American Cinematographer - October 2014 - 72

Persistence of Vision

Willis on set with
Barbra Streisand
during production
of Up the
Sandbox (top) and
framing an overthe-shoulder shot
for Manhattan.

Willis: I learned that I shouldn't
do it! [Laughs.] Look, I'm a very good
calibrator, and I'm very good at structure
and design. I'm also good editorially as
we're shooting, and once in awhile I do
something I'm proud of visually. But
honestly, I don't have the patience or the
insight to deal with actors properly. I
also learned something very important
about how people behave when you've
worked with them in your former
capacity; they now perceive you as a very
small director as opposed to a large cinematographer.
I made some very bad choices in
regard to Windows, but the worst one
was doing the movie! A mistake is a
mistake, but I'm not sorry I did it. I
learned a lot about myself and quite a
few things about other people. I also
found out that I have no patience for the
process that directors have to go through
72

October 2014

- talking to some actress at two in the
morning because she can't figure out
who the hell she is. You know, 'What's
my character?' Shooting the movie is
easy, it's the process that can kill you.
Does it smooth out the process
if you're working with a prestigious or
powerful director who has the power
to keep things in line?
Willis: It really does depend on
the kind of person you're dealing with.
If the director is a politically oriented
person who's constantly trying to keep
himself in place within the structure of
the business, he's not going to be strong.
He'll probably be making all kinds of
compromises along the way. If an actor
is running the movie, the director is
going to view any suggestion or decision
you make with suspicion - especially
if, unknowingly, you redefine something
he's already discussed with the actor.
American Cinematographer

You are now the enemy. If a director is
truly in charge, you're not the enemy
- you're an ally.
If the director is strong - and I
don't mean hostile - it works better.
But he has to be quite bright to deal with
what I call 'the Lifeboat Syndrome.'
When something isn't working and the
boat starts listing, someone in charge
will occasionally think it's a good idea to
throw more sandbags in the boat to even
things out - you know, 'Let's throw
more stuff in.' Then when that side starts
listing, they want to throw more bags on
the other side. And pretty soon, the
whole thing sinks.
When you're having a problem,
it's usually because you're doing too
much - subtract, don't add. It's like the
politician who says, 'We've got to cut
down the size of the government, and
the first thing I'm going to do is form a
committee to look into this.' Now he's
added one more committee he'll never
get rid of! On a movie set, you'll often
see them hire some guy whose job is to
show the actors how to hold a gun or
something, and he winds up standing
around for six months, 'just in case we
need him again. Besides, our leading
actor, Wolfgang, thinks he makes a great
meatloaf.' You've got this circus train
moving across the landscape, and it
becomes more and more difficult for
today's director to function as he did at
one time. If he's a very strong, focused
person with a lot of power, he can probably function in today's environment.
A promising director who's willing to stick to his artistic principles can
also have an impact. When you made
the first Godfather film, Francis
Coppola had not yet attained that level
of power, but he 'went to the mats' to
defend his creative vision.
Willis: He did, and I give him a
lot of credit for that. It was not easy.
How do you deal with the actors?
You have a reputation for being pretty
tough with them.
Willis: Well, I don't know where
the hell that came from. All I've ever
asked an actor to do was to repeat the
blocking and do what we rehearsed.

Up the Sandbox photo courtesy of National General Pictures. Manhattan photo courtesy of Brian Hamill.

◗

American Cinematographer - October 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 2014