Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Vilmos Zsigmond
Age: 85 †
Born: 1930
Born: June 16
Died: 2016
Died: January 1
Cinematographer
Film Producer
Segedo
Missing
Call
Establishes
Reality
Noir
Film
Poetic
Something
Digital
Technique
Mood
Played

More quotes by Vilmos Zsigmond

Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
The best way to know when there's good lighting is when you don't notice it.
Vilmos Zsigmond
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I think too many film students in America are losing the artistry and not learning lighting the right way.
Vilmos Zsigmond
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Sometimes the shots serve as homages to other movies and other directors, like Hitchcock.
Vilmos Zsigmond
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
As an actor, Sean [Penn] is brilliant. And he's really an excellent director, as well. We got along really well.
Vilmos Zsigmond
Image
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
Image
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