Vilmos Zsigmond Quotes

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

I am not against digital at all.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.