American Cinematographer - October 1985 - 86

operator, and has recently completed
features in this capacity: Creature
and the upcoming My Chauffeur.

two

Stephenson, who feels that
"cinematography is nothing but solving
one problem after another at an incredi¬
bly rapid rate," had his hands full on
this four stage commercial. Because
Stahl's imagery was so diverse, Ste¬
phenson found himself shooting in a
variety of locations: beauty shots on a
Hollywood soundstage, the eye and
plasma energy light sculpture shots at
TPC's Beverly Hills facilities, and exte¬
rior footage on the Oakland Bay Bridge
outside San Francisco.
Since principal photography
did not begin on the commercials until
late December, 1984, and the spots

Above: Rear view of
the Cavalier

Below:

Type 10.
Complicated

zoom-out

were

from the

pupil of a human
eye.

According to Stahl, this
highly unusual campaign, entitled "Yes
It's A Chevy," was conceived as a
"graphic representation of the cerebral
synapse in a human being's brain con¬
nected to the retinal process of scan¬
ning the Cavalier for the first time."
This sophisticated and suggestive com¬
mercial consists of a kaleidoscopic mon¬
tage of electrical synapses, fragmented
beauty shots of the car, and a linear
voyage down a high-tech suspension
bridge, climaxing in an "ultimate trip"
experience as the camera flies out of
the eye of the observer. An array of
special effects, opticals and over 180
fast cuts in the sixty-second version
create a feeling of breathtaking speed
.

.

.

and exhilaration.
To photograph

the campaign,
Stahl chose his director of photography
on Digital Dream, George Stephenson.
Stephenson, a graduate of the London
Film School, worked for several years
as a camera assistant in England before

being drafted into the United States
Army, where he served for two years in
Vietnam in the documentary film unit,
making propaganda films for the Army
and various other public agencies. Upon
his

discharge, Stephenson moved to
Hollywood, where he began as a pro¬
duction assistant at David Wolper Pro¬
ductions. He is currently a camera
84

American

Cinematographer

scheduled

air at the end of

to

January, time became a critical factor
for Stephenson, who was forced to
compromise with poor weather condi¬
tions, undersized soundstages and diffi¬
cult lighting set-ups. In San Francisco,
he recalled, "Time did not permit us to
wait for the optimum light. The time of
year was December, and it couldn't
have been

The

worse.

sun never

broke

through, so I used a coral filter in order
to give the shot some warmth."
On the soundstage in Holly¬
wood, Stephenson's problems were not
so easily corrected. The only rental
stage available at the time lacked the
height in order to hang the chicken
coops properly, and seamless taffeta
unavailable
hands tied and

was

as
we

well. "I had my
had a couple of

points against us from the beginning,"
Stephenson remembered. "Though I
hadn't actually lit a car commercial in
my life, I've talked to other cin¬
ematographers and learned that there
are two things you don't want - a
white

car

and

exactly what

black car, which is

a

we

had. Not only did

have

a black car, we had
In order to separate the

the

background, to
and pz-zazz, I shot
front fill eye to give
beautiful magenta

a

we

black stage.

Cavalier from
give it a little color
gelled light into the
the side of the car a
cast, and I used

smoke to fill in behind the car, and then
lit the smoke with colored gels which

provided the contrast we would have
got with a different colored eye." The
smoke and colored light had the added
effect of

enhancing the mystical quality

with which Stahl had imbued the

car.

To create the effect of syn¬

in a human brain, four light sculp¬
tures by artist Bill Parker were selected.
This was the first time that these sculp¬
tures had ever been photographed for
commercial purposes, and Stephenson's
problems arose from the fact that the
storyboards did not call for a shot of the
entire sculpture, but only the electronic
discharges themselves, which gave off
so little light that they did not register
on the light meter. Clips of all four
sculptures were later edited together by
apses

Stahl to create the effect
in the spots.

it appears

The most challenging shot in
the entire commercial involved the final

pullback from inside the pupil of a
human eye to a close-up revealing the
model's entire face. In order to obtain
this highly complicated maneuver, Panavision provided special support ser¬
vices by rigging a 23-460mm zoom lens
with two diopters originally used in the

film, Westworid. Because of the very
small T-10 aperture, a tremendous
amount of light was needed just to get
an exposure. There were numerous criti¬
cal factors to contend with: the

field, the

zoom

depth of

itself, keeping the

model's head absolutely still and, most
of all, the lighting, which had to change

dramatically

as

the

camera

completed

the pullback. "When we pulled out to
the wide shot,'' said Stephenson,
"there had to be a pretty, soft commer¬
cial lighting on the model's face, which
created

contradiction in

a

terms

since

blasting all this light in to get
an exposure for the lens. On top of that,
we had to pan over
slightly as we
pulled out and, since this was for a
we were

commercial, this all had

plished in

a

very

to

be

accom¬

specific length of

time."

Stephenson credits his long¬
relationship with Stahl as contain¬
ing "that extra little ingredient that pro¬
vides the catalyst to creativity" which
helped him overcome so many of the
hurdles on this production. "Eric had a
very clear idea of what he wanted and
how he wanted to present the commer¬
cial," Stephenson recalled. "He always
had a very strong sense of composition,
and I respect his desire to strive to be
original and exceptional."
term

The visual
mercial

tone

of the

com¬

complemented by Kirk
Hunter's forty-eight track musical score
mastered

October 1985

as

was

on

state-of-the-art Sony 3324
American Cinematographer - October 1985

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