO Film to shoot the tightly-boarded script. Hamilton, a Canadian, in turn tapped director of photography Alar Kivilo to collaborate on the project.
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 While representing a day in the life of its main character, this spot was actually shot over several days that were separated by more than a week, owing to the difficulty in getting all of the network’s stars in L.A. at one time for the shoot. Part of the spot was shot before the holidays, with the remainder shot after the New Year. In most instances, the crew only had each star for a few hours. As Kivilo noted, time was of the essence.
On top of this, the crew ran into weather issues, as often happens when shooting in Southern California in December. And the schedule—producer Adam Gross called it ‘a logistical puzzle,’ but he sounds like he’s being polite—required even some sequences to be broken up over different days. For example, the scene shot in the kitchen, ostensibly in the early morning, was actually shot on two different shoot days, over a week apart.
“It was a real challenge getting everything to look just right,” says Hamilton. “We wanted to be as consistent as possible, and we were able to do that. The whole thing worked beautifully. I have a lot of trust in Alar.”
Hamilton chalks this up to a seasoned crew, lots of prep and the right tools. “I’m not the sort of director who says to the DP, well, you need to use this stock or that one. Rather, I tell them what we’re trying to achieve,” he says.
“I’m a big believer that comedy commercials don’t have to be flat and overly lit—I prefer them to feel natural,” Hamilton continues. “At the same time, I like beautiful, rich images. And certainly the stock plays a huge role in this regard. What I like about this spot is the smooth, beautiful look to it. We wanted to convey the quality of the programming on USA Network, and I think we achieved that.”
From the cinematographer’s perspective, the challenge was not just to maintain the narrative thread, but to make sure that the disparate elements of this spot worked together. “We really wanted to make sure we had a coherent look,” Kivilo says.
Working on a tight schedule and with the pressure of celebrity talent, Kivilo also had to deal with numerous set-ups and location changes. “I really needed a stock that was very versatile,” he explains. With the exception of the outdoor shots of the wrestler in the park and Messing standing on the red carpet, which were both shot with KODAK VISION2 50D Color Negative Film 5201 / 7201 film, Kivilo used the new KODAK VISION3 500T Color Negative Film 5219 / 7219 for everything else. Why? “Because I love that stock,” he says, and he ought to know, having worked with it before—he used it for the upcoming Harold Ramis feature, “The Year One,” due out later this year. “It was my main stock on that picture, and so I knew it would hold up in all these different conditions. We went everywhere from sunny interiors to dodging the rain that day when we had the big explosion in the kitchen.”
Overall, Kivilo is more than pleased with the way 5219 handled the demands of this job. “I like to keep things simple,” he explains, “so it’s great to have a stock that you can use for all these various lighting and shooting situations and know that it will all be there.
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On the edit, the director and USA Network creative team worked with Doug Walker of Filmcore in San Francisco. Hamilton, who was not able to attend the edit, exchanged extensive notes with Walker, and reviewed scene selects and cuts online.
Walker admits that shoots like this can often result in a mixed bag in terms of the lighting and color rendition of the film, but not on this project. “They really did a phenomenal job,” he says of the production crew. “Everything looked great when it came in. We pretty much stuck with the palette that the dailies delivered, and that was a pretty impressive feat.”
Walker believes this is due in large part to both the skill of Kivilo and the choice of the film stock. “The technology of filmmaking had made great advancements, but most people don’t think of the advancements in film stock,” he says. “What we got on this spot is a great example of that. I’m not a DP, I’m an editor, and as such I see all kinds of film come in and out of this place, and what you’re always looking for is consistency.
That’s what this had.”
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KODAK VISION3 500T Color Negative Film 5219 / 7219 represents the latest advancement in film stock development. It provides everything filmmakers have come to expect from VISION2 Films, such as its outstanding overall look and image structure, but with a host of added improvements. The entire KODAK VISION3 Film platform provides advantages from capture through post, providing users with greater control and flexibility at every phase of the filmmaking process, in both digital and traditional workflows.
For example, its advanced Dye Layering Technology (DLT) delivers reduced grain in shadows and higher signal-to-noise ratios when scanning low-light scenes. It also provides greater flexibility when lighting extreme situations, and lets you pull even more detail out of highlights—a feature not lost on Kivilo during this shoot. In one critical nighttime shot, set up on the quick just before a thunderstorm rolled in, he explains: “I knew if the rain came, we wouldn’t get the shot. So trusting the stock, I basically let the practicals play—I threw one quick light into a doorway and another that sort of scraped the wall. We went very minimalistic, but I knew the 5219 would dig into the shadows. I was very pleased with it.”
He adds: “I’ve watched this film stock as it’s progressed from 5279 to 5218 and now 5219, and I wouldn’t change a thing. It’s got great speed, the contrast is just where I like it and it’s not overly saturated, yet it gives good, true color rendition. I love that stock.”
The KODAK VISION3 family of film stocks allows the director and cinematographer’s vision to continually evolve, while delivering consistent and always reliable results.
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