Last week I shot a commercial for a new product of which I, of course, can’t talk about until the spot is done. It’s a product for kids—and parents, I suppose—so kids were the talent… four of them… plus a dog… one-day shoot… fun times! The director wanted to go for an espionage-type concept along the lines of Mission: Impossible.
As we talked about the concept and the look he was going for, it became clear in my mind that we needed to shoot this spot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio (or 2.4:1 as it is now handled these days). It was an easy sell as he agreed without any delay. I also thought that we needed to use a hazer for the shoot to give the shots the texture and feel of what most movies like that would have. That was a bit of a longer sell because I had to explain what a hazer was, what the effects were and why we should use it. That explanation ended up being retold to various people (i.e. the client, people on the set, etc.) as the question came up a few times. The easiest explanation for the question of “Why all the smoke?” was, “To make it look more like a spy movie.” I think I’m just going to leave it at that for this blog.Read More