![\"Web](\"http:\/\/www.icgmagazine.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Web-Exclusive_July14_Lead_Photo-by-Kerry-Hayes.jpg\")
<\/a>Zelig <\/em>(1983) Photo by Kerry Hayes<\/p>\nAs soon as word got out that Gordon Willis, ASC often referred to as \u201cthe Prince of Darkness,\u201d (more on that nickname later) had passed, tributes began popping up in many industry (and non-industry) platforms, much of the material garnered from a long-form press release\/obituary compiled by Stephen Pizzello, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, American Cinematographer<\/i> and author of a soon-to-be-released book on Willis.<\/p>\n
Certainly, the list of \u201cGordy\u2019s\u201d accomplishments were unparalleled: Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s epic Godfather<\/i> movies; the Woody Allen comedies \u2013\u00a0Annie Hall, Manhattan, Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose<\/i> and The Purple Rose of Cairo<\/i>. There were the iconic 1970\u2019s era dramas with director Alan Pakula \u2013 Klute, The Parallax View<\/i> and All the President\u2019s Men<\/i> \u2013 and everything else in between, from James Bridges\u2019 The Paper Chase<\/i> and Bright Lights, Big City<\/i> to Herb Ross\u2019 Pennies From Heaven<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Twice nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (for Zelig<\/i> and The Godfather Part III<\/i>), Willis was given a special Oscar in 2009. He was also nominated for the British Academy Award for All the President\u2019s Men, Manhattan<\/i> and Zelig<\/i>. And there were other honors \u2013 two National Society of Film Critics Awards, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, a Boston Society of Film Critics Award, and the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.<\/p>\n
Pizello\u2019s obit, and others like them, made clear that Hollywood (and film fans around the world) recognized the talent and artistry of Gordon Willis. But to really get inside this legend\u2019s creative mind, we wanted to hear from his working mates, those filmmakers who were \u201cin the trenches\u201d with the man that ASC President Richard Crudo said: \u201cchanged the way movies looked and changed the way we look at movies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bits and Pieces<\/b><\/p>\n It was Conrad Hall, ASC, who first coined the moniker \u201cThe Prince of Darkness,\u201d after seeing the first shot of Marlon Brando in The Godfather<\/i> with absolutely no light in the actor\u2019s eyes. According to Michael Chapman, ASC (then operator) Gordon\u2019s idea was \u201cyou couldn\u2019t see his eyes but afterwards with light you could see his soul.\u201d<\/p>\n To perhaps his most legendary collaborator, Woody Allen, explaining why he takes so long to prep a set, Willis once remarked: \u201cWe\u2019ve already made this movie in our heads. This is the easy part. We\u2019re just recording it.\u201d<\/p>\n Willis turned down Apocalypse Now<\/i>, figuring if he had to be locked in the jungle with Francis Coppola for six months, \u201conly one of them would come out alive.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked by Doug Hart what a camera crew should never do if they want to keep working for Gordon Willis, the DP remarked: \u201cOperators are always on the phone looking for their next job. Firsts are always playing with the wheels because they want to become operators. Seconds are chatting with extras, trying to get laid!\u201d<\/p>\n Those close to Willis recall how he ran the quietest of sets with a military precision, often communicating with gestures and glances, rather than words. Craig DiBona remembers how Willis never talked when he was lighting. \u201cHe\u2019d walk into a set with his meter, hold up his fist for a focal point of the lighting, then use his fingers to indicate changes.<\/p>\n David Knox remembers that he would often pull out his own personal can of dulling spray [to the chagrin of stand-by scenic artists] to knock down reflective overexposed highlights.\u201d<\/p>\n Willis, who used the same SP series of lenses \u2013 worth about $100 \u2013 for most of his career because they gave him the look he wanted, had a phobia about going over bridges. Often a challenge considering Woody Allen wouldn\u2019t go through tunnels!<\/p>\n Who\u2019s Really in Charge Here? <\/b><\/p>\n Recollections from Producers, Directors, and Editors<\/b><\/p>\n Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s favorite description of Willis was that, \u201che ice-skated on the film emulsion.\u201d Coppola recounts his favorite Gordon Willis story:<\/p>\n \u201cWe were with Dean Tavoularis and Gordon, I think at Dean\u2019s home. We were going to watch a baseball game, and were gathered around the television with drinks and snacks. But Gordon kept getting up and adjusting the color on the set. When he was finally done, and went back to his seat so we could all watch the TV, the screen was almost black, so all we could see were a few highlights of the players.\u201d<\/p>\n Woody Allen, whose first experience with Willis was on Annie Hall, <\/i>remembers how \u201cGordy introduced me to a concept that I always call \u2018comedy in the dark.\u2019 I remember saying to him in a scene, \u2018I\u2019ve got a great joke here but the way you\u2019ve lit it no one can see me.\u2019 And Gordy said, \u2018that\u2019s okay, they can hear you!\u2019 and I said, \u2018What are we shooting here, a radio show?\u2019 He said, \u2018trust me.\u2019 And we did it his way and it looked very pretty and I got my laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n Producer Robert Greenhut recalls how they had the technology on Annie Hall<\/i> to do split screen. \u201cBut to avoid loss of generation [Gordy\u2019s obsession \u2013 he would have done individual prints off the original negative if he could], we did the split screen like kids do,\u201d Greenhut shares. \u201cWe had Diane Keaton watching herself in half the scene with Diane in one configuration, the split screen in another configuration. Gordy put a matte in front of the camera for half the screen and shot half of her on the other side, rewound the magazine backwards and moved the matte to the right side of the matte box, put Diane in the other configuration, and she made believe she was watching herself. Then we shot again.\u201d<\/p>\n Producer Michael Peyser, who worked as a UPM on Manhattan<\/i>, recounts a similar example of Willis\u2019s sublime use of craft. \u201cI remember filming in the Public Theater and seeing a news item that Chrysler was sponsoring a well-known Italian fireworks display that evening in Central Park,\u201d Peyser begins. \u201cSo I asked Gordy and Bobby Greenhut if I should try to find a proper vantage to shoot some fireworks over the skyline for our collection of montage imagery. A brief chat with Gordy determined that the best vantage point would be from 81st<\/sup> and Central Park West \u2013 a building called the Beresford.<\/p>\n \u201cDavid Brown and his wife Helen Gurley Brown lived in a top apartment. I tried to reach them, but they were traveling. Alan Funt of Candid Camera<\/i>, for whom Woody had worked during his writer\/comic days, lived in the next apartment on top facing south. His apparent lack of affection for his former minion provided a firm \u2018no way.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe next apartment from the corner on the top belonged to the family of my location assistant and buddy Ezra Swerdlow. Gordy and I agreed that, because we could get permission from them, but not the snooty co-op board, we should smuggle the camera up into the apartment as some kind of expected delivery. Gordy then found the perfect place to shoot out of the eastern-most south-facing window \u2013 their bathtub! He always knew just the right place to put the camera, Peyser laughs.\u201d<\/p>\n Editor Michael Miller remembers how easily Willis could finesse emulsions. \u201cIn addition to all the things that are common knowledge about Gordon Willis, he was also a brilliant lab chemist. The warm tones of The Godfather<\/i> trilogy, the brilliant yellows of Midsummer Night\u2019s Sex Comedy<\/i>, and the perfect, stark contrast of Manhattan<\/i> were all achieved through choosing the perfect printing lights [rather than filters]. And his perfectionism could make actual lab technicians crazy.<\/p>\n \u201cI was privileged to work with Gordy as the assistant editor on Manhattan, an incredibly tough job for lab man Otto Paoloni at New York Technicolor,\u201d Miller continues. \u201cOtto had been Gordy\u2019s lab guy on Klute, Annie Hall<\/i> and The Godfather<\/i>, among other pictures, and wanted everything to be perfect on Manhattan<\/i>. But that wasn\u2019t easy, considering that New York Technicolor was no longer processing black and white negative. That meant Otto had to be responsible for the work of another lab, Guffanti, a low-end plant west of Technicolor in the Times Square area.<\/p>\n \u201c[Otto] would wait every afternoon for the developed negative to arrive so he could make the prints to Gordy\u2019s specifications. And I would wait with him so I could race back to my cutting room with the still wet dailies to sync them for the screening a few hours later. If wound too fast [at the speed at which color negative is wound], the negative would pick up a static charge that would appear on the print as white branches or white bars, ruining whole takes.<\/p>\n \u201cOtto was quite chagrined when he heard that his favorite cinematographer would be shooting the next Woody Allen film, Stardust Memories<\/i>, also in black and white,\u201d Miller adds. \u201c\u2018Mikey,\u2019 he asked me, \u2018why\u2019s Gordy have to do another picture in black and white?\u2019 \u2018Well, Otto,\u2019 I replied, \u2018people thought it took a lot of balls to shoot Manhattan<\/i> in black and white. They\u2019ll think it really takes balls to shoot a second one that way.\u2019 \u2018Mikey!\u2019 said Otto. \u201cWhat\u2019s Gordon Willis need with four balls?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Through A Lens Darkly \u2013 Memories from the Camera Department<\/b><\/p>\n Michael Chapman, ASC, and Tibor Sands were a new operator and assistant, respectively, on The Godfather<\/i>, and a key sequence where Talia Shire\u2019s character descends a long staircase (and doesn\u2019t always hit her mark). Following her in close-up was difficult, and tensions began to escalate. \u201cCoppola wants the shot and Gordon stands firm \u2013 she has to hit her light,\u201d Chapman recounts. \u201cI took a look at the two of them and knew Gordon wasn\u2019t going to give in. In a few moments, he\u2019d just walk off the set.<\/p>\n \u201cSuddenly, I decided I needed to make a trip to the men\u2019s room. And I stayed there \u2013 until Francis and Gordon had come to terms. If I\u2019d stayed and Gordon had left, Francis would have turned to me and said, \u2018you shoot it.\u2019 My walking away didn\u2019t make Francis happy \u2013 but then again, I spent many more years working with Gordon Willis.\u201d<\/p>\n Sands remembers Willis\u2019s total control of the set. \u201cIn the first Godfather<\/i> \u2013 the wedding procession comes down to the caf\u00e9 and passes a stone fence. It was very low on the right and rigged so that when the procession goes by it would explode with little fireworks. Gordy wanted to see what it looked like. Production objected. It would take a whole day to reset. \u2018I want to see the effect,\u2019 Gordy kept saying. He won. They showed him the effect. And it was a good thing \u2013 because it was rigged badly, and the fireworks would have injured the actors. He practically saved their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Craig Di Bona recounts how shooting in Italy for Godfather III<\/i> was fraught with challenges. \u201cI remember the first time Diane Keaton walks into Corleone\u2019s office. There was a long discussion. \u2018Keep your distance. You fear this man.\u2019 Gordy lit so she\u2019s about 25 feet from Pacino, and there is only a little piece of him in the shot. They roll. Her character gets angry. She walks across the floor and right up in Pacino\u2019s face. They cut. She immediately turns to Gordy and says she\u2019s sorry and won\u2019t do it again. He looks at her for a moment. \u2018Not unless you want to assassinate yourself.\u2019\u201d [She didn\u2019t do it again.]<\/p>\n Doug Hart, who assisted Willis on five Woody Allen movies, relates this tale from Stardust Memories<\/i>: \u201cWe had a complex shot for the big finale \u2013 a set built at the studio \u2013that was supposed to be the hotel in the Jersey shore. It was an octagonal lobby with registration in the center. There were several stairs, five doors, and more. Woody wanted to rotate 720 degrees and catch people walking, and action in the background, like the three tap dancing nuns. We would have hundreds of extras, many of the people from earlier in the film, from various locations.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter we blocked and marked the scene, early on Monday morning, I was standing next to Gordon when Woody came in. \u2018When do you think we can shoot?\u2019 Woody asked. Gordon walked into the set, did a 360, looked around and turned to Woody: \u2018Thursday.\u2019 Woody turned and said: \u2018See you then.\u2019 And he left and came back Wednesday afternoon. It took three days to light and rehearse. We had one take per magazine \u2013 about 7 or 8 minutes. No coverage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went to dailies and saw a beautiful shot. After everyone left, Gordon and Woody sat together in deep conversation. Next morning, Gordon came up to me. \u2018We\u2019re not going to use that final scene. We decided it doesn\u2019t go with the rest of the movie.\u2019 I could hear production\u2019s reaction. But, they were right. We used another set, one that was already built, and filmed in a movie theater. As people exited the theater, they simply walked in front of the camera with their dialogue and reactions. It worked, even without the tap dancing nuns. Pure Gordy.\u201d<\/p>\n Chaim Kantor recalls being Doug Hart\u2019s 2nd<\/sup> AC on Bright Lights, Big City, <\/i>working with a different grip\/electric crew. \u201cAfter the actors rehearsed with James Bridges and Gordon, the \u2018marking team\u2019 would be brought in to line up all of the shots and mark the actors for the entire scene. The dolly grip would measure the lens height set by Gordon with his finder. Doug would record the focal length of the lens, and I would mark the actors. Once the shot list was established, these setups rarely required any adjustment when actually viewed through the camera. For some reason, as we went from shot to shot on this production, Gordon fussed with the height of the camera, invariably lowering the lens by 2-inches for each setup.<\/p>\n \u201cYears later, working again with Gordon\u2019s regular dolly grip, Ronald Burke, I mentioned the unusual tweaking of the lens height. Burke smiled and explained, \u2018Gordon always set the lens 2-inches too high when using his finder. I just subtracted 2-inches from whatever I measured.\u201d<\/p>\n Alan Disler\u2019s memories of Pennies From Heaven<\/i> involve the first week of shooting. \u201cGordon had heard that the electricians were getting a lesser rate than they deserved, so after the blocking of a major scene, and setting the shots, and the actors gone to makeup, Gordon placed a chair facing the set and sat there. No lighting. This went on for a half-hour before the UPM had the courage to walk up to Gordon and ask if anything was wrong. Gordon turned to him and said, \u2018When the electricians get their f * * * *g money we will start lighting.\u2019 Needless to say, the \u2018mistake\u2019 was corrected and lighting commenced.\u201d<\/p>\n That same week Disler approached Willis while he was eating his usual breakfast of egg on plain white bread and milk. He handed Disler a note from the lab that said there was a problem with the camera.<\/p>\n \u201cImmediately, I began thinking about other careers because this one was clearly over,\u201d Disler laughs. When he got the lab on the phone he was told that there were streaks along the side of the frame in the big musical number. \u201cWhen we viewed the footage, what we saw was Steve Martin dancing towards camera in the big bank set, which had marble columns on the side, and, as the camera dollied back with Steve, the columns filled in the sides of the frame. The streaks the lab reported were the striations in the marble columns,\u201d Disler smiles. \u201cThe next thing I heard was the lion roaring. \u2018I don\u2019t want to see that &****%^ on this set ever again!\u2019 It was then I picked up the habit of smoking Camels, from Gordon\u2019s pack I had to keep in the front box.\u201d<\/p>\n Randy Nolen, SOC recalls Willis as a man of few words \u201cbut I had no problem communicating and understanding what he wanted and expected of me as a [Steadicam] operator [on Malice<\/i>]. No one stood in front of the camera for no good reason and especially not when Mr. Willis had his eye on the eyepiece. Having non-combatants in front of the lens when the DP is trying to light and block the shot is one of the most frustrating things an operator has to deal with, so I really liked that.<\/p>\n \u201cOne moment I will always remember,\u201d Nolen continues, \u201cis an exterior day scene in the morning. When we stepped out of the hotel to get on the crew vans, it was very overcast. [Gordon] looked up at the sky and said we weren\u2019t shooting today. And we didn\u2019t! That really blew me away and I realized Gordon Willis had the respect of the director [Harold Becker] and Production \u2013 who trusted the decisions of the Director of Photography. You don\u2019t see that much these days.\u201d<\/p>\n Lights Out<\/b><\/p>\n Based on these remembrances, and a body of work that changed the course of cinema history, it\u2019s safe to say we will never see another cinematographer quite like Gordon Willis, ASC. In presenting him with the 2009 Governor\u2019s Award from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Caleb Deschanel, ASC (the only person who ever talked Gordon Willis into having an apprentice on set) offered one explanation why Willis was never honored with an Oscar.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>