American Cinematographer - October 2014 - 43

Photos courtesy of cinematographer Ronald Vidor.

Tibor Sands (1st AC on End of
the Road, Loving, The Landlord, The
People Next Door, Little Murders,
Klute, The Godfather): Gordy and I met
when we were assistant cameramen at
MPO. He was an old-time assistant,
and I had just started. The first time I
talked to him was when I was given a
job I could not handle, and I was
desperate. I went to the next stage to
talk with the assistant there, and it was
Gordon. He helped me out and we
became friends. Soon after, he left the
company to become a cameraman.
When Gordon got the job for
End of the Road, a week or two before
shooting, our operator resigned. He
told Gordon he got a better offer, but he
told me he didn't want to work with a
first-time cinematographer. There was
another assistant at MPO named
Michael Chapman [later ASC];
Gordon talked him into changing his
rating from assistant to cameraman, and
Michael became our operator.
Michael Chapman, ASC
(camera operator on End of the Road,
Loving, The Landlord, The People Next
Door, Little Murders, Klute, The
Godfather and Bad Company): I first
met Gordy when we were both working
at MPO. He was a cameraman and I
was an assistant. We got to know each
other and became friends, but I was
quite surprised when he asked me to
operate for him when he had a chance
to do his first feature. I'd never been an
operator; he had no idea whether I was
any good or not. I'm still not sure why
he asked me, because I never dared to
ask him!
End of the Road was certainly a
crazy movie, and it just reeks of the
Sixties. It was Gordy's first chance to be
Gordy, and he loved it. He had a
wonderful time, and [director Aram
Avakian] let Gordy do what he wanted;
Gordy and he agreed on everything. It
was just the right kind of movie to start
out on, because it was such a wacky
movie that you could get away with
almost anything.

Top and bottom: Willis with accomplished cinematographer Zoli Vidor, ASC,
an important early mentor who trained the young cameraman and helped him gain
a foothold in the business.

Robert Ward (key grip on End of
the Road, The Landlord, The People
Next Door, Little Murders, The
Godfather, Annie Hall, Interiors,
Manhattan, Stardust Memories, A
Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Zelig,
Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose
of Cairo, The Money Pit): The first
movie we did together was End of the
Road, and it was different from the latter
ones; it was a low-budget kind of a
thing. While he didn't have a lot of flexibility in terms of equipment or
www.theasc.com

manpower, he was able to do a lot with
a little.
He was a great communicator.
When Gordy asked you to do something, he was very clear and specific
about what he wanted to see. That made
my job easy, and he made everybody
look good. Working for him gave me
credibility.
I always considered him a good
friend [and] a pleasure to work with. If
you spent 10 minutes with him on set
you'd see that he had something the
October 2014

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American Cinematographer - October 2014

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