You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward.
Conrad Hall
There is a kind of beauty in imperfection.
I realize that every picture isn't a work of art.
Dad, wherever you are, you are gone but you will never be forgotten.
Cinematography is infinite in its possibilities... much more so than music or language.
Contrast is what makes photography interesting.
I saw Tequila Sunrise as a romantic picture with complex, bigger than life characters.
There are infinite shadings of light and shadows and colors... it's an extraordinarily subtle language. Figuring out how to speak that language is a lifetime job.
Painting and writing are solitary arts.
That's why I like fast film. It gives you more freedom to light more naturally.
But at heart, I am more than a cinematographer.
Every once in a while, when the audience is expecting to see one thing, you have to show them something else.
The audience has to understand that if the film is going to have any meaning for them. If they are going to empathize with the characters, they have to visualize the process of concentration involved in making every move.
I knew exactly how I wanted it to play, but you are never sure until you watch the projected images reflect off the screen. That's when you know it worked.
Manipulating shadows and tonality is like writing music or a poem.
It took a while for me to grasp that my colleagues believe I have made an impact on the history of cinema.
There are a lot of directors who are knowledgeable about images, and others who aren't.
My peers say I have made a difference. That means more to me than winning an Oscar.
Billions of people have seen and been influenced by movies in the short history of this industry.
I think one of the reasons people quit is because they're afraid they won't be able to get better and better; that they have to come to a zenith of some kind.
The closer the source of light is to a subject, the broader the beams are.
I want to tell a story and shape it all the way through to the end.
I was very happy sitting alone at a dining room table, writing a script.
I hope I'm still shooting when I'm 80.
Every cinematographer I worked with had his own way of solving problems.
It's important to know that if you are dealing with shadows.
I suppose I would still be a communicator, maybe a musician.
It is also difficult to articulate the subtleties in cinema, because there aren't words or metaphors which describe many of the emotions you are attempting to evoke.
Photography is a very important part of my life.
My first semester, I got a D in creative writing.
I can still recall the thrill of shooting my first film.
You have to understand the nature of light.
In aptitude tests, I scored highest in music.
But you know you haven't done it all because you know everything keeps evolving and changing; and you know you can evolve with it if you grow and develop as a human being.
It was 100 feet of 16 mm black-and-white film of a car coming to a stop sign, and driving off. I had to decide how to frame and light it. It was magic. There was a sense of mystery.
With today's fast films, you can light the way your eye sees the scene. You can abuse the film and create subtleties in contrast with light and exposure, diffusion and filters. That's what makes it an art.
The sun is the most parallel light source because it is so far away.
I don't think of myself as a director or writer. I think of myself as a filmmaker.
