A first discovered interest, a photography, actually not through still photography but
through Super 8.
My dad was a production designer, art director, but I really didn't have that much exposure
to his work or to the set, but Super 8 was something I really had a connection to making
films, cutting the little pieces of film strips in my room and putting music to it, so I was
all very primitive with the cassette recorder and trying to sync things, but played around
with the Super 8 for a couple of years, made some short films and then really felt the
limitations of the format and got interested in photography as an extension of what I
was doing with painting and bought my first camera, so I was a hobby photographer, I mean
now we're talking, I'm like 15 and learned through just doing it myself, the concept
of depth of field and the black and white mostly did printing, had my own little enlarger,
picked different papers, I really enjoyed it, was up all night doing prints and then when
I finished my school in Munich I moved to New York where my dad was working on John
Cassavetes' last film called Love Streams and they were editing it and I had sent some
stills of mine to John and I got a very encouraging response from him, he said, you know, your
images capture the spirit of a new generation in a classical form, I didn't really, you
know, but it was very encouraging and very soon after I got there I met Liz Gazar who
was Ben Gazar's daughter and she was planning to make a short film and asked me to photograph
it and it was interesting, it was self-taught, we had an old Declare MPR which we found in
the closet, it was John Cassavetes' camera that he used on faces, it was a great little
handheld camera, we bought some film stock, I found a manual, I learned how to thread
the camera, I taught my two, three people who were on my crew how to do certain things
without me really knowing and we had lots of axes and so the magazines were leaking
light, the tripod kept sliding away, it was this old wooden tripod that I didn't have
a spreader, I didn't know all these things exist so it was very much learned by doing
experience and then I got my first professional job which was for Roger Corman film studios
back then, it was a lumberyard on Main Street in Venice, California and it was ultra low
budget B-movies.
What's it like to be naked in front of 100 people?
It depends on the air condition.
When I was there he happened to have a strip club as a set, so all my first movies involved
strippers being murdered or vampire, stripper love stories and so I did Strip to Kill 2,
Dance of the Damned, all these things and it was great because now I'm getting paid
not a lot but it was a significant income for me back then, I was shooting 35mm, we
had an airy BL-2 with blimps and the prime lenses, we had Fuji stock that he got somehow
off the great market from Hong Kong and we did features in 15 days but you know that's
where I got to meet directors that later moved out of Corman, graduated let's say from Corman
and Cat Shea Rubin was a director who I did 3-4 films with and then later we did Poison
Ivy with Drew Barrymore and Tom Scarrett, so that was the step out of Corman.
That's where I met most of the people that I'm still friends with, my colleagues, my
cinematography friends, I was hiring film students as my crew, mostly AFI students it
just turned out that way but Janusz Kaminski, Wally Pfister, Mauro Fiori were all working
with me on those films and we're still friends and become a long lasting friendship and all
that originated at Roger Corman.
I was never a very aggressive painter with light, I was always looking first to what
is the natural situation, how can I be flexible and move quickly and take advantage of natural
light and I still apply that today, no matter what budget it is.
So I would say my style is a simplicity, I don't over light, I don't like to use back
lights, I always try to have a logical approach to my sources, in the exterior I don't do
people in back light and on the reverse in back light, sometimes you have to cheat and
sometimes you get away with it and my gaffer always says you know what Papa, if it looks
good nobody is going to notice but to me I always have to have some kind of logic, there's
a famous quote where somebody was saying to Alan Davio, I think Alan where is this light
coming from and he said the same place the music is coming from so it doesn't always
have to make sense.
I would consider myself a classical, more traditional cinematographer, I do admire some
of the stylized photography I see and I constantly see work from younger cinematographers that
I think that's really great, I really love it but in general what works best for me is
when I put emphasis on the composition, the camera moves are always subtle, I try to pick
moments where a move makes sense and I think by not overdoing the movement then you know
the move becomes more effective.
I like the audience to be able to explore the frame, I don't like movies that have very
fast editorial pacing and I do like people to be able to take in the composition and
have time to be affected by the frame, I think Nebraska is a good example of that, I mean
I noticed watching the film with audiences that often there's a frame that got in reaction
just purely based on the composition or on the mise-en-scène of a shot when you have
all the old guys sitting and watching TV that gets a big reaction, gets a laugh before the
dialogue which is hilarious, usually the simple enough and the simplicity is something that
I'm attracted to, I mean I think sometimes if I can do it the most economic way with
lights and camera moves and it's also in a way the most powerful way.
I do like working with the same directors, I have a relationship with Alexander Payne,
of course with James Mangold, we've done four movies, with Clooney I've done three now,
two as a director, we're the same generation, we grew up with the same kind of movies, we'd
like the same kind of films, we like the French New Wave, we like Japanese cinema, it's classic
film making.
All three of us directors are very reactive and instinctive with the process
being we watch the actors in the blocking, we see how their emotions are, I get involved
in the blocking, we shift things around, we try to keep it simple and then we design the
coverage right there after rehearsal, it's not really storyboarded, it's not shot listed,
it's about the performances primarily, it's about the close-ups, the little moments in
the actors' faces that we try and find and we try and catch.
The way I choose a project or my next project, it's a very hard process because first you
know you read the script, the script is not a final product, it's not a literary piece,
it's not a novel, it's sort of this intermediary stage of coming, so you have to be able to
see the strength and the power of the script and when I read it I like to see the final
film in my head and that can be done without descriptive action in the script but sometimes
you read a script and you're able to see the whole film the way it's going to be, at
least the way you personally interpret it and then the next step of course is who is
directing the film.
Of course since I'm working with the same directors a lot and Alexander is very particular
and generates his scripts other than Nebraska he wrote all of his movies so of course you
know that that material is right for him and it really helps me also knowing who the actors
are.
I've been very fortunate, I work with great actors, I work with Philip C. Mahoffman, Paul
Jammari, of course George Clooney, Russell Crowe, I mean I really enjoy the proximity
that we have as cameraman to the performers, I feel like we have the best seat in the house
so it's one of the perks of our profession that we get to be right there where the performance
happens and the actors know that we are the eyes of the audience and that we find and
capture those moments, especially when you talk to the old timers and to the more seasoned
actors they all have a very fond memories of their operators, it's all about creating
an environment around camera that makes them feel comfortable and that's really what good
directing is also.
I was very excited to get the chance to shoot a western 310 to Yuma, I think during cinematography
career everybody wants to shoot a period piece which I was very lucky to do and it's mostly
the exterior, you're dealing with the environment, you have the amazing landscapes, you're dealing
with controlling the day, daylight, it was great and was remangled so it's a great challenge
to do a western.
Pursuit of Happiness was working with Italian director Gabriele Mochino, European filmmaker
first time in America with a huge movie star, Will Smith and it was great because Gabriele
definitely brought European filmmaking sensibilities to the project and Will Smith turned out to
be just an amazing, hard working person and was very excited also to be working again
a little bit looser structure, less designed, Gabriele we ran a lot of handheld cameras,
very little lighting in the streets of San Francisco, gave Will Smith a lot of freedom
and I think it's a wonderful performance and the opportunity for him to work with his
son who had launched his career and it was very touching to see how he would collaborate
with his son and the relationship they had on set and then having an Italian director
was very emotional and dramatic but also very fun loving so it was a wonderful experience
and I actually really enjoyed the result of the movie, I mean I went beyond my expectations.
My music video is with U2, well I met Bono because he wrote the story for Million Dollar
Hotel and then we traveled with him after the film and we shot a music video for the
ground beneath your feet in Dublin, whenever you're working with any artist, I mean Daniel
Lanois or Willie Nelson and I've done some music things with, it's just great, I think
music and images you know have a relation that is undeniably in its power and I love
working with musicians and Bono of course is the ultimate performer, he's as great
as any actor that I've worked with in terms of his presence and his power on screen so
I was very lucky to do two or three, I think three videos with him.
After we had done the Million Dollar Hotel, Bono actually recommended me to Anton Corbin
who's a photographer and was directing Electrical Storm, it was a funny story because Anton
I don't think has ever used this in a photographer before so actually he said to me, what does
it mean like if you are the cameraman, does that mean I can still choose some shots and
I also framed, of course I'm here to help you, I'm here to support you, it's your
video, but we did Electrical Storm in Monte Carlo where the band has a summer house and
we shot Black and White, 16mm with Samantha Morton as a mermaid and that was a lot of
fun to do, great shoot.
Record please ready and end.
It's a final wrap. Thank you very much. Thank you everybody.
It's one particularly exceptional moment or shot in my entire career. Not really. I mean
the moments, the sequences that stand out, you know, where you know you've been there,
you've found something that worked. You know, when I was shooting Joaquin Phoenix and Reese
on stage performing and feeding off their energy and the raw quality of Joaquin's performance
and his intensity that he brought to that role. And if you're there with the camera
and you capture those moments, you know that something happened that special, you know.
There's something, there's a dance between the actor and the camera. There's a, you know,
sort of this merge of, you know, the music, the emotions, the performance. And you know
when that happens. And Joaquin Phoenix definitely had those moments. Of course, Clooney in Descendants.
Ruth Stern in Nebraska was catching those little moments, sometimes his little looks.
It's never like, you know, this is the grand amazing shot and this beautiful light. But
it's, you know when it happens, when you get lucky and you, you know, I was there at
the right time. I saw the thing. I just happened to be lucky to capture this moment and it's
not stuff you can design. And that's what cinema is about, you know. It's, it's, it's,
you know, finding those moments.
We have a very nice group of cinematographers working today in Hollywood, mostly foreigners
because they're the Mexicans. Rodrigo Pietro and Emmanuel LeBetsky or Chivo. It's great
to have us as contemporary artists working today. I was inspiring and challenging and
I like them because of their diversity as well. Chivo has great versatility in his approach.
I mean, he does it to mama, too. And then he can do gravity and then he can do Tree of
Life and, and Rodrigo, of course, you know, from Babel to Wolf of Wall Street and Frida.
It's become this little gathering of us and the photographers from all over the world
as new people coming, Hoyt and Linus, who did American Hustle now. It's great to be
surrounded by so many great talented cinematographers. And we do have a lot of exposure to each other.
We, we, it's a small town in a way. So we, we do have a contact. We have the AAC clubhouse.
We get to meet and mingle and it's really a nice place to exchange everything, you know,
talk about the technology, talk about the changes and projects and all that.
I have become a member of the GCM. I'm very happy to be able to support that organization.
We just had a masterclass in Athens. We were able to invite Christian Berger, who did the
White Ribbon, Harry Sambalucos. We had great response. There were 300 plus people in the
audience, very mixed group from professionals, working producers, directors, all the way to
students. And it's the first time we were able to organize something like this with the support
of Imago. And I hope we can repeat that in the future.
My advice for young cinematographers is to keep productive. Don't get discouraged. Don't be
too picky and selective in the beginning of your career. Because from every minute you
spend on set, you're going to gain something. You're going to take away something. So don't
be too high-browed. Don't be too snobby about what you're doing. When I was young, I mean,
we just wanted to be on set. That's what it's about. It's executing your craft. And that's
how you find people. They want to tell stories in a similar way you want to do. It's all
about taste. I mean, there's no right or wrong. There's no one rule of this is how you make
a movie. This is not how you make a movie. You can make a movie thousands of different
ways and you want to find people that are similar in their approach or in their sensibilities
that are yours and that's how you're going to be successful.
That's how you're going to be successful.
