Cinematography in Canada Since 1957

@diguial #DiegoGuijarroCSC

It’s rare for me to find a balance of great storytelling and branding in commercial work.

These are stills from the director’s cut of a Visa commercial by @felipegomezaparicio

We shot this in Bogotá for the Women’s Soccer World Cup. It was a campaign designed for several countries in South America, so we spent the first two days shooting the same scenes with different athletes from each country. The idea was to maintain consistency throughout, as we had to shoot both exteriors and interiors within a very tight timeframe.

I think one of the most challenging aspects of working in commercials is dealing with such time constraints while still trying to make the work feel human. It’s definitely a fun challenge, but it can be tough not to take it personally when things don’t go as planned or when your expectations fall short.

In this case, it felt especially meaningful because the narrative followed the dreams of young women pursuing careers in football (soccer—excuse my European upbringing 😂), culminating with the athletes competing in the World Cup. Hearing their stories and struggles was truly inspiring.

We shot most of it handheld on an ARRI Mini LF with Cooke 1.8x Anamorphic lenses. I completely underestimated the effects of the altitude, which made it a real challenge to keep up with the game and move around with such a heavy setup.

This project was a lot of fun, thanks to @rebolucion_ , @lulameliche , and the incredible crew in Colombia. The final magic touches were made by @desarmaleo

@diguial #DiegoGuijarroCSC

I became deeply involved in shooting projects featuring dancers from the National Ballet of Canada for a time. These stills are from two different projects.

The first ten stills, titled Tina, were directed by @dkalinauskas . It marked my first experience shooting on 35mm film. The project followed @ballerinacouture over several years as she recovered from an injury, culminating in a final performance. To differentiate between the everyday moments and the performance, we decided to shoot the everyday scenes on 4-perf and crop the performance footage to 2.35:1. Additionally, we used @kodak_shootfilm stock for the everyday footage and Fuji Eterna (400T, if I remember correctly) for the performance. The Fuji stock was very old and required overexposure by two stops to achieve the desired look.

The second project, Karo, was directed by @haya_wsm and shot in just a few hours. It featured @karolinakuras , an incredible photographer and director who works closely with the National Ballet. Haya wanted to approach this differently—rather than having Karolina speak directly to the camera with b-roll, we recreated some of her photographs in motion, capturing the essence of her studio work.

Ironically, we didn’t learn much about film in film school, but I’ve always been curious about it. At some point, I decided to buy an Arriflex 235 and start experimenting. The opening frames of Tina are actually the first ones I ever exposed on film.

I love shooting on film—it pushes me to be more disciplined, which is something I’m always striving for. There’s also something beautiful about the process: being intensely focused on a setup or scene, rolling the film, and then letting it go, trusting that everything came together. Whenever I get the chance to shoot on film, I jump at it.

For both projects, I had the privilege of working with @kevin_packer , one of my favorite Steadicam operators!

@diguial #DiegoGuijarroCSC

“We were” is a short film written and directed by @jonahaber, shot this past summer across various locations in Toronto and Ontario.

The story explores heartbreak through different stages of the main character’s life. From the start, I felt the story was incredibly relatable—after all, who hasn’t experienced a broken heart?

I’m sharing this because it connects deeply with my previous post. The approach and the situation felt strikingly similar. This project is definitely one of my favorites from last year, and it’s interesting to see how many parallels it shares in terms of process, even though the two projects are almost a decade apart.

With a very tight budget and limited resources, we relied heavily on natural light, precise timing, and small lamps. I can’t remember everything we had, but I believe we used a couple of @litegear litemats 4 and @aputure.lighting 600Ds. We aimed for a very soft look, especially since we were shooting on the @sonycine Venice 2. To add a unique touch, I chose to shoot on Canon FD lenses, generously provided by @keslowcamera camera.

This was definitely a fun project, and I have so many people to thank for making it possible.

Produced by @renmichael1 @ibukistudios.ca
1st Ad @yousefadris
Production designer @diallakawar
1st AC @z_macdonald
2nd AC @susannahaight
Gaffer @mahmoudsarouji
Wardrobe Stylist @heather.hedley
Editor @michaelbbarker @outsidereditorial
Color @sgllng

The short is not out yet so you are seeing it here first!

@diguial #DiegoGuijarroCSC

These are some stills from a music video I shot for Limestone Chorus, a band from St. Catharines, directed by @wolfmanhann

This was the first project I worked on after finishing film school, and it still holds a special place for me. It was shot with a crew of three: myself, Blake, and focus puller @coffinfilms . The song was about spending time in nature and embracing the simplicity of it all. With that in mind, @wolfmanhann came up with the concept of showing a group of kids doing just that—enjoying the simple things. We spent three days filming them having fun, all with natural light, while carrying all our gear around Niagara. It wasn’t easy, and at times it was exhausting, but I loved the simplicity of it, as well as the added excitement of finally using all the tools we’d heard about in film school. Getting my hands on an @arri Alexa Mini and shooting anamorphic was something I was incredibly excited about.

After film school, I went on to work as an AC for a while, and I used my weekends and free time to shoot whatever I could. For the most part, those early projects had no resources and were made with friends. I love looking back at those beginnings because those were the times when intuition guided all the decision-making. It’s something I revisit now when I find myself overcomplicating things. It’s easy to get caught up in the trucks, the lights, and all (necessary sometimes), but when I get lost in it all, I remind myself of those days—just a camera, a great crew, and something inspiring to shoot.

I’ve never considered myself particularly technical, and I often have to push myself to learn all the tools needed to visually tell a story—especially since it can feel overwhelming. For a long time, I focused too much on the end result. But, like when I learned a new language or picked up music, I’ve come to realize that true creativity flows best when you’re fluent in the medium. So now, I believe the goal is to absorb as much as I can to become fluent, and then let my intuition take the lead.

Always on the lookout for those amazing mistakes and happy accidents that end up creating magic!

@diguial #DiegoGuijarroCSC

Happy New Year CSC Family & Friends! Hope everyone had a great night and are ready to welcome the new year!

I’ve been asked to host the CSC Insta for the next couple of weeks! I’ll be sharing some of my work on here, as well as talking about my experiences and about all sorts of on-set nonsense I’ve encountered on my journey.

To begin, my name’s Diego Guijarro CSC, AEC & Im based between both Toronto and Madrid. I was born in Madrid and moved to Canada at the age of 19 to learn English (absolutely lost and with little aim in life). I don’t have an inspiring story where I knew I wanted to work in film from an early age. Cinematography was something I stumbled upon by chance, later in life at the age of 25 and only became a full-time viable career for me at the age of 27/28, which seemed late compared to others around me.

As a teenager, I was always drawn to the arts and experimented with many different forms of it; painting, sculpting, playing drums, bass & guitar. Even though I still enjoy doing all of that, it wasn’t until I found cinematography that I started to be able to express myself the way I always wanted. I realized early on in this field that what I enjoyed most was working with other creatives and helping others tell their stories.

It means so much to me to be doing something that I love and I feel super lucky to do so. Since I started this insane journey I have had the pleasure of collaborating with many talented people in all kinds of departments within the industry, most of which I consider friends and family now. Thats what I think I love the most about this Job.

Anyway! I’ll share some of my work for the next couple of weeks and hope you all enjoy the content. Please feel free to reach out with any sort of questions or advice - I’d love to hear from you!

❤️❤️❤️

@scott_mcclellan, #AAScottMcClellanCSC, #ScottMcClellanCSC

Well that’s it for me! Thank you all so much for tuning in over the last two weeks.

On my way out I want to point to the crews who make this all possible. They are the ones who bring this all to fruition and they deserve so much respect and gratitude. I have had the luck to work with so many incredible people who have lifted me up and carried these productions on their strong backs. So many incredibly smart, talented and hard working people. We owe you so much.

Including some BTS and crew photos to honour them. I wish I had pics of everybody who I have worked with over the years. I hate the thought of leaving people out and there are so many of you who I adore and look forward to seeing again soon. If you’re not in these photos it doesn’t mean a thing. What I hope does mean something is my sincere and deep gratitude. Thank you all for your tireless and detailed work. Truly.

To everyone I have ever collaborated with or anyone who has ever taken a chance on me. Thank you.

In the interest of helping the next generation of cinematographers out there, for what it’s worth, I’ll leave you with this advice/
-Work at it every single day. Whether it’s 14 hours on set, or twenty minutes reaching out to someone, reading about techniques or tech’, or whatever. Pick away at it and do something that will lead you toward your goals every day.
-Remember that someone else’s success is not your failure. Support others and don’t be discouraged by what others are doing.
-Be honest with yourself, with others and with your work. Trust your gut. It’s usually your best ally.
-Most of all be patient. If you’re lucky it won’t happen overnight. Building a career as a DP takes time and hundreds of small failures and successes. Big ones too. JUST. KEEP. GOING

With love, respect and gratitude,

-Scott McClellan CSC