favorite movie. Charlie is one
of the best directors I've ever
worked with. He and I spent a
lot of time prepping that
movie, and consequently we
were very well prepared.
Charlie is the type of director
that doesn't know or care
which end of the camera you
look through. He's really smart
and a great communicator. He
doesn't need to know technol-
ogy and lenses. The director
needs to know how to commu-
nicate what it is they want to
get out of the scene, and
Charlie was really good at that.
I had a good understanding of
Charlie and the script.
Together, we came up with a
very good plan for the movie.
It's the closest I have ever
come to putting on the screen
exactly what the director and I
intended to do. Not necessarily
in a virtuoso photographic
sense, but in the sense of ser-
vicing the story. It was an
enormously rewarding experi-
ence and remains very close to
my heart."
While Peters was editing
the film, Orion Pictures, who
owned the project, was bought
by MGM. The new studio
released the picture with no
advertising, promotion, or
support.
The first of Crudo's films to
achieve commercial success
was American Pie, directed by
brothers Chris and Paul Weitz. "I love them dearly. American Pie was shot
for Universal, very much under the radar for not a lot of money. It was a
"Passion is the
most important thing,
because without it you'll
never survive. This is
a very, very difficult
pursuit. It's very hard to get started and
it's very hard to maintain and keep
going."--Richard Crudo
"Be passionate; be passionate. I cannot
emphasize that enough. Everybody has come
into the business by a different road, but the
passion is what sees everybody through.
That's the one thing they have in common.
Your passion will lead you to the right
decisions and the right route to take."
--Richard Crudo
"You have to study and apply yourself
constantly. We have members of the ASC,
guys who are in their 70s, a couple of guys
who are over 80, that are still working, and
they will tell you they are learning new
things all the time. You have to keep yourself
open to that. When you think you've learned
it all, it's time to do something else, because
you haven't; you're only fooling yourself."
--Richard Crudo
"You just have to work hard and be
relentless. You have to have tremendous
passion and commitment."--Richard Crudo
"Study cameras, lenses; go to school
and shoot every chance you can. Get a
manual still camera down at the hockshop for
50 bucks and a cheap light meter, and go out
and learn how to expose film. You'll learn
about exposure, color, and composition by
shooting film."--Richard Crudo
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