According to Radke Films director/DOP Steve Gordon, a great cause inspires superior results. His work on the PSA ‘It’s Only Natural’ for Reach for the Rainbow is proof positive, garnering top marks in this year’s Top Spots cinematography category.

‘Creatively, [spot-makers] are always trying to do the best we can, but commercial clients can have the mentality of ‘I’m paying you a lot of money, this is the way I want to do it,’ rather than ‘Do this the best you can – whatever’s right for the job,’ ‘ Gordon says. ‘With PSAs, everybody involved realizes everyone is doing this [on a volunteer basis], so they look at it like ‘Let’s do it so that we get something out of it everybody can be proud of.’ ‘

Reach for the Rainbow is an organization that seeks to integrate mentally challenged children with their peers through participation in various activities. The 60-second spot involved one day of shooting at a YMCA camp in the Muskokas and one day in Toronto’s Beaches area. A finalist at this year’s International Broadcast Awards, ‘It’s Only Natural’ features Rainbow kids participating in classic summer pursuits such as jumping into a lake or running along a beach, while a narrator poses the question of whether the lake or beach would care exactly who uses them.

From the opening frames Gordon aspires for visual poetry. There is heavy reliance on slow motion, shots of skies, underwater photography (executed by Jim Cosmic), hair blowing in the wind, deliberately out-of-focus shots and arresting compositions, culminating in moving close-ups of children. Gordon admits it’s a fine line between poetry and cliche with certain lensing techniques.

‘A lot of younger DOPs say ‘Let’s bring in a swing-and-tilt lens [which renders part of the shot out-of-focus]’ just for the sake of ‘it’s cool – everybody’s using it,’ ‘ he says. ‘Prior to that everyone was doing the ‘wobbly cam,’ the very active camera. Then morphing became a big thing. We’ve got to keep pushing beyond that. If swing-and-tilts work for the idea, great, but if they’re just there for the effect, then it’s not a good idea.’

Gordon used no artificial light sources on the spot (‘It was all God’s light,’ he says). The natural illumination, taking advantage of the magical quality of the dawn and sunset, combined with a floating acoustic guitar score (from Great Big Music), suggests the influential work of late great cinematographer Nestor Almendros on the feature Days of Heaven, which Gordon considers a ‘beautiful film.’

Gordon wanted to open the piece with an inspiring sunrise, but couldn’t find it on either of the two production days. Luckily he has his own Arri 2C 35mm motion picture camera, and with it he captured the ideal daybreak on his own time.

Gordon says he works as his own DOP ‘99% of the time, because when you’re looking through the camera first-hand, what you see is what you’re going to see on film. Looking through a monitor does not necessarily provide that.’

Gordon credits the children with much of the spot’s success.

‘We didn’t have to tell the kids what to do,’ he explains. ‘We put them into situations and then magic just happened.’

The spot was not boarded, but Gordon worked out the shots he would need with Toronto agency Wolf Group. The ordering was finalized in post with editors Richard Unruh and Scott Blackett at Third Floor Editing.

The South African-born Gordon, whose background is in stills photography, started experimenting with the motion picture medium in 1986, and has never stopped. ‘It’s Only Natural’ is somewhat of a departure for him, as he often does F/X-driven spots, such as Tropicana’s ‘Hand Jive,’ which features an X-ray view of a jazz ensemble, and Hamilton Beach’s ‘Funeral,’ starring a talking hen. He believes, however, that form must always be led by content.

‘The idea is the crux and the criteria [of a spot], and we need to keep pushing the envelope of finding whatever’s going to visually communicate that in the best way or in a different way,’ he says.

-www.radkefilms.com