‘I want to be directed like an actor when I’m lensing,’ says Montreal-based director of photography Andre Turpin, prior to one of the final days of shooting on the comedy feature Childstar in Toronto.

And Turpin, a 2001 Genie winner for his cinematography on Maelstrom, knows about directing. His sophomore turn as a feature helmer, Un Crabe dans la tete (2002), won him Prix Jutras for direction, cinematography and screenplay on its way to also winning best picture. It was also Canada’s submission for best foreign-language Oscar consideration last year.

At 37, Turpin says some directors he shoots for may be intimidated by his own helming credits, but adds, ‘I avoid ‘directing’ when I’m DOP.’

Turpin’s latest shooting gig has seen him join forces with another talent known to wear a few hats – actor, writer and second-time feature director Don McKellar – on Childstar, produced by Niv Fichman, Daniel Iron and Jennifer Jonas for Rhombus Media.

Set in Toronto and Los Angeles, Childstar follows the story of unruly 12-year-old Hollywood brat Taylor Brandon Burns, portrayed by Toronto actor Mark Rendall (Blizzard), who manages to get lost while in Canada filming a blockbuster action movie dubbed The First Son. The story, cowritten by Michael Goldbach and McKellar, is told through the eyes of Rick (McKellar), a local indie filmmaker turned set driver who ends up in an affair with the boy’s mother, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. The cast also includes Kid in the Hall Dave Foley, Gil Bellows (Ally McBeal), Peter Paige (Queer as Folk), former Jason Leigh beau Eric Stoltz and Michael Murphy (Magnolia).

McKellar and Turpin have known each other for eight years, but had never collaborated prior to Childstar.

‘I met Don at the premiere of one of my works, Zigrail. At first he approached me to lens [a feature called] Blindness, but would complete writing Childstar before Blindness,’ the DOP recalls.

Turpin says he was very impressed with McKellar, whom he describes as ‘a formalist’ with a precise vision.

‘I like directors who are polite but bossy,’ says the cameraman. ‘I don’t believe in group creativity, because I think it’s the director’s job to sculpt the idea.’

Since Childstar is about the production of a Hollywood blockbuster – in which Taylor portrays the son of the American president – Turpin and McKellar watched many blockbusters on DVD for reference, specifically sections on the making of the films.

Turpin was left to his own devices when it came to lighting, but he and McKellar collaborated more closely on the framing, since they were working in the 2.35:1 Cinemascope format.

‘It’s awkward to find the frames for this format,’ Turpin notes. ‘They’re not natural to locate, so we sort of struggled to find the frames together.’

The lenser says he doesn’t approach lighting comedy any differently from drama. ‘I don’t believe that comedy should be shot really high-key, like most [seem to be]. I don’t bend lighting to adapt to comedy,’ he explains.

Childstar, rather, is lit in a simple and naturalistic style, while the blockbuster film-within-the-film is lit in a more typical Hollywood style, with saturated colors. But Turpin points out that it’s hard to define how Hollywood lights these days: ‘It’s gone from classic to a bit more non-distinctive, because there’s a lot of experimentation going on.’

The crew had 29 days to shoot the $5-million feature, which wrapped in mid-December, and Turpin says it felt very rushed.

‘I don’t like doing films where you don’t have enough time,’ he says. ‘I’m not a fast DOP and I like to take my time. For my own films I spend more money on time than big crews so that I can have more filming days.’

There were 60 different sets for Childstar, with cast and crew moving constantly from one to another. Most interiors – and some exteriors – were shot at Toronto Film Studios and Kleinberg Studios, which was ideal for The First Son parts of the film because of its standing White House sets. Some exteriors were also shot in Los Angeles.

Turpin says they wanted to depict Toronto from the point of view of Americans.

‘We planned for it to look sort of boring and cloudy, and thus the lighting was naturalistic, but there were some exceptions,’ he explains. ‘Anything [set in] Hollywood would have bright sunlight and saturated colors.’

The DOP used fluorescent Kino Flo fixtures, which helped create the soft, directional and contrasty lighting he sought. ‘There were no colored lights – everything was very white and pure. The colors come from the sets themselves,’ he says.

One sequence in Childstar proved particularly challenging.

Raining in Toronto

‘We were shooting a California scene at a house in Toronto,’ the cameraman recalls. ‘The sequence involved the actor going from the outside to the inside of the house. But it was pouring rain at the time, while we were supposed to be representing a big star’s house in sunny California.’

In order to avoid seeing rain, the crew had to flood the whole house with artificial fixtures standing in for bright sunshine, while building a cover to shield actor Rendall from the downpour. ‘It was so cold that we could see the actor’s breath and one could spot the raindrops, so we’d have to take those out in post-production,’ the cinematographer explains.

Turpin manned a single Moviecam that mostly rested on a dolly, using a second camera for certain days.

‘I liked using the Moviecam because it is very compact and light,’ he says. The production also incorporated handheld shots, Steadicam and a crane.

‘The crane was used for two reasons,’ Turpin says. ‘In the American movie, The First Son, the director uses a crane and the viewer can see the shots taken from that camera. The crane actually was mostly being used as a prop to show the Hollywood film being shot. We rented extra film equipment just to be [on-screen].’

As he did on Maelstrom, the DOP chose to shoot on Fujifilm stocks: F-500 and F-250D, specifically.

‘The choice of film stocks was less important on Childstar because we’re doing a digital intermediate process, whereby we shoot on Super 35 then transfer directly to HD, where we do color correction. So we never touched the negative,’ Turpin explains.

Toronto’s Toybox is being used for post-production and Turpin says he will be completely involved in the process, which includes some FX.

‘The CG special effects are done more for the film within Childstar,’ he says. ‘For example, we shot the top of the White House while all around is blue screen, and we [will be adding] planes flying by in the background.’

Turpin is currently working on a new script of his own, but says it won’t be ready for a couple of years. In the meantime, he’s preparing for DOP duties on the French-language musical Familia, directed by Louise Archambault, who happens to be his girlfriend.

‘She got the green light to make her feature debut as a director, and I’m very excited to be working on this project with her,’ he says. Familia begins filming in June in Montreal.

Childstar will be released theatrically by TVA Films in late 2004. Rhombus International will handle foreign sales.

-www.rhombusmedia.com