The thing about film is that your eye is selective. Film isn't. You have to make film do what you want. Simply photographing something doesn't do it. You have to know how to apply light and know what it does on film.
Gordon WillisA cinematographer is a visual psychiatrist, moving an audience... making them think the way you want them to think, painting pictures in the dark.
Gordon WillisGrips and electricians have done more to help me shoot good movies than any other craft.
Gordon WillisI don't really like directing. I've had a good relationship with actors, but I can do what I do and back off. I don't want that much romancing. I don't want them to call me up at two in the morning saying, 'I don't know who I am.
Gordon WillisI'm a great believer in relativity when making movies. Relativity, in my mind, meaning "Light to dark, big to small, good to bad." You visually embrace these things to enhance transitions and instantly paint environments and moods.
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