I think that era of mechanically figuring out of how to bring a particular evocative image to the screen was a really important part of my education.

With the advent of digital imaging I made the transition from trying to figure out how to do things to creating objects, characters and the whole cloth. It kind of freed up the analytical part of my brain and I had the opportunity to use more of the creative side of my brain for how things interact with light and integrate into stories.

Boy, am I glad there wasn't a fourth episode of Lord of the Rings.

If you can imagine it, we can make it.

If you understand how the real world feels and looks and sounds it is much easier to create a virtual version of the real world.

Because I come from that old-school optics environment, I know stuff about depth of field and camera movement and things that are not necessarily a part of the curriculum for people who started on a box and have never done anything that wasn't on a box.

I was involved in the color correction and the digital color correction. In an odd way, you end up making a film many times-the DVD, the archival record of a high-definition master, and so on.