Director of Photography Quotes

I like to work behind the camera.

I have a profound respect for cinematographers. That is my secret sauce. Like they are everything to me.

Sometimes I work on film sets. I've done this for 40 years. I always wanted to photograph on the set of an Ingmar Bergman film. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity.

Some people are directors and I think they should stay behind the camera.

In Europe and America, you never see a director pick up a camera. They all sit behind monitors.

When I write something, I want the best director to direct it. And that's not going to be me.

I was glamorous because of magicians like George Folsey, James Wong Howe, Oliver Marsh, Ray June, and all those other great cinematographers. I trusted those men and the other experts who made us beautiful. The rest of it I didn't give a damn about. I didn't fuss about my clothes, my lighting, or anything else, but, believe me, some of them did.

I've got to give a lot of credit to my cinematographer, Chung-hoon Chung, who is a master and among other things shot 'Old Boy,' which is a very famous single-take fight scene. He's really a true master.

I joke around sometimes and say that the DP [director of photography] is like a shrink for the director, but there's some truth in there.

I actually had some funny dialogue [ in Stardust Memories], a little piece, and we shot all day in this big ballroom. Gordon Willis was the director of photography, and at the end of the day, Gordon turned to Woody Allen and said, "We cannot accomplish all of this in this space. It's impossible." And we'd been rehearsing and trying to shoot this thing all day. So Woody said, "Okay, let's do something else." He looked at me and said, "Come back tomorrow, I'll put you in something else." And he did.

I rode it once, which was up the driveway in the opening credits of the show. I didn't know how to stop it. I actually nearly killed the director of photography, and I smashed into the sound truck.

I don't know one lens from another. That's not my job. It's the cinematographer's job. But I can talk to people.

'Mildred' was the first film I shot on Super 16 with Ed Lachman, and we decided to continue doing so for 'Carol.'

Someone who directs a film, they have to see the overall picture, and they have to get the best performances out of the actors.

The first assistant director is just so important that the choice of that person is critical to the movie.

You get some directors, and I can never understand it - there's a thing they call the 'video village' where all the monitors are, and you've probably seen it on set visits - I hate that! I never, ever like sitting in video village. I get either my own monitor or a hand held monitor, and I stand right by the camera.

Does anyone remember who shot Kubrick's movies? Do you remember who shot David Lean's movies? No one remembers who shot 'Dr. Strangelove' or 'Barry Lyndon.'

As a DP who mostly does features, I'm normally in a director's pocket, 24/7.

With the RED, I didn't have this impression at all. I felt that it was as heavy as a film camera. Having this great crew, with the DP and his assistants, I found it making as much of an impression as a very big film camera. I didn't relate to it as much. I remember avoiding it during the shooting rather than paying attention to it.

A movie shoots six months for two hours of film.