Cinematographer Rolf Kestermann teams with director (and spouse) Paula Walker to create dynamic commercials and music videos.
Director of photography Rolf Kestermann approaches his work on commercials and music videos with the eye of a painter which is what Kestermann once studied to be. Director Paula Walker, Kestermann’s wife and longtime collaborator, says of him, "He somehow goes for the jugular in the way he frames or composes a shot. He has this way of creating movement in everything he does. He never stops trying to make it better, or trying to make it flow, or trying to make it interesting."
Born in Germany, Kestermann grew up in Zurich, Switzerland. After studying painting in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and then at a private French studio, he moved to Los Angeles to earn a film degree from Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design. Though the cinematographer has worked with directors such as Herb Ritts and John Landis, most of his projects have been collaborations with Walker. They met shortly after both had finished school in the early Eighties, while working on In Search Of, a television show about paranormal phenomena. On this program, Kestermann was a camera assistant; Walker worked in production, taking the film from him to the lab. One day, the show’s makers were "staging a hanging," Walker remembers of the pair’s first meeting. "We both felt as if it was being covered from the wrong angle, and we started talking." Their conversation has been going on ever since.
Despite the duo’s different backgrounds Walker was reared in Los Angeles and trained as a dancer before turning to theater and film at the University of Michigan the couple found that they had much in common. "We shared the same sensibilities," says Walker. "I came from a movement background, and he came from a painter’s background. I think it was a good partnership, because we’d both been trained in the arts."
The pair began their joint career by doing music videos for recording artists such as Tina Turner, Lou Reed and Chris Isaak. (Kestermann earned an MTV Award for Best Cinematography for the striking black-and-white visuals he lent to Isaak’s popular, oft-aired "Wicked Game" video, which was directed by Herb Ritts). In 1986, they founded Strato Films, which is now primarily involved in commercials for companies such as Nestle, Kodak, AT&T and the German National Railroad.
After storyboarding their spots, Kestermann and Walker divide up the work. "I deal with the art department," he says. "She works with the cast and the styling and makeup." On a recent Gallate spot, for example, "Paula would fly to Paris and do casting, and I would fly to Rome and scout locations."
Real settings are an important component of Kestermann’s style. "Many of the shoots are location-based," he says. "It’s about being at the right place at the right time finding your location and biting your nails, hoping you’ll get it."
On location, Kestermann tries to take advantage of existing light conditions as much as possible, often structuring his day around the path and angle of the sun. On the Gallate spot, he found Rome particularly conducive to the look of the commercial, as the city itself added a distinct flavor to the illumination. He recalls, "We shot everything with existing light, even the interiors. We basically always used the sunlight. I put tracing paper up [on the windows] for diffusion. It’s really the color of the buildings in Rome ochres, reds. The way the light gets bumped back from the buildings as fill is really great."
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