touch with [Spielberg]. We would see movies and talk. While he was
doing Jaws, I talked to him every Sunday. He was going through hell
because again, the weather was working against him."
Daviau went on to amass a
large body of work, but was
still unable to get into the
union. In 1975, he filed a class
action lawsuit on behalf of all
cinematographers, and asked
Spielberg to sign the petition.
Even after the suit was settled,
it took an additional two years
of submitting paperwork and
pay stubs, which more than
once mysteriously disap-
peared, before Daviau finally
gained admittance into the
union in 1979. Not long after,
Spielberg called upon him
to shoot some additional
scenes for Close Encounters of
the Third Kind.
In the spring of 1980,
Daviau shot his first union
film, a made for television
movie called The Boy Who
Drank Too Much, with director
Jerrold Freedman, whom he
had previously met on a docu-
mentary. When Freedman's
first cameraman asked to be
released from the picture
because he had gotten feature work, Freedman acquiesced and offered
the job to Daviau. "[Jerry] took me into Mary Tyler Moore Enterprises
and said, `You've never heard of this guy, but don't worry; he'll do a
great job or I'll kill him.'" Daviau went on to work on other television
projects before landing the feature film Harry Tracy, Desperado.
Shortly after getting into the union, Daviau had signed with Randy
Herron at the Herb Tobias agency. When Spielberg wrapped Jaws and
began preproduction on E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial, producer Kathy
Kennedy telephoned Herron looking for possible cinematographers for
the film. Daviau was suggested.
What do you like
least about your job?
"What I like least are the
compromises. But, you
have to be a good compro-
miser to make movies.
You have to know what is
really valuable. Every second you're on a
motion picture set, you're making decisions
about what is most valuable to you at this
given moment. You may have to give up
something that was really important to you
three weeks ago because something else has
become more important . . . The schedule and
the budget sometimes force you into a com-
promise . . . You make decisions second by
second, and then you live with those deci-
sions forever . . . You have to sacrifice some
things to get others."--Allen Daviau, ASC
What do you love most
about your job?
"Steven Spielberg said something along the
lines of, `I'm paid to dream' . . . I love har-
nessing a complex technology in the service
of art, in that you make art using a lot of
technologies."--Allen Daviau, ASC
VOICES OF
EXPERIENCE
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