Part I Learning to Communicate With Images "Don't tell 'em, show 'em.

" That was the mantra of David Ogilvy, the man credited with perfecting the modern advertisement. Ogilvy knew that as TV evolved, communication with images would be faster, more memorable and more interesting -- in a word, effective. Television advertising has been evolving at breakneck speed in the decades since Ogilvy offered his sage advice. Globalization, channel surfing, the advent of cable, including MTV, and the evolution of hybrid imaging -- the technological revolution wrought by telecines, electronic editing and effects, and the computer -- have all influenced the art of delivering commercial messages on television. The reality is that contemporary TV viewers -- generation X, the main target for most advertisers -- see things differently than their parents did. They are more skeptical, more visually literate, and much more likely to tune out. In other words, Ogilvy's dictum still rings true. The globalization of commerce is motivating advertisers to use moving images to transcend language and cultural barriers. Sophisticated channel surfers aren't linear TV viewers like their parents who routinely spent entire evenings watching programming on one network. Today's audience will predictably begin surfing within seconds if the content on the screen doesn't grab and hold their attention. Many were nurtured by MTV which taught them how to read images like words. Daniel Pearl, a cutting edge cinematographer who previously explored undiscovered visual territory at the beginning of the MTV revolution, observed that people who watched the music video channel during the 1980s tend to remember the images as well as the words that went with the music. Images and Image All TV commercials are ultimately about life styles and the sponsor's image. According to Robert Gordon of GMS Productions, a directorcinematographer with an impressive array of international TV commercial credits, "Ultimately advertising has to hit people inside. It has to make them happy, or evoke some kind of emotion. That emotion becomes their interpretation of the client, of the company that's being represented." Audiences subliminally perceive even subtle differences in image quality, including film and video looks. That becomes an integral part of their perception of the sponsor and their products. "We're trying to associate the client with quality," says Carin Zakes, senior vice president and director of

broadcast production at the New York agency The Lord Group. "Part of that association is good image quality, good production values and interesting shots. We're trying to build a series of images that communicate quality." That sense of quality can be influenced by context -- how a spot compares to the images coming before and after it on the television screen. During recent years, changing tastes augmented by rapid advances in film and hybrid imaging technologies have facilitated remarkable gains in entertainment and production values. Flip through the dial and see for yourself. The blending of dramatic images and music has virtually eliminated "talking heads" in primetime narrative entertainment. Even sitcoms are now mainly produced on film because of this trend. For example, DreamWorks SKG makes everyday use of a fifth film camera mounted on a Steadicam during the filming of Spin City. This trend has raised the bar for TV commercial producers. "We don't know where a spot will be placed," says Zakes. "It may come after a movie, or the news, or a sit-com. We always have to be prepared to go for the quality, so that if the spot comes on after the best movie, with the most beautiful cinematography, our spot will compete visually." The effects of the higher benchmark can be felt all the way down the line, to local spots and promos. A rising tide lifts all ships. As the audience learns how to associate a quality image with a film-look, regional and local sponsors are striving to keep pace by switching from a static video look, defined by the patented used car sale spot, to film.

What's On TV? Some studies show that viewers now take only three to six seconds to decide whether to watch a spot or switch channels. "Channel surfing is one of our biggest challenges," says Gordon. "We must provide exciting visuals that people want to watch and make them feel good about the company or product we're portraying. In a 30-second commercial, every frame has to be powerful and dynamic. It has to grab you." The Good News Revolutionary breakthroughs in film, digital and hybrid imaging technologies are providing the creative community with powerful new tools for advancing the art of producing television commercials. A new generation of Kodak Vision films offers incomparable freedom for capturing moving images with incredible tonality, a remarkable range of subtleties in colors and textures, and total creative flexibility at the moment of photography. And a new generation of telecines and telescanners provides a more seamless interface for putting film-like images onto television screens. The Future In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission has prescribed transmission standards for a future Digital Television System (DTV) which will gradually replace NTSC. The FCC has defined a future with open-ended boundaries and no barriers blocking progress. The DTV standards encourage open competition between the computer and broadcasting industries, ultimately leading to the transmission and display of more filmatic images on widescreen television sets and computers. In the following pages, the creators of many of today's best commercials ponder these trends and speculate on the future.

Part II Creatives on Commercials During the past 50 years, the television commercial has become an integral component of our value system. At their best, commercials are a reflection of our perceptions about our lives and our aspirations for a better future. "Many of our beliefs about society get communicated through television commercials," says Rick Boyko , executive creative director for Ogilvy & Mather/New York. "A feature film from 10 years ago might hold up today, but most television commercials would be out-moded, because they reflect mainstream culture at the time they are made." In ad agency offices, creatives are constantly meeting challenges and coming up with new solutions to an old problem: how to make their spots stand out at a time when the visual quality of TV programming is spiraling upwards. Advances in technology enable creatives to execute almost any vision they can imagine." It was always possible to translate almost any idea to film, however some concepts were too costly," says Allen Kay, chairman/chief creative officer for Korey Kay & Partners in New York. "With todays technology, we can execute just about any idea without digging down into the bottom of the sponsors pockets." It Begins and Ends With the Concept The creatives say they must always be on guard to make sure that the clients message doesnt get lost in the lust for high-tech production values. Every great spot begins and ends with a great concept involving branding. "Branding comes from a great idea, from a concept based in solid thinking," says Jim Noble, associate creative director for San Franciscos Goldberg Moser ONeill. Carole Christie, senior vice president/group creative director at DMB&B in St. Louis says that when commercials are all flash, "You dont remember those spots. Theyre not the great campaigns that are around for a long time. Im pleased to see less mindless technique and more neat little story lines that have the product central to the action." TV Shows With Great Production Values To many observers, the environment in which commercials appear has taken a quantum leap forward. They cite shows like E.R and The X-Files,

which are rich in production values, and Seinfeld and Frasier with empathetic character development. Creatives believe that in such surroundings their work must be visually competitive. "Production values for shows are higher than theyve ever been, and the same goes for commercials," states John Adams, director of broadcast production for DDB Needhams Dallas office. "If you have to compete in that environment, you have to be equal," says Larry Tolpin, regional creative chairman for BBDO Worldwide and President and CEO of BBDO South in Atlanta. "Even though you dont have Jerry Seinfeld in your commercial, you have to be equally entertaining, otherwise youll pale in comparison." Dale Scarberry of Lone Star Films in Amarillo, Texas, says, "It's my theory that the casual viewer of television compares everything they see with the Coca-Cola, Miller Beer, Fed Ex and other major national spots because it's all on the same box. The viewer is very aware of the quality or lack of quality in the images they see. There are so many channels and so many spots running that anything you can do to make your visuals stand out in any way is certainly worth the effort." Since the average viewer will see a commercial many more times than even the most popular TV series, Richard ONeill, Director of Broadcast Production for TBWA Chiat/Day in Venice, California, believes its incumbent upon creatives to make each appearance memorable. "An average viewer may see a commercial 10 to 15 times," he says, "so we have to be better than anything thats out there in terms of concept and execution. When you know youre writing spots that are going to run on high profile shows, theres no better incentive for a creative team." Producing TV Spots for the World to See With the evolving global economy, the television commercial has also become a worldwide communications vehicle. In many cases, a campaign must appeal to a wide array of cultures and tastes yet another challenge the agency creative must conquer. "What plays in North America doesnt necessarily play in Europe, and vice versa," explains Tolpin. "Some things can share the same umbrella concept, but the executions have to be tailored to the individual cultures." Stating that clients are looking for cost efficiencies, ONeill says, "If you can produce something that can run in the U.S., Europe and Asia etc., you have a phenomenal cost savings."

These factors are filtering down to regional and local markets. "People who are sponsoring regional ads expect them to look like national or global spots," says Adams, "so theyre driving production values upward." He notes that hybrid technology for transferring film to digital format for image manipulation and editing is becoming more accessible and affordable for regional and local spots. There is general agreement that the most pervasive advance in technology is the remote control device. "You have to capture people's attention more quickly and keep them with something that is entertaining," says Boyko. "I think humor is a huge part of capturing people's attention and being able to tell a story in a broad-based way that everybody can nod along to. The advertising industry is becoming much more about entertainment. Even the large marketers have gone from straight side-by-side comparisons to entertainment." Tolpin agrees. "I dont care if youre writing a speech or producing a TV program or commercial. You have to be entertaining, especially in a visual medium. If its not exciting enough, people are just going to flip channels." Nothing Like a Film Look Creatives agree that nothing matches the power of film for conveying messages. "Film has a richer, more beautiful, more believable look," says Adams. "Nothing else looks like film," ONeill agrees. "Nothing captures light like film." Although the Internet and other new media are at the center of many discussions on advertisings future, creatives agree that for now, the television commercial is still the best way to reach mass audiences. When it comes to advertising on the Internet, Tolpin says, "Youre not reaching the masses, youre reaching a select market." With all the changes that have occurred in the world of television advertising, one truth remains: A good idea that promotes the clients product in an entertaining and intelligent way will capture more viewers and create a positive impression. "Every once in a while," says Kay, "youll see a commercial thats so elegantly simple and so bright it stands out. I dont think you need millions of dollars to produce a great idea. You need brains."

Part III Commercial Directors and Cinematographers Talent is Versatility In the brave new world of commercials, where almost anything goes, its the task of the director and cinematographer to transform words and drawings provided by ad agencies into 30- to 60-second visions captured on film. They must ensure that the concept connects with the target audience and conveys the client's message. "The most important thing is what the audience feels, and that you get beneath the surface, under their skin," says Hong Kong-based director Louis Ng of The Film Factory Ltd. "If you can stir an emotional response and touch the audiences heart, you have a better chance of selling the product." Australian director Michael Robertson of Michael Robertson Films in Sydney, believes that unless the viewer likes the company presented in the spot, they arent going to buy the product. "Fads come and go," he says, "and so do trendy techniques. Successful commercials are usually visually striking. They have to be above the pack. People can tell if a commercial looks cheap, and that makes a negative statement about the sponsor." According to Robert Gordon , the director is the person responsible for conveying the basic concept to the viewer. "Sometime clients come to us with developed ideas, and other times its just the embryo of an idea," he says. "Either way, we have to develop the concept it into something that's very special and magical that will cut through the clutter of all of those millions of other commercials." Gordon believes that todays successful commercial director needs to develop a strong work ethic and dedication to his craft. "I worked as a trial lawyer and competed as an athlete in the past and I find that being a director and a director of cinematography requires probably more devotion and more skill than all those things combined." Although many commercials are tightly scripted, a veteran director like Bob Giraldi of Giraldi Suarez Productions in New York will get a great deal of creative license in translating an idea. "I need some leeway," Giraldi says, " but some [commercials] are scripted so well that they just need to be executed. Because I started in advertising, I'm sympathetic to the process and I try to stay true. Its a very fine line. In the end I really am trying to sell an image and therefore a product or service, so I hold back a little and try to make it as entertaining as possible, so people like it, or are moved by it." When London-born, Los Angeles-based director/cinematographer Tony Kaye takes on an assignment, hes more than just a director. "I light and shoot

the things myself," he explains. "I tend not be collaborative in that area at all. Its very much a team process once I get the images. But the gathering of the images, I do. I'm very receptive to other people's advice in certain areas of my life. I want everyone's ideas. I just want to be the sieve, the person that captures what I consider to be the good things and get rid of what I consider to be the bad things." Bring a Point of View Todays commercial directors and cinematographers come from a variety of backgrounds, from still photography to feature films to music videos. In many cases, their work reflects the ideas and trends they bring from other disciplines. Director/cinematographer Peter Nydrle of G.M.S. Productions says, "I prefer to shoot my own films because I know whats in my mind. Commercials can be a form of art, but first you have to master the craft. If a commercial connects with the audience on an emotional level, then its art. Its what the film makes people feel about the sponsor thats important. Thats what they remember." Like Nydrle, director Paula Walker came into commercials from music videos. Originally a dancer, Walker was drawn to the movement and nonlinear sense of music videos. Although shes moved into the commercial arena, she doesnt like to be categorized in one camp or the other. "When youre inside of it, the work itself is more important, so the category doesn't matter so much," she explains. "I think a lot of directors now move between the mediums. You have feature directors who do videos and commercials, I think all the mediums now are going to be intertwined." Walker views her music video days as a great learning experience. "Music videos were just a tool, a way to experiment and have fun," she says. "It was a way of free form experimentation. A lot of times with music videos and commercials, you experiment on a technique that will show up later on in your work. It's always a process of development. I think just having a point of view about your work is the most important thing and the hardest thing to discover." Francois Merlet of Yarra Films Australia in Melbourne and Sydney was an illustrator and art director for some of Frances most prestigious ad agencies for 18 years before he was given an opportunity to write a script for a commercial and then direct it. Since then, Merlet has been directing commercials in Asia and Australia with occasional sorties to Europe and the Middle East.

Merlet says this an exciting time to be a director because there is a lot more freedom to explore new paths. "There is a revolution in advertising," he says. "Every year, theres a different style. True talent is versatility." The collaborative process of creating the commercial is a driving force for Merlet. "Its like being the captain of a ship," he explains. "We start with a script and we give it life. The most exciting part is when you receive a script that gives you the freedom to explore a new path. I love spontaneity and creating on the spot. There is always a defining moment when everything is perfect. Suddenly theres a cloud that gives you the exact look you want and boom! you go." Like many of his peers, Henry Sandbank of Sandbank Films in New York began as a still photographer, working as a photojournalist and in print advertising. In the 1970s, he made the transition to television commercial work. Sandbank says commercials have had a pervasive influence in defining the American lifestyle. "I can see the President of the United States sitting with his feet up having a drink watching one of my spots and not paying much attention to it yet it influences him," Sandbank explains. "There's something about the commercial when no one pays attention to it but after a while they get the message. I think it's almost a spy-like medium. I think it's very influential, not always for the best." Location: Earth In todays global arena, a commercials locations may be anywhere on Earth. Director/cinematographer Toby Phillips had such an assignment for Merrill Lynch that took him to Prague, Jakarta, and the south of Spain. Designed to point up Merrill Lynch's prowess in overseeing industrial privatization, the project saw Phillips shooting exteriors at the Opera House and interiors at Ministry of Culture in Prague. These staid images are contrasted with high-tech industrial sites: a natural gas pipeline, telecommunication installations, and an oil drilling platform. "We wanted the effect of the old meeting the new," says Phillips. "We choose really Gothic, old style buildings in Prague with lots of reds and luster. Inside there was a lot of wood, very warm and red tones. Then, what's being talked about on the outside are these bright, white telecommunications dishes against blue skies. These are images of modernization -- guys in orange overalls working on a modern high-tech oil rig." Although based in the small beach town of Folly Beach, South Carolina, director/cameraman Bryan Elsom of Kingfisher Productions has shot commercials for European and South American ad agencies. They have taken him to such exotic locations as an Alaskan glacier, a Caribbean island

and the wilds of Patagonia at the tip of South America. He says the role of director is viewed differently in other parts of the world. But no matter where the spot is being seen, some things remain the same. "Whether youre telling an interesting story or creating intriguing imagery," Elsom explains, "commercials have to be entertaining." Attention, Please One of the challenges directors have to face in todays over-saturated media marketplace is breaking through the clutter of TV channels and choices available to the consumer. The major challenge of directors and cinematographers is to make sure their clients product stands out from the crowd in a memorable fashion. This was the case when director/cinematographer Jeff Zwart was hired to do a spot for Hollywood Chewing Gum, a major European brand. The agencys idea called for a storyline involving five young people hiking in a mountainous area. They get to the edge of a cliff, and instead of standing there and admiring the view, they jump off together, their back packs revealed to be parachutes. "The idea of the commercial is to set it up that the viewer doesnt have any idea that these kids are base jumpers looking for a good place to jump," Zwart explains. "We found out that at Angel Falls in Venezuela, you can free fall for nearly 15 seconds, which is an eternity." Zwart and his crew traveled to Venezuela to shoot the spot, which proved to be a winner for the client. He says the spot more than met the clients desire to establish brand recognition. "From what I understand," Zwart explains, "with the television commercials that they produced from this shoot, their brand recognition has gone up in a major way. It's because this particular film was so dramatic that everybody remembered and associated it with the product. So the goal was not to sell the gum itself, but to have that brand recognition." Zwart believes that spots like the Hollywood Chewing Gum commercial are a good example of how to retain the viewers interest. "I think you've got to look at how it can capture a person and how it can become entertaining so that it doesn't become such a normal 30-second obstacle, as opposed to a 30-second advantage to watching TV," he explains. "Commercials are there to sell products and any time we can maintain interest visually, we get a little closer to that goal." Walter Carvalho, director-cinematographer for Julio Xavier Filmes, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, believes an important part of the art of filmmaking lies in the details. A commercial Carvalho shot for Bic illustrates this obsession. The

spot won Best Film in its category at the Clio Festival in 1978. In 1985, that same spot won first prize in a retrospective, at the Clios, for the best commercial produced during the past 20 years. "We wanted to show the audience they could rely on a Bic lighter to work every time they needed it," Carvalho recalls. "We lit 3,000 matches and tossed them one at a time into a pile next to the lighter. I exposed one frame every time another match was thrown onto the pile. At the end, there was a huge pile of matches next to the lighter." That spot, shot frame-by-frame, made an unforgettable impression that has endured for decades: Bic lighters always work. Ng believes that honesty is an important factor in breaking through the clutter and reaching the audience. "Television is a mass medium but when someone is sitting in front of a TV set watching the images, you are communicating one on one," he says. "It's like me and you talking face to face. If one of us isnt being truthful, the other person knows." Robertson believes that whats needed is a memorable look that tells the audience there is something different about this product and this sponsor. "The look of a film is such a subtle thing," Robertson says. "Its so subjective that everyone has an opinion. There are a lot of talented directors and cinematographers who are consistently pushing the edge. But, unless you start with a strong idea you cant impress the audience with great images or trendy postproduction techniques." Ng believes todays audience is visually literate and skeptical. "I believe the goal is to personalize the company in a way that makes it more approachable, more human and more touchable," he says. "You dont always want to paint a perfect picture. You can do some silly things. You dont want the images to be too slick and unapproachable. Sometimes bad weather has more character than shooting on a sunny day. If the light is always beautiful, it can become a clich." Be Prepared Robertson believes Alfred Hitchcock was right when he said the most important work is done prior to the shoot. The shoot, he claims, is just execution. However, he says there are magic moments where something happens that wasn't planned. "We were shooting a spot in the Australian bush and suddenly there was a whirlwind like a miniature tornado," he recalls. "It came sweeping down the road. All we had to do is point the camera and capture it on film. It wasnt in the script but we put it into the commercial because it created a little bit of magic." Cinematographer Jean Yves Escoffier, who has been behind the camera for a number of visual striking commercials and feature films, believes that good commercials come down to presenting a strong vision. "When you look

at a painting or a great photograph," he explains, "you are looking at the vision of one person. Either you can see the vision or its not there. This is also true of television commercials. There are not many people in the world with a truly great vision." Working with the best people, Escoffier feels, is the way to bring out the best work. "I look for directors who maintain a kind of innocence," he explains, "who see as a child sees. I need to feel that what hes trying to get across is pure and sincere. And also, like a child, you must have no fear." When it comes to the technical side of commercial making, Escoffier says that fear should also be absent. "With all the recent advancements in imaging technology, you can do almost anything," he explains. "Its such a big opportunity. Today you have two technologies the photochemical silver process and the electronic or digital process. To me, it makes no difference how you combine them. The best way is to know them, to keep doing research on them and discover an unexpected combination of techniques." Director/Engineer? When it comes to creating commercials using special effects, tabletop specialist Michael Schrom of Michael Schrom & Co. in New York believes directors need to think like engineers. "You have to pre-visualize the results," he explains. "Its like designing a building from the outside in, where you take whats visual about the building and then figure out how to make it work structurally. The aesthetics come first and then you try to figure out how to make it support itself." Schrom tries to find simple solutions to what might be considered complex problems. For example, on an assignment involving liquid gasoline Schrom and his crew spent four days experimenting at his Manhattan studio, substituting water for gasoline. The mechanical effects equipment used to create splashes, waves and bubbles was adjusted to account for the different weights of water and gas. "Most special effects jobs are like science projects," he says. "I like the discipline and the planning it requires." Like the creatives, directors and cinematographers say that nothing can replace the look of film. "I always use film because image quality is important when you are selling a product," says Carvalho. "If someone asks about video, I say thats for news." "Film speaks a unique language that allows the audience to see the words of script," says Sandbank. "It is always changing like street art or graffiti. Today you can capture the slightest nuances on film. If you have the guts, you can do almost anything."

"No one has ever been able to define why film looks so good," says Charles Vanderpool of Vanderpool Films in Baltimore, Maryland, "why it looks better than reality. Videotape always makes things look harsh and 2-D like a cardboard cutout. With film, people are drawn in and affected by the quality of the image, whether theyre aware of it or not." Art and Commerce Although their work is done to sell a product or service, the directors and cinematographers involved believe that commercials should be judged as an art form. "If you read the poetry that someone wrote 2,000 years ago, it gives you a feeling for the people who lived in that time," says Ng. "Maybe 1,000 years from now, people will dig up our commercials and say thats how those people lived. Film is a powerful form of expression that can influence human behavior." "Anything can be an art, including the creation of commercials," says Sandbank. "The art is in how you perceive and create something. Its not enough to dream, you also have to be able to paint the picture. Theres so much clutter on that small TV box today that part of the art is to create clarity." Nydrle also believes that commercials can be considered an art form. "I believe that these two terms do not necessarily contradict themselves," he explains. "You know there is no such thing as artsy commercials without a craft. You have to master the craft first. It's a tool to sell but if it connects with you on an emotional level then it's a piece of art." "In the end," says Gordon, "what makes a great commercial is the willingness to stop at absolutely nothing, to bring home that great product. It's trudging through whatever mountains you need to get through. Its being there for the sunrise when the sun comes up and you darn well better have your camera set up and ready to shoot. The fact that you had to go through all kinds of hell and high water to get there doesn't matter. The end result is the only thing that's important because that's ultimately what you see. That 30 or 60 seconds of film ultimately becomes the most important."

Part IV The Technology Behind The Spots Evolution in the art of creating commercials has always gone hand in hand with advances in imaging technology. A giant step in that evolutionary process can be traced to the introduction of the modern telecine which provided a seamless gateway between film origination and electronic postproduction and distribution. Rank Cintel, in England, introduced the Mark III telecine in 1975. The first unit used for TV commercial production was installed at Devlin, in New York, in 1977. That transition made it possible to capture high quality images on film and transfer them to video format for image electronic manipulation. It marked a clear delineation in the evolution of both the art and science of TV commercial production. A story: During the early 1980s, Daniel Pearl was shooting a music video with director Russell Mulcahy. The song was called "It's Raining Again," and the group was Supertramp. "[Mulcahy] played the song for me, and said he needed 65 setups because that was what the music required," Pearl says. "It couldn't be 55, 58 or 64 setups. He needed 65. He told me to light and photograph the performance as well as I could, but not to worry, because I could fix any problems in telecine." "Fixing it in telecine" was still a new concept in 1982. Rock video creators were among the first to recognize the potential for manipulating colors and other visual content in creative ways. By the mid-80s, Pearl and his colleagues were inventing new ways of thinking about film. "We photographed the unphotographable," he says. "A minor example is the use of DayGlo paint makeup and black light which has very low intensity. It's a wonderful look. It's the same thing with argon laser light. It's practically invisible to most film stocks. The majority of the light output falls between the blue and green spectrums but when you combine black light or argon laser light with the new high-speed films and the great lenses we have today, you can record images that no one ever saw before." The pace of progress is accelerating. A new generation of Kodak Vision films is providing a diverse range of palettes for image capture in virtually any situation to achieve any imaginable result. This new generation of films is capable of capturing images with richness and depth in tonality and colors which were unimaginable only a few years ago. Meanwhile, telecine and telescanner technology is evolving in remarkable ways. With the

invention of the Spirit Datacine much more of the image information captured on the original negative can now be transferred to digital format for manipulation. With the advent of a new generation of Digital Television (DTV) receivers seemingly on our doorstep, the possibilities for the future are unlimited. Working Together Film images and electronic images are fundamentally different and the differences begin at the moment of image capture. Film captures an image when light -- electromagnetic energy -- strikes silver halide crystals randomly embedded in color negative film and causes a chemical reaction. Billions of silver clusters form a latent image. The slightest changes in the quantity of light results in a subtly lighter or darker image, with an infinite number of gradations in color and contrast. Video systems, both analog and digital, also start with photons, which strike an electronic sensor, typically either a CCD (charge-coupled device) or cathode ray tube (CRT). These devices convert light energy into tiny electrical charges. These charges are temporarily stored on video tape or disk. Resolution and subtleties in tonalities and colors are limited by both the sensor and the ability to store and transport data. Contemporary color negative films are capable of recording the analog equivalent of 40 to 50 megabytes of digital data per 35 mm frame. Film can be recorded at any frame rate. That is generally an artistic decision, however 24 frames per second is typical. In contrast, the image capture device on current professional-quality CCD cameras is a chip with a geometric array of approximately 600,000 individual opto-electric sensing cels for each of three colors. The images that result from these two dissimilar image capture systems are inherently different in texture, feeling and emotional impact. Film, with its uncountable billions of light-sensitive crystals, is able to capture much more subtly the different shades of colors and tones. That is what enables the filmmaker to reveal and conceal details in shadowy areas, and manipulate textures and colors which evoke emotional responses. Some people say that it doesnt matter because television displays are locked into the parameters defined by NTSC, PAL and other contemporary transmission systems. They also point out that current CRT displays are only capable of reproducing a comparatively limited 100-to-1 range of contrast. Glenn Kennel, a digital imaging technology expert for Kodak Professional Motion Imaging has another point of view.

"A big advantage of film origination is the creative flexibility it allows you in post production," he says. "The more picture information you capture at the moment of photography, the more you have to work with in digital postproduction. Thats where you amplify the work done by the director and cinematographer and fine tune the tonal scale to create the emotional response that the creative team envisioned. "With a digital camera, you're dealing with a much more limited dynamic range," he adds. "You're sampling the image in a three dimensional grid of lines and pixels, so you're already dividing it into a discrete set of samples and a discrete number of code values that represent its gray scale characteristic. The nice thing about film is it a continuous tone. The camera negative usually captures far more than you end up translating through the telecine, so it gives you a lot of creative flexibility in postproduction. "When you're shooting with a digital Betacam, you need to make your creative decisions on the set before you store the data on tape," Kennel explains. "When you're shooting film, obviously you make a lot of creative decisions on the set as well but because the film medium captures an extended dynamic range, you've got a lot more freedom to manipulate the image, and pull details out of the blacks or whites, or to grade it in a different context for your creative purposes. With video you don't have that opportunity, because once it's clipped it's gone, and you can't get it back." The New Generation The Philips Spirit Datacine was co-developed by Kodak and Philips Broadcast Systems as a bridge which provides a higher level of artistic freedom with more headroom for creative expression. John Dowdell, co-founder of The Tape House in New York, is already in the front lines of this revolution. The Tape House installed one of the first Spirit Datacines as the centerpiece of its Advanced Imaging Center during the summer of 1996. "Film is capable of recording an incredible amount of information," says Dowdell. "Subtle details in color and contrast renditions are part of the emotional content of the story being told. The idea is to transfer as much of that information as possible into the digital realm. With this new telecine, we can scan film into the form of a digital file, not a video picture. You have 2000 scan lines to work with. We can sample the negative at near-film resolution, in real time." State of the Art A recent television campaign for a swimwear manufacturer illustrates how the evolution of hybrid imaging technology is reshaping the art of producing commercials. The spot was originated on black-and-white film and scanned

into digital format for image manipulation with the Cineon system installed at Dfilm (Digital Film Services), in Sydney, Australia. A high contrast, black and white look was the goal and the spot had to work on both cinema and television screens. Exposures were difficult to match as the spot involved a lot of underwater and poolside images. Dfilm used the Cineon system to digitally boost the contrast and grade the color so that the spot looked perfect in both distribution situations. The rich image capture strengths of film were carried through the cinema screen, while the broadcast images were also rich, sharp and dense, according to Dfilm's Peter Doyle. Film's format flexibility was another big edge. "The incredible advantage is that it's a piece of film and they can play it anywhere," Doyle says. "There are no discussions about NTSC, PAL, or any broadcast standards. It doesn't have to conform. We're supplying a fully graded negative. Using the Cineon system, we're able work on film, not videotape, which is an advantage in translating to various broadcast standards." Film and Emotion The way film sees and records images is crucial to the creative freedom of filmmakers. But ask a commercial filmmaker why he or she loves film, and the answer is more likely to involve the emotions their filmed images evoke in viewers. Words like "dreamlike" and "interpretive" come up again and again. A recent high-end international commercial for the German telecommunications giant Siemens, shot on four continents, provided a graphic example. Prior to the shoot, commercial director/director of photography Robert Gordon, of Flying Tiger Productions N.Y./L.A., agreed to take part in a test comparing the suitability of digital Beta to that of film for photographing commercials. Whenever possible, Gordon set up a digital Betacam on the same mount and performed the same move on the subject, using the same lighting and filter package when practical. Both sets of images were put through the normal postproduction processes and viewed on digital Beta. Gordon's penchant for frame rate changes was immediately stifled for the video shots, but he was impressed with the image quality of the video images after color correction. "It looked better than any tape I had seen before, but it was still a video look. The film had what I consider to be a painterly quality. It had the look of a piece of art, whereas the tape looked like a very, very good news or live TV show transmission. My clients came to the same conclusion -- tape looks like tape. You can degrade it and key

grain onto it and do all kind of postproduction work to try and give it a 'film' look, but my feeling is, why do that when you have film? " Gordon says that the ultimate goal is show the audience something they don't see in their everyday life, that they find engaging and compelling and that makes a lasting, favorable impression. Dale Scarberry had a similar experience while shooting a spot for Boatman's Bank for McCormick Advertising in Amarillo, Texas. The spot focused on a middle-aged marathon runner. Scarberry shot the same scenes side-by-side with an ultra-fine grain 35 mm film and a digital Betacam for purposes of comparison. "In one instance there was no comparison -- the film stood head and shoulders above the tape," Scarberry recalls. "There was a rich, dreamlike quality that is only characteristic of film -- with very subtle gradations of exposure -- and you could see things in the shadows on the film that I could not see on the tape." The Future is Bright "In the near future, we'll be dealing with multiple digital delivery systems, some of them being NTSC and others being HDTV or another digital high resolution format," says Dick Sehlin, a Kodak film imaging technology expert. "We have the ability to customize the design of new emulsions to take maximum advantage of the parallel advances being made in digital postproduction and TV transmission and display technologies." Sehlin says that Kodak researchers have enormous headroom which can be measured by orders of magnitude for advancing film imaging technology. The possibilities for on-going advances in film imaging technology are practically limitless. One possibility for the future are new types of films calibrated for optimal performance with digital tools. "We tend to characterize film as a mature technology," says Sehlin, "but it has huge areas of potential growth with the evolution of a wonderful marriage with electronic imaging and computer-generated imaging that we haven't even begun to tap. Hybrid imaging will add another dimension to the richness of the final images and the artists ability to create images which evoke powerful emotional responses.