During one of the episodes of The Associates, director of photography Philip Earnshaw was lighting an actor with a small scar on her face. Most of the time he worked to minimize the scar, but in this instance it was appropriate to emphasize it. ‘You could see a vein and it worked for that scene. There’s a convention in TV and movies to make women look as fantastic as possible; the challenge is to make them look good but in keeping with the mood the director is trying to create,’ he says.

The incident is just one example of Earnshaw’s careful and detailed cinematography since he graduated from York University’s film program in the early ’80s. (He was also the DOP for the original Degrassi series, Liberty Street and Traders.) His latest work for The Associates has earned him a Gemini nomination for best photography in a dramatic program or series.

The Associates is shot on 16mm, which presents its own set of problems. ‘You really have to chisel the light to make it pop and make it rich. In 35mm, you can work with higher-speed stock and still make it because you know the negative will hold. In 16mm, the grain will show, so you have to use a slower stock.’

In between Associates seasons, Earnshaw shot the upcoming Red Green movie, Red Green: Duct Tape Forever. ‘There isn’t a huge amount of difference between television and movies,’ he says. ‘Both Traders and The Associates are cinematic where you don’t cover everything that moves. The shots are there to tell a story.

‘With the last season on The Associates, we shot in a way that is very cinematic. A lot of the scenes were done in one shot. The actors feel like they’re in theatre – I work with them to choreograph the shots.’

Earnshaw says he counts himself lucky to have been able to work in the Canadian industry where storylines and characters are more complex. ‘When I finished Degrassi, I didn’t know anyone in town – I had just been working on Degrassi – so I had to get a job as an operator on a U.S. production. I was on the set and I looked around and some guy was pointing a gun. I thought, I’ve been working 15 years and I’ve never seen that.’ *