I don't come from a film background. I haven't learned anything about films or film-making. But I have a thirst to know everything about my profession. I want to learn about cinematography, about editing, about music recordings, about post-production. So when people in the know talk, I willingly listen.
Right before 'American Dreams,' I started to pursue these avenues, like short films and getting into a couple night courses to really study photography and cinematography, and the language of visual storytelling.
You make the movie through the cinematography - it sounds quite a simple idea, but it was like a huge revelation to me.
I like movies where you can come back and re-watch them and admire the cinematography 25 years later.
My father would tell anyone who would listen that this dentist thing he was doing was not his passion; cinematography was.
I believe that filmmakers have to internalize the story and subtext so well that all of the departments can start to speak to each other - that music can speak to cinematography can speak to writing and back again.
I started out with this dream of being a director and doing cinematography and bought my first film camera at 15.
Cinematography is infinite in its possibilities... much more so than music or language.
In 'Tree of Life,' the cinematography records a small story, a celebration of the courage of everyday life. But it does it so up close and so effortlessly that it has the effect of elevating the intimacy of the story to a grand scale.
I think there were some dubious feelings about it, that the first 'Scarface' would not be surpassed by the second 'Scarface.' We were wrong; it surpassed it. The acting talent, the cinematography - we were propelled into a real class action film. Long after I kick the bucket, it'll be played.