Jeff Cronenweth on His Acura Campaign

Looking at Jeff Cronenweth’s resume, it's easy to see he must be a
technically exacting cinematographer. He’s worked repeatedly with David
Fincher (as DP of George Michael’s “Freedom ‘90” video and
Fight Club) and Mark Romanek (as DP on videos for
Nine Inch Nails’ “The Perfect Drug” and The Eels’ “Novocaine for the
Soul” plus the feature One Hour Photo), both of them
directors known for a visual precision that recalls perfectionists like
Hitchcock and Kubrick. On a recent series of spots directed by Mark
Romanek for the Acura RDX, Cronenweth found himself shooting snippets
of footage that would be intercut with computer animation showing the
car in various imaginary environments.

Watch the spots, below, then read what he had to say about working with
Romanek, using the Panavision Genesis camera system, and shooting
live-action to match digital footage that doesn’t exist
yet.

These spots were largely CG imagery. As a cinematographer,
what was your involvement like?

It’s a weird thing. Traditionally, on a project like this that’s going
to have so many CG elements to it, much of it is done already [before
the live-action shoot]. But because this happened so quickly, the
previs was still being built. They hadn’t gotten to any more layering
than the wireframe previs. So visually, we kind of figured it out while
we were doing it. We had to shoot, and make the shots work late in the
process. It was kind of going backwards – we got to play a little bit
with what the design was going to be, but we also had to allow enough
flexibility that they could go other places as it evolved around the
way. Visually, it was kind of flying by the seat of our pants at first,
and then homing in on what it would be.

How much of the spots were acquired as live
action?

There are only a few live-action shots in each spot. It’s all the stuff
showing the gauges and the dashboard and anything depicting the driver.
That’s the only stuff that we shot.

So you never photographed the actual
automobile?

We did some reference passes. They had already digitized the entire car
prior to us doing the job. We were going to shoot some exteriors with
camera moves that would be simulated later.

Did you feel that you had any influence on how the spots
developed, visually?

I would have to say … probably not. Mark had an idea, and he had some
original drawings that simulated what the world was going to be. At
least it gave me an idea of where the light was coming from at
different points, and what the sources would be like. That afforded me
the opportunity to engineer my style that way.

What did you shoot with?

We shot with Panavision’s Genesis. I think it was Mark’s first go with
the digital camera, but I had used it a few times in the past. I had
actually done a Lexus spot with David Fincher, who is a good friend of
both Mark and mine, using the Viper. In that commercial, we did shoot
everything, and then they used all of our car footage as a guide to
recreate it in CG. Mark and I had discussed using digital cameras on
other projects, but it didn’t seem right at the time. This was the
perfect opportunity and environment for him to see how it
performed.

So how did you adjust your lighting strategy to effectively
intercut with this virtual world?

Well, we had the previs to show us what the wireframe car’s direction
and actions were going to be. And we had original drawings that showed
what the mood of each shot was going to be. Each one was slightly
different. It forced you to stay within certain boundaries and create a
certain light. For the exterior shots, we wanted enormous daylight
sources coming in and pounding through the windows. Because it was
retro-engineered and we were matching to something that hadn’t been
done yet, we had to shoot a couple of versions of each shot, just to
ensure that they would have choices later. The car’s moving around so
much that if you cut inside and the light’s in the wrong place it might
feel bizarre – although with that kind of energy you tend to get away
with a lot – but we had light coming from different sides [in different
shots], so Mark had a lot of flexibility.

Was there anything particularly
challenging?

For the one spot where you have the laptop computers as the source, we
changed the directions and color temperatures of the light, and the
hardness of the light. Sometimes it was very hard, sharp angles and
flares, and sometimes we needed a soft light. I guess the challenge was
getting some interesting angles, and doing macro photography on some of
the gages, and whatnot. But it was pretty
straightforward.

How do you feel digital cinematography compares to
celluloid?

I think they’re both great mediums. Some stories are just best told
digitally, and certainly most are told better on film. I probably would
say that I prefer to shoot on film, but there are certain cases where
digital is the proper approach to the job.

What have you been up to lately?

I haven’t shot any pictures recently. I’ve been directing and shooting
with my brother [Tim Cronenweth]. We’re in a partnership together, and
we’ve been very fortunate with job after job. I’m currently doing a
Macy’s campaign, and one of the spots just started airing. It’s full of
actors, but their world is all CG. We shot that one on film.