Commercial Break

Paying for the news

Not all cameramen are equal. There is a marked divide between news cameramen and commercial cameramen with the news operators generally considered ruffians occupying the bottom rung of the cinematographic ladder. It is worth noting that at least two of these "ruffians" now spend most of their time overseas shooting feature films; Don McAlpine and Russell Boyd both started their careers in television news some decades ago now but are in global demand for their cinematographic expertise.

Despite the common link of a camera, news and commercials require different disciplines and have separate distinctive cultures. What constitutes a good news cameraman doesn't necessarily make a good commercial cameraman and vice versa. Despite being a regional station with comparatively limited resources Channel 3 maintained this distinction for many years with one cameraman, Stewart Osland, employed full time to shoot only commercial work including still  photographs. Only on rare occasions was a news cameraman ever asked to film Commercials, partly because it would have left the newsroom short staffed a situation guaranteed to displease the news editor. Departmental politics contributed as much to maintaining barriers as any cultural divide.

Eventually the divide was crossed and a generic camera pool established. Some saw merit in this approach although some saw it as a lowering of standards. In turn each cameraman would spend a week as the nominated commercial cameraman. It was no coincidence however that some commercial shoots just happened to be scheduled when certain individuals were the nominated commercial cameraman while other commercial shoots were mysteriously postponed to await a more 'propitious' rostering outcome.

I found shooting commercials tedious compared with news. With commercial shoots it took sometimes as long to capture one shot as a complete news story. Mostly the generous use of time was justified in meeting the demands of the more elaborate setups that are a distinguishing characteristic of commercials. But it tried my patience. I much preferred the immediacy and unpredictability of news. Generally I kept my frustrations to myself and found surprisingly, that I was one of the preferred cameramen by the commercial people. That doesn't mean that I always got it right. A swimsuit commercial I shot had to have a couple of shots re-done a few days later. I had focussed too closely on the young lady's becoming attributes and not those of the product she was wearing.

Along with being Channel 3's then sports commentator Noel Harrison also appeared in commercials promoting a menswear retailer, Reuben F. Scarf. Assigned to shoot one of these in Scarf's Hunter Street store with only a director meant I had to also do the lighting and sound as well as the shooting. These were unashamedly low budget shoots with time of the essence. So while Noel rehearsed his lines with the director I hurriedly rearranged the lighting for the next shot. In my haste I failed to see that I had placed a light only inches from an advertising banner hanging from the ceiling. Television lights generate a significant amount of heat and the banner noiselessly erupted in flame. I'm not sure what drew my attention to this nascent aerial holocaust but whatever it was it didn't prompt me to take any decisive action. Maybe I'd turned off my news sense because it was a commercial shoot but I couldn't connect the burning banner to the potential conflagration it was brightly proclaiming.

Fortunately the store manager, Dennis Malouf, was not similarly mesmerised. He was also nimble and fleet of foot. Racing from the rear of the store he launched himself at the flaming banner in a move that would have done a first grade basketballer proud. His momentum snapped the sign from the ceiling and he disappeared through the front door depositing his incendiary cargo into the gutter where it was safely extinguished in front of the eyes of some startled shoppers. I'd nearly manufactured a news story from a commercial undertaking, something most advertisers dream of except I think in this case it was an opportunity they were happy to forgo.

Being the commercial cameraman meant at times having the opportunity to shoot documentary type footage for programmes like the children's series, "Looking In". Such programmes allowed a cameraman greater scope for creative expression and in my case subsequently led to a prized overseas trip. Whether by design or coincidence I usually ended up shooting the more 'adventurous' subjects for the series including caving and canoeing with the Rover Scouts and army exercises at the Singleton base.

"West of Coal Island" was a short documentary series that Greg Pead (Yahoo Serious) undertook while at Channel 3. As I was the assigned commercial cameraman for the week I found myself shooting footage for him in the middle of an open cut coal mine on a 40 degree December day. Unable to resist a challenge I struggled to the top of the jib on the dragline for a bird's eye view of it in operation. Such was the vibration that I needed assistance to get the camera to the top. Disappointingly the final result didn't reflect the effort expended in capturing the vision. To make matters worse when finally I returned rather late to the studio, sweat stained, sunburnt and greasy, I was immediately dispatched to the Hunter Street mall to shoot footage of Christmas lights for an upcoming commercial. Generally this would have been a rather pleasant undertaking but instead it became a trying end to a particularly arduous day.

I grew up literally beside the tracks in Mayfield with steam trains hauling coal past my bedroom window. For understandable reasons I have no great liking for these departed dinosaurs, hideous black monsters that rattled the house at night terrifying an impressionable four year old. But David Threlfo was passionate about the bloody things. He was also passionate about animation and special effects from the day he joined us fresh from high school as a trainee news cameraman though I suspect news might have been simply a means to an end. 

Unlike to-day where animation and special effects are valuable weapons in news' arsenal back then the process was far too complex and time consuming to even be considered except in commercial production. But this did not dull David's enthusiasm and although content with shooting news he nevertheless found an outlet for his more commercial talents in the annual film compiled for the staff Christmas party. He decided he would "blow up" Channel 3 and duly built a miniature model of the front of the building. The idea was to film the model being destroyed then through a convoluted process, superimpose people fleeing from it. Great idea Dave but just how do you propose to blow up the model?

Silly question on my part, the boy also had a penchant for fireworks and a ready supply of gunpowder. So as he was to be the pyrotechnician that left me to drive the camera. But I had one further question - how much gunpowder do you need Dave to create the effect? A nonchalant shrug of the shoulders and a mischievous grin were not the reassurances I was seeking. The model was not very big and I was positioned somewhat apprehensively only about two feet from it. With the camera rolling Dave fired his incendiary and the model erupted in a cloud of smoke scattering its residue over the car park at the back of the studio. As I surveyed the blackened tarmac I realised that both the camera and I were still intact if smelling a little of cordite. Grinning from car to car Dave was ecstatic. I was never certain as to whether or not it was because the idea had worked or that he had subjected me to a certain level of anxiety. Notwithstanding his primitive attempts Dave was to pursue his passion for animation and special effects now doing far more spectacular work using computer simulations in commercial productions his days as a news cameraman having long ago served their purpose.

David's casual approach to pyrotechnics left me ill-prepared for a commercial shoot I had to undertake with Ian Host. It was for a car dealership and Ian's script required blowing up a car. The shoot was scheduled for 4 pm on some vacant land near the (former) Motordrome at Tomago. Ian and I arrived just before 4 pm to find our explosives expert anxiously champing at the bit. The detonation had to occur precisely at 4 pm - all the authorities had been notified of this time and as far as this guy was concerned it was not negotiable regardless of the fact that it was being done purely for our commercial. Hey we’re not fighting a war buddy! These days you would describe the guy as anal.

To record the event in slow motion we had chosen to use a second camera which dictated additional setup time, something that this explosives cretin was not about to permit. Consequently the car erupted just as I hit the trigger on the second camera. As a result we were left with precious few frames for the commercial. Fortunately Ian was able to salvage sufficient from both cameras to make his commercial but without the full impact of the explosion as he had conceived it. Obstinacy was the clear winner.

Not all commercial shoots required elaborate set-ups. With only the director I was once set to a service station in New Lambton armed only with a camera and tripod to capture a few random scenes. At the end of the shoot I slung the tripod with the camera still attached, over my shoulder. The sheer weight of the commercial camera, an exotic and quirky French incarnation, coupled with only limited faith in the devices used to secure cameras to tripods meant that this was something I did only infrequently.

So it was that on an otherwise uncomplicated commercial shoot the last vestiges of my faith disintegrated as the camera parted company with the tripod, crashing heavily on to the concrete driveway of the service station. Given my history of damaging cameras in spectacular if inopportune circumstances, this accident was almost embarrassing in its simplicity. I had experienced far worse yet the camera was written off, the cost of repairs exceeding its book value. It was an untimely and unwarranted end to a first class camera which Stewart had nursed as if it were his own since the day it was newly purchased. I felt for him for even though the camera was subsequently replaced albeit with a second hand model, its demise at the hands of a news operator seemed a triumph of news over commercials. While this wasn't necessarily the case, with commercials increasingly being shot on videotape which was the province of the studio guys, the future of the camera pool was ultimately going to be dictated by news.