American Cinematographer - December 1997 - 126

After their Nutri-Grain cereal

commer¬

cial, "Engine Room," won a Bronze Lion
at Cannes, Kellogg's marketing execu¬
tives were naturally pleased that they
had asked Australian-born director of

photography Steve Mason to shoot it.
They were even more thrilled when the
spot went on to win numerous other ad¬
vertising prizes, including three Gold Mobius awards and a gold medal at the Lon¬
don International Awards.
A mostly self-trained

cinema¬
tographer, Mason began working in the
Australian film industry just out of high
school. He moved up through the ranks
quickly, graduating from third AC clapper
loader to director of photography on
shorts, commercials, small films and
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documentaries.
"The line 'Iron Man food' has
been around for about 20 years, and

Kellogg wanted to delve into the theme
of Nutri-Grain fueling an Iron Man," ex¬
plains Mason.
In Australia, Kellogg's NutriGrain cereal is the second-highest-sell¬
ing brand, and the company is keen on
keeping sales up. For "Engine Room," the
cerealmakers not only budgeted for an
unusual three-day shoot, but also al¬
lowed Mason to do

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a

series of tests to

122

Iron Man Bulks

Up in Kellogg's
"Engine Room"
by Mary Hardesty
form the best he could. For the second

commercial, Kellogg wanted a more feature-like look."
To facilitate the shoot, a gym
was built to resemble the engine room in
the hull of a boat. Mason relied heavily
on

lighting to create a

these

scenes.

sense of motion in
"Most of the scenes were

tight shots, which made things a bit
easier to light," recalls Mason, who
achieved the look with

numerous

Par

lights, incandescents with yellow and
green gels, and an Arriflex 35-111 camera
equipped with Zeiss lenses. "We put all
of the lights on dimmers, and even had
them moving," he adds. "I had a great
gaffer, Paul Johnston from Australia,

Kodak's 5298 stock for interiors and 5293

whom I've worked with on other spots as
well. We placed two rows of lights on
bars hanging down on ropes and swayed
them. When combined with the dimming

for exteriors. "Prior to production, we
tested different lab techniques, such as

bypassing the bleach. That makes for a
really rich black, and takes a bit out of the
other colors. Not only does it desaturate
the colors, but it adds a great deal of

lights, the swaying made it feel as if we
deep down inside a grimy engine

were

room."

contrast. You have to be careful when

using a bleach-bypass process on the
neg, though, because it increases the
neg grain a bit."
Working closely with writer/
era angles to create a feeling of isola¬
tion. "In real life, an Iron Man trains

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through the Iron Man's veins to reach
every part of his body and help him per-

get a look similar to that of the dream¬
like, high-contrast French film The City of
Lost Children, photographed by Darius
Khondji, AFC. "They wanted it to look hip
so a younger generation might find it at¬
tractive," points out Mason, who used

director Brian Jones, Mason used cam¬

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about stoking the engine that burns in¬
side and fuels the body."
The new spot is the second in
the Nutri-Grain series. The first, "X-Ray,"
was shot by Australian cinematographer
Lance Kelleher. Notes Mason, '"X-Ray'
was about the Nutri-Grain coursing

alone," Mason notes. "'Engine Room' is

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December 1997

To shoot the Iron Man
out in the ocean,

Mason and his

working
camera

camera in an inflatable
boat and revved the engine hard to track

crew

placed the

with the surf. "Most boats

just turn over
in heavy surf, so we had to use an inflat¬
able one," notes Mason, who hired a
specially trained lifeguard to operate the
engine in the hazardous waves. "I held
American Cinematographer - December 1997

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