American Cinematographer - October 2014 - 56

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Persistence of Vision

It was certainly professional [on
the set]; there were no deviations from
the straight track. At lunchtime or
dinner, though, we'd all sit at the same
table and have a real conversation. Of
course, he didn't pick up the check very
often! More than once he said, 'Helen
forgot to give me my allowance this
week.' I think his wife really controlled
the money, and she literally gave him an
allowance! We went out one time and he
had to borrow 20 bucks from me. I
think he paid it back the next day, but I
thought that was cute.
Richard Benjamin (director of
The Money Pit): Working with Gordy
was one of the great experiences of my
career and unlike any film I'd ever done.
He had been a child actor, and it was
like working with an actor. He wanted
to know the motivation. It was never,
'Well, this will be a pretty shot,' or, 'that
will look good.' He wasn't interested in
56

October 2014

any of that. He was only interested in
motivation, just like an actor. And that's
how he knew what the lighting should
be - because he considered it all
emotionally.
I always have an idea about how
I'm going to shoot a picture, but with
Gordy it was much more specific. It
wasn't just, 'Do you want a wide shot
here, a camera move there?' It was,
'What is this scene about? What is the
emotion here? The characters are in
conflict here; they are upset with one
another; they aren't connecting; he's
jealous.' It was the same thing with
jokes in the script. 'What is the payoff?
What do you want to see? What do you
not want to see?' I have worked with
some great cinematographers, but
nobody else ever worked that way. My
brain hurt at the end of the day. He was
relentless and I loved it.
Timing with Gordy was a
tremendous education. He said, 'Only
American Cinematographer

time from the original work print.
People get trapped into the last answer
print.' We were doing the final timing in
L.A. There was some dispute between
Technicolor and Universal and we got
moved to Deluxe, I think. Gordy had to
start everything over. He said to me,
'You don't want to be here with me on
this one. This could get ugly.' They kept
saying, 'The numbers are right,' and he
would say, 'I don't want to hear anything
about any numbers. I only know what
I'm looking at here.' A day later, he had
gotten them in line. They used the work
print!
Garrett Smith (ASC associate;
former vice president of digital
mastering operations at Paramount
Pictures): Through the Nineties we did
the three Godfather films a couple of
times - standard def and then HD -
and we also did the DVD of The
Parallax View. He didn't like L.A. and

The Money Pit photo courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Willis captured the trashing of a house set for The Money Pit, a comedy about the perils of home ownership. Rich Patrick, now a first assistant
director on the CBS series Elementary, served as a P.A. on the production. He recalls via email, "Part of my job was to meet Gordon in the morning
at the house exterior on Long Island and park his Mercedes. Before handing over his keys he would pack his things into a silver Halliburton
attaché. Every day he had a brown paper bag containing a baloney sandwich with mustard on white bread, a pack of Camel unfiltered cigarettes
and the Nicorette gum he chewed in between his smokes. He was as pleasant as can be to me, but he could be gruff on set. I often heard him say,
'Throw some garbage (diffusion) into that light,' or, if it got loud, 'If you don't have a light in your hand, get off the set!'"

American Cinematographer - October 2014

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