Director of photography Barry Peterson spent a lot of time in the dark while shooting the Pontiac spot ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’ with Jolly Roger director Steve Chase.

Peterson takes the Top Spot cinematography craft award for the fast-paced spot, which depicts a suspenseful car chase in a series of back alleys to rival those seen in Bullit, Ronin or any other big-budget American feature film that relies on the strength of it action sequences.

The spot opens with a man strolling down a dark alley, when suddenly a car thrusts itself out of the shadows and begins moving toward him. The man runs as fast as he can down a series of steamy, menacing alleyways, desperate to get away from the vehicle, while the car stays (as they say) in hot pursuit. Finally, the man breathlessly scales a chain link fence. He believes he has escaped, until the car crashes through a wall of debris and corners him. An attractive woman gets out of the driver’s side and takes his set of keys for the car, which he hands over grudgingly.

Peterson says that the darkness of the Toronto-shot ad was intentional and that it not only contributed to the suspense and mood of the spot, but it also helped to mask some points that would have made the spot less believable.

‘In Toronto, there aren’t a lot of back alleys left,’ Peterson points out, adding that for each take, slight changes were made to the two different Toronto alleys used in the spot. The dark lighting was needed to keep the spot moving, and to give added assurance that the viewer wouldn’t become wise to the fact that the same alleys were being shot in rotation.

The lighting also played a big role in the speed of the spot, with the ad’s pace moving quickly from the very beginning. Peterson explains that a moto-cam (a Steadicam fastened to a motorcycle) was used to capture properly the fast shots from a low angle, to keep the pace steady and to make the spot interesting-looking.

Peterson reports that the ability of the director (Chase) and the cameraman (himself) to work well together to coordinate and choreograph the action on ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ was essential. He and Jolly Roger’s Chase have worked together many times before, having collaborated on commercials in Canada for the last five years. In fact, he says that he and Chase sometimes revert to using ‘short-hand’ techniques when they collaborate, often knowing how the other is feeling or thinking when considering an angle or idea for a particular spot. The two have teamed on spots for Molson Export and other Pontiac ads.

Peterson’s camera work was honored earlier in the year when he took home a Best of Series cinematography award from the 1999 Bessies for the Molson Export ad, ‘Judith.’