Vilmos Zsigmond Quotes & Sayings

When I do a still picture, I'm doing it all by myself with no help. I'm designing everything. I am my own art director. I'm doing everything. I'm directing, editing, whatever. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I love Woody Allen. He's very clever, always thinking, and he's great with actors. He lets actors do what they want to do and occasionally he'll give them a specific kind of direction. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I love the Dutch impressionists - Vermeer, Rembrandt. What they were able to do with light was astonishing. As for photographers, I think mostly of the Hungarians: Robert Capa, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Jozsef Pesci. In fact, I have one of his photographs hanging in my house. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Mexican cinematographers Gabriel Figueroa and Emilio Fernandez were students of both Sergei Eisenstein and Toland. Their exteriors and lighting were gorgeous. And the films Ingmar Bergman did with Sven Nykvist were exceptional. — Vilmos Zsigmond

When I was in Hungary in December I was looking at student films and I could not tell which ones were shot on film and which ones were shot digitally. I think that is because the filmmakers in Europe go to four years of film school and learn the techniques. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Using film was so much easier than the digital technology of today. But digital is still at the beginning of what it can be and they'll be fixing all those problems. It's just too complicated - negatives, tinting, flashing - it's a whole new system that takes a lot of time. Of course, it's not as physical. Even the editing. You used to feed a piece of celluloid into an editor. [Digital] is not expensive and that is an advantage, but I must say that I don't love it. — Vilmos Zsigmond

A good [film] director is talented, imaginative, and does his homework. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I really like to work with people who know a lot, but they also give me space so I can add something to the movie. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I am not against digital at all. — Vilmos Zsigmond

In fact, I probably learned more about photography from studying black-and-white photography in those magazines [Look Magazine and LIFE Magazine] than I did from watching movies here. That's the truth. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I think that the audience should not be able to tell if it is real or not real - it should be an enhanced version of reality, or an artistic view of reality, that captures not only what is physically there, but what is not visible - the mood. — Vilmos Zsigmond

If you do not bother to take the time to compose and to light properly, then you end up with something almost less than reality. You end up without the soul, the heart, the art of the moment. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I think that film is still an artform and it doesn't really matter if you're using a digital camera or a film camera. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I like to say that lighting is about taking the light away. I often like to use the shadows more than the light. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Even in manipulating the images, I would like to do my dailies in a digital way because you can do so many things in that stage that I cannot do in real photography. — Vilmos Zsigmond

There is something more to "reality" than just the tangible. There is also mood, and you cannot skip that. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I look at a picture like Scarecrow and think, 'Jesus, how could they have let us make that?' I mean, if you used technology that old nowadays, it would look like old Hollywood. — Vilmos Zsigmond

When you are shooting a movie, you have to collaborate with many, many, many people. First of all, the director with all his own ideas and I can only just help him with that. I cannot change his idea. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I'm always looking for directors who are very strong, they have great ideas, but on the other hand, that need help. It means they rely mostly on my eyes. — Vilmos Zsigmond

You make a film for a million dollars and then it costs $10 million to sell it. That's the problem at the moment with independent filmmaking: You can make it cheap and then there's no money to market it. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Sometimes the shots serve as homages to other movies and other directors, like Hitchcock. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Hayden [Sterling] told me that he was thrilled about the way he moved around the set, that wherever he would go, there would be lighting. He didn't think about his marks because they were set in the only places he could move. — Vilmos Zsigmond

There are many, many different kinds of movies and directors and styles. I don't mind that a movie looks like a movie. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Telling the story with only a few shots, I love that style. It makes you feel like you're part of the action, part of the story. It reminds me of the theater, where one act is basically like one long shot. It almost makes you forget that you're seeing a movie. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I hope that film is going to stay as an artform and that people won't forget that there are good movies also to be made. — Vilmos Zsigmond

In a period piece, particularly a fantasy, the lighting is your own choice, the lenses are your own choice. It's really a great thing for a cinematographer to do. Everything is open for you. You can even be more creative and you can use more shadows than usual. — Vilmos Zsigmond

In Slumdog Millionaire when you are immersed in the point of view of children in the slum and the bustle of the city, the handheld camerawork is amazing. A handheld camera is perfect for establishing point-of-view and for instilling the feeling that you are there. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I am actually retired - yes, I am retired. But I like to work. So I'm retired until someone calls me up to work. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I encourage film students who are interested in cinematography to study sculpture, paintings, music, writing and other arts. Filmmaking consists of all the arts combined. Students are always asking me for advice, and I tell them that they have to be enthusiastic, because it's hard work. The only way to enjoy it is to be totally immersed. If you don't get involved on that level, it could be a very miserable job. I only have one regret about my career: I'm sorry that we are not making silent movies any more. That is the purest art form I can imagine. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Kubrick was one of those directors who actually did practically everything in his movies. He actually directed, photographed, wrote, lit, edited - everything. A few people can be like that. — Vilmos Zsigmond

As an actor, Sean [Penn] is brilliant. And he's really an excellent director, as well. We got along really well. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I'm always looking in the lighting to tell the story in a different way than it actually looks in real life because it's, for me, more contrast sometimes has to mean it's softer than normal. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Some movies are what I would call murky. Just because it's murky doesn't make it artistic. It makes it hard to see. — Vilmos Zsigmond

It's all about special effects and explosions now. It leaves me just cold when I walk out of the theater. There's no heart; there's no soul. Movies used to be about people. It's as though we don't tell stories any more. The studios have to make money, and if you want to make $20 million, you have to spend $200 million. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I love to make movies about young people - young scientists that are inventing things and all the writing they did was very funny and very true. — Vilmos Zsigmond

With television, it's difficult to do some things. You have to shoot so many minutes a day, so you always have to be prepared or you won't be able to complete the number of pages that you have scheduled for that day. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I don't like to be in front of the camera - my place is behind the camera. — Vilmos Zsigmond

European films had art. And it was easy to make a European film. They didn't come from the studio system, they weren't shot in sound studios, and that's a good thing, because in the studio system those movies would never have had a chance. And since we were coming from Europe, it was natural for us to use that simple style. Small budgets, less equipment, that was just how it was. — Vilmos Zsigmond

When we came to America, the movies here needed a "new wave." European films looked totally different than American movies, which were these lush, glossy pictures with this elaborate production design. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I don't think there is any advantage to digital unless it's in a case like Slumdog Millionaire, where you have to get a shot and a big bulky film camera is out of the question. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Each story has a different approach for me and I try to work with lighting that will tell you visually the story better than if it was shot in available light. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Spielberg was very young and starting up when we did Sugarland Express and I loved that, but the main thing was that I really loved his talent. — Vilmos Zsigmond

These days that wouldn't happen - waiting for the light to be exactly right. Because it takes time and time is money. And with these big productions with expensive actors, you just don't have the time to get every shot exactly right. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I think film is about images. Cinema needs good images. I think that if you don't have good images, it's not going to be a good film. I think all films should be really visual. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I like to work with talented people, I must say that. That's my weakness. I really like to work with good directors. That doesn't mean I don't like to work with starting up young directors, that's fun also. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I like the film camera better because the film is still one hundred times better than any digital image at the moment. So, there are certain movies that you can't really do digitally. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I shot a lot of commercials and sometimes I enjoy the commercial shooting and sometimes I really hate it, but in thirty seconds or one minute, you can make some remarkable work shooting in one or two or three days. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I should mention Vittorio Storaro, who was Bernardo Bertolucci's cinematographer. You watch those films and they are exceptional. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Technology has a great deal to do with it. The Panaflex camera was a big breakthrough when it came along; it changed everything, because now you could shoot from the perspective of a person riding in the backseat of a car. — Vilmos Zsigmond

If you need to strap a camera to you or get in a small space, then it makes sense to use digital.I do think it is possible to use a digital camera artistically, but it can only be good if you are using film technique. Film has grain, and digital has pixels, and there is not that much of a difference, but digital does not replace the need to create a scene and light it properly and spend time considering the shot. — Vilmos Zsigmond

We used hand-held cameras 50 years ago. It wasn't something new. Sometimes we used a tripod, or we'd have a tracking shot, and sometimes - like when a character was being chased - we used a hand-held camera because it was right for the scene. In those cases, it helped the mood; it created immediacy and a feeling for the viewer that they were in the scene and in the moment. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I think all cinematographers, at least most of them, would love to do everything on location because you cannot cheat on location. It's there, it's part of the story usually. You have to deal with the elements. You have the sunshine, you have rain, you have fog - it really makes you work harder to try to match things during the day to make it look like it was shot within five minutes, movie time. — Vilmos Zsigmond

For me, movies should be visual. If you want dialogue, you should read a book. — Vilmos Zsigmond

What I would suggest to the young people is to not forget this and don't try to get assimilated into today's Hollywood style of movies because I don't think it's going to last long. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I'm not really satisfied with the technology today. Using film was so much easier than the digital technology of today. But digital is still at the beginning of what it can be and they'll be fixing all those problems. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I had never met Woody Allen before Melinda and Melinda. My agent knew the producer of the movie and he suggested that we would work well together and then we did. We had a great time on that film. — Vilmos Zsigmond

There is something missing in a lot of digital filmmaking, something I call "poetic reality." That's something you see played out in film noir, where the technique establishes the mood. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I was really fortunate from the time I arrived in Hollywood to work with some of the greatest directors from the beginning. I worked with Robert Altman, John Boorman, and of course Steven Spielberg, Michael Cimino, Brian De Palma ... I couldn't pick one of them; they were all different, but they are all so talented. — Vilmos Zsigmond

The best way to know when there's good lighting is when you don't notice it. — Vilmos Zsigmond

There are, of course, many, many, many good cinematographers and unfortunately they don't work as much as many of those people who do those crazy, stupid movies. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I think too many film students in America are losing the artistry and not learning lighting the right way. — Vilmos Zsigmond

If you use hand-held techniques just to make the film stylish I think it's wrong. — Vilmos Zsigmond

When I first came to America there still was Look Magazine and LIFE Magazine, and the photography in those magazines was amazing to look at. They had the best portraits, and their news photography. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Jack [Nicholson] really knows about the camera. He's one of the directors who likes to play with the camera. He'll change things around, play with lighting, things like that. He'll even spend hours on the set-up for an insert shot. He's an interested person who gets involved in all the aspects of the films he is making. — Vilmos Zsigmond

The studios are never going to make $200 million a picture with those types of movies. It's not familiar to them, and it's not a model that can necessarily be sustained. Now, if they go back to making movies about people ... well, I hope they do that. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I don't know the American photographers as well, but I admit I love Ansel Adams. His landscapes are so crisp. — Vilmos Zsigmond

As the cinematographer is usually more visual than the director is and full cooperation is really the answer and to make a great film, you need a good director and you need a good cinematographer. — Vilmos Zsigmond

You can't just stick with what you know, you have to evolve. — Vilmos Zsigmond

There is a difference between creating something and just capturing something. And when we were using film, it was not that fast, and it was expensive, so there was incentive to make sure the shot was exactly right before we rolled. With digital, it's fast and its cheap, and it's easy to bypass the rest. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I always try to tell the story the best possible way. I create the mood for each scene in a way that the audience feels that they are right there with me and they feel actually in the mood that was right for the scene. — Vilmos Zsigmond

You always like to be the collaborator. I don't want to take over the movie, because if I want to do that, I should really become a director because then you have the control of everything, basically. I'm very happy to just be the visual part of it, doing the visual part of the movie. — Vilmos Zsigmond