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Quote by Gordon Willis

“Don't get simple mixed up with simplistic.”

Quote by Gordon Willis

Author

Gordon Willis, born on May 28, 1931 and passed away on May 18, 2014, was a renowned cinematographer. He made significant contributions to the field of cinematography, particularly known for his innovative use of lighting and shadows in film photography. more

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“I don't really like directing. I've had a good relationship with actors, but I can do what I do and back off. I don't want that much romancing. I don't want them to call me up at two in the morning saying, 'I don't know who I am.”

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“Zooms are lazy closeups. And too many people hang their hats on video assist; it's a way to avoid too much. Video assist helps people dissociate from the scene that they are directing. Pretty soon the director will be directing all the way from his apartment.”

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“A cinematographer is a visual psychiatrist, moving an audience... making them think the way you want them to think, painting pictures in the dark.”

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“If you take a sophisticated idea, reduce it to the simplest possible terms so that it’s accessible to everybody, and don’t get simple mixed up with simplistic, it’s how you mount and present something that makes it engaging.”

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“I wasn't trying to be different; I just did what I liked. Don't misunderstand when I say I really had no particular DP I was aspiring to be. I really fell in love with the movies as I was growing up, and I must say, I was emulating things that I saw others doing, that’s how you learn, but you soon have to push past that, and do things that you feel are right… or better.”

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“Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.”

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“Recently I have done some circles that are almost that large and I've come all the way around after walking for an hour and I have hit the other side exactly. I mean exactly the right spot which is very strange. Believe me it's very, very strange.”

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“Between two throw-ins in a soccer game, right behind my back, three thousand people had been put to death.”

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