American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 55

John Toll, ASC portrait by Douglas Kirkland. The Thin Red Line photos by Merie W. Wallace, SMPSP. All images courtesy of John Toll, the ASC and the AC archives.

Opposite: John Toll, ASC on the set of The Thin Red Line. This page, above, from left: Conrad L.
Hall, ASC; Kate Hall; Conrad W. Hall; Toll; Don Hartley; and Mike Thomas on the set of Black
Widow. Right: Associate member Douglas Kirkland's portrait of Toll.

Cronenweth, Conrad L. Hall, Haskell
Wexler, Robbie Greenberg and Tak
Fujimoto among the mentors who
helped shape his early career. From
them, he says, "I learned it wasn't just
technical aspects that were important.
Great cinematography comes from
having a passion for telling stories with
images and having perseverance in
making that imagery a priority. This was
as vitally important as technical knowledge or creative ability. The directors of
photography I worked for all had different ways of working, but they shared this
common attitude: They believed in the
integrity of their work. It didn't matter
whether it was a feature film or TV or
commercials."
At the start of his career in the
early 1970s, Toll reflects, "I was going to
college in L.A. and I got a job working
part-time at David Wolper's documentary production company as a production
assistant. I had always been interested in
still photography, but I hadn't been to
film school. Working at Wolper definitely put me on the road to filmmaking.
"By the time I left school, I had
managed to acquire a minimal amount
of experience in the camera department
that allowed me to find work on an irregular basis," he continues. "I was learning
something new on every job but pretty
much faking it, really. It was all extremely
low-budget or no-budget filmmaking.

One day I might be working as a second
AC; the next I would be working for
free, shooting something as a cinematographer and trying to look like I
knew what I was doing. One time I even
took a job in the sound department as a
boom man because I desperately needed
the money. I know the sound on that
film was awful, but it was a biker-gang
movie and the actors usually grunted
more than they actually spoke dialogue.
"During this time, I met another
young person trying to break into the
camera department," Toll recalls. This
was future ASC member Charles
Minsky, and, Toll adds, "this was his first
job in the camera department. I was
doing a job as a first AC and he was
assigned to me because I was 'experienced.' I was happy to have the help, and
I told Chuck I would teach him everything I knew. That took a total of about
five minutes and then we went to work.
We became good friends, and ever since
that day I've taken full credit for giving
Chuck his big break in show biz!"
Eventually, Toll found himself
working as a camera assistant for
Andrew Laszlo, ASC on the TV movie
Black Water Gold. That job gave Toll
enough days to qualify for the experience roster and membership in IATSE
Local 659, the West Coast camera
guild.
Toll's first job after joining the
www.theasc.com

union was as an assistant to director of
photography Archie R. Dalzell for a
season of the cop series The Rookies.
"Archie was definitely old-school," Toll
says. "When I met him on the first day,
he wanted to fire me because I had long
hair and a beard, but we were able to get
around that. When I had the time, I
would hang out with Archie and ask
questions. He had great stories about
working as an operator on Cecil B.
DeMille and Raoul Walsh films. He
had been in the business for 40 years but
was still enthusiastic about the quality of
his work."
Toll then worked as an AC on
TV commercials, eventually for top
directors including Melvin Sokolsky
and Steve Horn, before getting the
opportunity to work as an assistant for
John A. Alonzo, ASC on the 1977
thriller Black Sunday. He was soon
promoted to camera operator on FM, a
feature directed by Alonzo, and he
continued with the cinematographer on
a long string of features, including
Norma Rae, Tom Horn and Scarface.
Between jobs with Alonzo, Toll
operated for other seasoned cinematographers, including Ray Villalobos on
Urban Cowboy. Interestingly, a seemingly inconsequential credit on Toll's
résumé - the 1980 TV movie The Boy
Who Drank Too Much - would lead to
another career breakthrough. "This was
March 2016

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American Cinematographer - March 2016

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