I wasn't trying to be different; I just did what I liked. Don't misunderstand when I say I really had no particular DP I was aspiring to be. I really fell in love with the movies as I was growing up, and I must say, I was emulating things that I saw others doing, thatโs how you learn, but you soon have to push past that, and do things that you feel are rightโฆ or better.
Gordon WillisI don't believe in doing thousands of cuts, then giving it to the editor to make the movie. 'Dump-truck directing' is my reference to that style of moviemaking. You have to know how to cut before you can shoot well. The lack of definition in movies today is appalling. Very few people know how to mount a narrative anymore. If a scene works in one cut, you don't need 10. Or it might need 10. Let's not make it 20.
Gordon WillisIf you take a sophisticated idea, reduce it to the simplest possible terms so that itโs accessible to everybody, and donโt get simple mixed up with simplistic, itโs how you mount and present something that makes it engaging.
Gordon WillisThere are a lot of cameramen but not so many photographers. And a lot of cameramen attack from a technical approach without much imagination. They look, but they don't see.
Gordon WillisThe lack of perfection, that's the hardest quality of all, because you're fighting your instincts. You're trained to want to do things perfectly.
Gordon WillisI wasn't trying to be different; I just did what I liked. Don't misunderstand when I say I really had no particular DP I was aspiring to be. I really fell in love with the movies as I was growing up, and I must say, I was emulating things that I saw others doing, thatโs how you learn, but you soon have to push past that, and do things that you feel are rightโฆ or better.
Gordon Willis