Speedster, director, producer-Scott Gillen is the powerhouse behind the Speed Channel’s Build or Bust, a 60-minute motorcycle-construction love fest. He started his career as a stunt driver (Heat, Devil in a Blue Dress, and-natch-Speed) and segued into becoming an accomplished commercial shooter. Repped by A Band Apart, Gillen has shot speeding metal for Lexus, Ford, NASCAR, Nissan, Honda, Volkswagen and Mercedes. Film & Video asked him about shooting cars and motorcycles at 100 mph.

Commercials have taught me how to tell a story, how to grab the viewer. I hope my TV show has a style to it-the same style with which I shoot commercials. I have an aggressive, raw approach that makes you feel what I’m shooting. I try not to fake anything I’m doing. Everything you see in my commercial is real. If the car slides out in a turn, we position the camera to be in the seat so you feel like you’re in the car and more connected to my story.

I love the Arriflex 435 cameras and I have my own Carl Zeiss Ultra Primes-very good glass. I like the rawness of the lens. I like the depth of field. I like that you can get up on an object, within inches, and still be in focus. I’m a Primes shooter. It’s what gives you that “in-your-face” feeling I’m trying to project.

I can ramp from one frame to 150 frames [per second] inside my shot with the Arri and I can see the changes coming down for real. Going into post to slow it down or ramp it up is a shortcut and, I think, not the way to go.

[For budgetary reasons] I bought three of the new Sony HDV-Z1U cameras. The camera doesn’t have interchangeable lenses, which is a disappointment to me, but it works well for us. We shoot 50, 60, 70 hours of tape over three weeks. We’re shooting in a 16×9 format so we’re composing in a true HD fashion, which gives a cinematic feel.

Realness. You need to be in the game. I’ve been up to speeds of 120 mph. The closer you can get to what you’re attacking with the proper lens is best. There’s a moment when my lens has to cross my object at the right speed and at the right time to feel what I want you to feel. At NASCAR, I was in a follow vehicle, following racecar driver Mark Martin. I took a jib arm on a slide and put the camera on the jib arm. I added a Frazier lens, which is 2.5 feet long, to get the camera into the car so I could see race-car driver Mark Martin’s face through the helmet. We started the shot with the camera inside the car, and both cars were going 120 mph. Then I pulled the camera out of the window, Mark pulls away, and the camera pans across the logo-which was Viagra. I had a lot of fun doing it all in one shot without a cut at 120 mph. That’s a shot. Anyone can cut it and cheat it. When you’re watching the spot you may not know why it has that feeling. But you don’t have to know. You just have to feel it.