the world didn't know it yet . . . I felt whatever I could do to either be on a
set or get a camera to my eye, whether shooting Betacam or film, was an
opportunity I was not going to miss."
Schwartzman's first feature film came as a direct result of the student
film The Last Chance Dance and doing a freebie for someone who said, "If
I ever get a job, I'm going to pay you back." Screenwriter Richard Martini
wanted to direct, but Columbia, where he was signed, denied him the
opportunity. Finally, he decided to put up $10,000 of his own money to
make a short film he had written and would direct. Impressed with The
Last Chance Dance cinematography, he contacted Schwartzman to shoot
the project. Although he could not afford to pay, Martini promised that if
he ever got to direct a film, he would hire Schwartzman to shoot it.
Schwartzman accepted and rallied friends from film school to assist. Six
months later, Martini called to say that he was slated to direct You Can't
Hurry Love and offered him the job of cinematographer.
For the next two years, Schwartzman picked up work on "slasher"
movies, using them as vehicles to further develop his skills as a cine-
matographer. When he realized that he was becoming typecast as a cine-
matographer of really bad movies, he consciously began looking for ways
to transition his career into working on better films. Reading that leg-
endary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro was coming to America to shoot
Tucker: The Man and His Dream for Francis Ford Coppola, Schwartzman
determined to find a way to intern for him. "His work is so extraordinar-
ily beautiful and sophisticated. He is a very brilliant guy . . . I needed to
understand why Vittorio Storaro's movies looked better than everybody
else's. He's using the same camera, the same lights, and the same film as
everybody else. Why does his work look so much better?"
Using his experience making video press kits for other features,
Schwartzman convinced one of the film's producers, George Lucas, to
hire him as a documentarian for the making of Tucker. "As a crew
member on the movie, I was getting paid to be in San Francisco while
they made the movie, and getting to hang out with my idol, Vittorio
Storaro. Needless to say, I spent a lot more time talking to Vittorio than
I did shooting behind the scenes footage. But it was a wonderful experi-
ence to be mentored by a master. He was very gracious and took a lot of
time explaining to me why he was doing certain things. It was about
emotion; it wasn't about technique. To understand that where you put
the camera or the choices you make is how the audience relates to the
story that is being told. It was a wonderful four months for me."
Upon returning to Los Angeles, Schwartzman's friend since elemen-
tary school, Michael Bay, was preparing to direct his film school thesis
project and asked Schwartzman to shoot it. The day after Bay graduated,
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