For Barry Peterson, cinematography started out as a childhood hobby, but he always knew it would become his career. Peterson was 13 when movies like Star Wars fuelled his dream of working behind the camera. ‘I was a kid with a Super 8 camera and it all evolved from there,’ he says.

Peterson’s work on ‘What If,’ a spot highlighting General Motors’ contributions to automotive safety, was so compelling it earned him the 2002 Bessie for Best of Series in cinematography. Produced by The Partners’ Film Company for Toronto-based MacLaren McCann, the spot was shot in three days in and around Hamilton, ON.

As a voiceover asks what if GM hadn’t invented safety measures like the airbag, safety glass or concrete highway dividers, the commercial depicts a serious car crash in which a skidding trailer truck cuts off a car. The car swerves out of control, goes off a bridge, somersaults and finally crashes into a street pole. The catch is that the commercial shows the footage in reverse, which presented unique challenges for Peterson.

‘It’s a whole different way to think. When you’re looking at a piece of footage in forward it all makes sense, but when you see something played in reverse you have to think about it differently and change it accordingly. You can miss a lot of detail,’ he says.

While the commercial plays as if the vehicle were alone on the road, on set there were people everywhere. ‘The hardest thing about the shoot was just the pure logistics of trying to come up with interesting shots without getting killed…or hurting the camera.’

The commercial plays in black and white, but was shot in color to avoid errors that can occur processing black-and-white film. Using yellow filters to punch up the contrast, Peterson pulled the color in post, leaving a crisp black-and-white finished product that accentuates detail in the crash sequence including flying debris.

Peterson’s talent for cinematography, developed through working on commercials, has expanded to include work on feature films. He did the cinematography for Paramount’s Zoolander, directed by Ben Stiller, in September. He also recently completed Dark Blue, an MGM thriller directed by Ron Shelton and starring Kurt Russell. Set in 1992, Dark Blue explores the L.A. riots that ensued in the days after the acquittal of four police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King and is due to be released in September. He is also in negotiations to begin working on another Shelton film, starring Harrison Ford. The police story about the rap scene in L.A. will be in prep by June and will start shooting in September.

Peterson says his commercial cinematography experience has given him skills that have been instrumental in his long-form work. Being trained to tell a story in 30 seconds introduced him to creative storytelling and lighting techniques. But he says that until quite recently it was difficult for a commercial cinematographer to make the jump to long form because of stigmas associated with commercial work.

‘There was definitely a time when commercial DOPs were known as slow prima donnas,’ says Peterson, who encountered this attitude before starting work on his first feature film when film execs expressed concern that he might not be able to make his days. ‘But the whole commercial market’s evolved so much. What’s started to happen now is the commercial guys are starting to move more and more into movies.’

Peterson has lived in L.A. for the past seven years, where he continues to do a lot of work with fellow Canadian, director Steve Chase. He comes to Toronto, where he started as a freelancer 10 years ago, about twice a year.

When he graduated from high school, Peterson moved to L.A. to work as an FX cameraman at the now-defunct FX studio Ultra Image in Burbank, CA, then moved to Toronto to become in-house DOP at the also-defunct FX studio, Light and Motion. He made the move back to L.A. in response to a changing FX scene.’I felt the effects I was in at that time were rapidly changing and if I didn’t get out I wouldn’t be shooting anymore.’

Because Peterson came to cinematography as an FX cameraman, his craft as a cinematographer is very much self-directed. ‘If you work your way up as a camera operator or a camera assistant, you get to watch other cameramen and learn from their tricks and I didn’t have the opportunity to sit behind someone and watch what they’re doing.’

For Peterson, the most important aspect of his approach to cinematography is effective communication with the director. ‘My job as a cinematographer is to communicate to my crew and everyone else on the set what the director’s vision is, to quantify that in photographic terms.’