Canada’s TV spot awards fete the best and the brightest ­ Playback looks at the talent behind this year’s crop

In this report

– Palmer Jarvis’ evocative ad for Playland is a prime example of Vancouver’s guerrilla-style admaking at its best p. 22

– The winners montage: pix of the picks p. 26

– Preserving our TV advertising heritage p. 28

– A profile of Bessie-winning cinematographer Peter Hartmann p. 31

– Flashcut’s Bob Kennedy scoops the Bob Mann Award p. 32

– And the winner of the prestigious Spiess Award is BBDO’s Michael McLaughlin p. 33

– Allstars roundup p. 34

– Playback introduces ZapProof, a new feature on TV spots that stand out from the clutter p. 40

* * *

Cinematographer Peter Hartmann now has more Bessie wins to add to his extensive list of accolades.

Hartmann was the dop on this year’s Gold Bessie winner, ‘Slide Show’ for Save-On-Foods, which also scored gold in the Retail category. In addition, the Hartmann-shot Save-On pool, produced by Avion Film Productions, took Retail silver (‘Manager’s Special’), bronze (‘Early Riser’) and Merit (Wine Tasters’) as well as Campaign Third.

He was also dop on the Campaign Second winner, ‘Shut Up’/’Mary ‘n Barry’/Miss Kavasnak,’ for Sony Canada’s Walkman, produced by Zoo tv.

Hartmann shot the three Sony spots last fall, which all play with the underlying theme of how to tune someone out using a Walkman or Discman.

One of the spots features a teacher who has music coming out of his mouth whenever he opens it, another sports a ’50s look with a teacher speaking in and out of synch about how the ear works to tune things out.

The third is shot in black and white from an out-of-the-way place to create the impression of a hidden surveillance camera as it captures a couple discussing their parental duty to drive their children nuts.

‘Basically it was a natural look of lighting because it was supposed to be an ‘in situ’ kind of situation,’ says Hartmann. ‘It isn’t supposed to be glamorized or anything like that.’

At present, Hartmann is shooting three spots for Mark’s Work Wearhouse in Vancouver and will begin work on some feature films, something he has not done since the nascence of his cinematography career in Montreal (the black-and-white Quebec features Peau De Chagrin and Danger Pour La Societe).

In the business for around 25 years, Hartmann has helmed spots on dry ground for a veritable who’s who of national advertisers ­ from Budweiser and Bank of Montreal to Chrysler, Coca-Cola and beyond ­ but initially his name was mainly associated with aerial and underwater shooting.

Hartmann still gets airborne avec camera from time to time, but his present preoccupation is in the field of fashion.

‘I like doing aerial very much, you get a nice front seat to some very exotic scenery,’ says Hartmann. ‘I like the underwater as well, but there is not much demand for it in the east, people go to Florida and the Bahamas where there is more specialization in it.’

Out of the plethora of commercials he’s shot, the one that stands out in his mind as most interesting is ‘New Course,’ the 1996 Bronze Bessie-winning Canadian National spot.

‘It was shot entirely with one lens at the same elevation, [designed] to be constantly dissolved. Sometimes it was shot from railway tracks, sometimes from the road. It was shot from a sleigh being pulled by snowmobile over a frozen lake and it was shot on the Rockies and on dollies in natural locations.’

Everything had to be matched to the same point of view as the railway footage, which acted as the visual connector ­ all the shots had to have the same vanishing point on the horizon.

One of the tougher shots involved hand-held capture of high-speed skaters on rough ice. Getting soaked in icy water and having mountain peaks to work with as reference points to precisely line up the skating shots made the coordination challenge a physical one, and ultimately one that stood out from the pretty people/pretty places spot-shooting norm.

As to what’s ahead in cinematography vogue, beyond noting the popularity of wide-angle lenses to impart an exaggerated perspective and to emphasize humor, Hartmann says, ‘Each thing demands its own approach. Everybody for every subject has a different route and a different direction to take.’