Ohio craftsmen who work behind the scenes will be represented in two high-profile movies opening Wednesday.

Madeira native Lon Stratton served as director of photography on much of Standing in the Shadows of Motown, the high-spirited documentary about the Motown house band known as the Funk Brothers.

He oversaw filming of everything except the concert, Mr. Stratton said from the Detroit-area production house where he works. He was a camera operator for the concert, which was staged specifically to collect material for the film and soundtrack CD.

Mr. Stratton, who lives in Michigan with his wife and two children, inherited his interest in camera work from his father, who recently retired as a professor of photography from the University of Cincinnati.

"The motion picture thing was kind of accidental. My uncle was throwing away an 8 mm camera in the '60s, so I took it and repaired it and said, `OK, I like this,' "

His multifaceted career has included stints as a flight instructor, charter pilot and musician, playing in Cincinnati jazz clubs in his youth.

"That really helped in shooting the movie," he said. "We got to rehearse with (the band) with our cameras. We really became part of the performance."

The experience came to an emotional climax on Nov. 10, when the movie bowed in Detroit at a celebrity gala attended by the surviving Funk Brothers.

Afterward, the musicians convened at a well-known riverfront club called the Rooster Tail, where they played for hours.

It was as much a wake as a celebration, said Mr. Stratton, because pianist Johnny Griffith, who appeared in the film, had died that morning.

Fellow Funk Brother Jack Ashford spoke about Mr. Griffith, said Mr. Stratton. "He said Johnny made it to the finish line. He got to see the movie, he got to see the finish line."

A side note: When Shadows screens at The Esquire, 320 Ludlow, in Clifton, it will be projected from a computer without one inch of actual film.

The theater is among sites in 25 cities chosen by BMW and Microsoft to exhibit a series of films in digital format, on equipment installed at no cost by Microsoft.

Over the next year, seven more films (yet to be named) will be digitally exhibited under the same system. All will be accompanied by high-tech short films commissioned by BMW from famous directors, including John Woo and Guy Ritchie, to showcase the carmaker's wares.

Animation in action

On the family-film front, Delaware, Ohio, native Mark Mitchell worked as an animator on Treasure Planet, which will open both at local multiplex theaters and on the giant screen at the U.S. Bank Imax Theater.

The movie combines digital animation with old-fashioned handiwork, which Mr. Mitchell has been doing for Walt Disney Pictures most of his career since he graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1991.

He worked on Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan, Fantasia 2000 and The Emperor's New Groove before he joined the team that drew Captain Amelia, the fearless female ship's captain voiced by Emma Thompson.

He has since finished working on Home on the Range, due out next year, and has been training to work on an unnamed all-digital movie.

For the moment, he said, his greatest challenge is making that transition from traditional to digital animation.

"It's much the same set of skills," he said. "If a person understands acting and the physics of movement, then doing it on a computer is just sort of another tool. ... After I get over the technological hurdle of understanding the software and stuff, it will be a lot of fun."

No more traditionally animated movies are on tap at Disney's California studio right now, he said.

"I feel lucky I got to be out here while this amazing group of animators was all under one roof. I got to learn so much from the modern masters of the craft."

Email mmcgurk@enquirer.com