short schedule, with first-time directors. It became a minor cultural phe-
nomenon and an overwhelming success. It's one of those movies that
could last forever because it's a timeless theme."
Since the late 1990s, Crudo has taught filmmaking courses at UCLA
Extension, Cal-State Northridge, and American Film Institute (AFI), on
the rare occasions when he is not working on a film. Although he has
done a number of commercials and some television work--and if the
right series came along, he wouldn't say no--Crudo has always been pri-
marily drawn to feature films, his first love. "Features offer more of a
challenge in almost every way; they allow you to develop a closer rela-
tionship to the material; you take more care with images.
"I've been a lucky guy, in that this has never seemed like work to me.
The hours and conditions can be brutal. You can be working 16 to 18
hours a day for months and months and months on end, in all kinds of
horrible climatic conditions. It's physically demanding in many ways, but
it's never seemed like work. My feeling is: whatever they pay me when
I'm working is money for the time off in between jobs. The work is
always a pleasure."
Professional Profile: Allen Daviau, ASC, Cinematographer
"The cinematographer is there to put the director's dream on the
screen."--Allen Daviau, ASC
It is almost unfathomable that despite five Academy Award nomina-
tions for best achievement in cinematography, Allen Daviau had to fight
for more than a decade to be admitted into the union, but he did.
Raised in Southern California, Daviau does not remember a time when
he didn't love movies. "My parents were moviegoers. We had a neighbor-
hood theater, The Baldwin, right down the street from us, so I went to
movies from the time I was an infant." When he was six, his father
bought a black and white television and Daviau reveled in studying the
older movies broadcast at the time.
His fascination with film continued to grow. In high school he became
acquainted with students who were into foreign, old, and silent films. "I
just became a student of [film]. I really love film history." He began "gate
crashing" the many movie and television studios in the area to get a look
at production. At the time, live television was the norm and Daviau was
intrigued by it. He was just 16 when he determined that "the director of
photography is the best job in the world."
Daviau graduated in 1960 and briefly attended Loyola University, but his
heart was not in schoolwork. Instead, he preferred working in camera stores
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