films where he gained experience and contacts, but made no money, to
commercials. To supplement his income, he also served as the art director
of a magazine published by Maureen Reagan. After about a year, he
landed grip work on director Gregory Nava's film El Norte, affording the
opportunity to work near director of photography James Glennon, whose
work earned him an Academy Award nomination for cinematography.
Campbell went on to work on the Oscar nominated short Tales of Meeting
& Parting, directed by Lesli Linka Glatter and shot by Jack Wallner. "Then
my career just skyrocketed.
"I went off and did Runaway Train for Cannon, as a key grip. Director
Andrei Konchalavsky was nominated for an Academy Award." By 1985,
Campbell had moved up from key grip to regularly working as a gaffer.
"I began to get larger and larger films, and then I hooked up with a cam-
eraman by the name of Mikael Salomon and did eight features with him.
His career took off and he took me with him. Once you're attached to a
prominent cameraman, you're riding on the top of all the waves. Mikael
is now a very successful director."
Campbell's association with
Salomon began on the film The
Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains
and continued through several
blockbusters, including Torch
Song Trilogy, Zelly and Me, The
Abyss, Always, Arachnophobia,
Backdraft, Far and Away, and
Alien3.
"The best compliment I
could ever have is to have
someone say, `I never realized it
was a movie I was watching; it
looked so realistic.' To give an
example of that, I have an uncle
who used to be a pilot in World
War II. He flew an A-26 plane,
which was basically a small
bomber. After World War II they
made them into firebomb
planes to drop fire retardant.
That's what we used for Steven
Spielberg's film Always. When I
told my uncle that none of the actors ever left the ground and that all the
footage was shot in processed photography, he couldn't believe it. We
created the illusion that John Goodman, Richard Dreyfuss, and Holly
What do you like
least about your job?
"What I hate most is
being told how to light a
scene before they've
figured out how they are
going to tell the story
with the camera, or the dramatic action.
They've missed the point of how to make the
scene look better and more glamorous. It's
about trying to have a seamless image that
tells a story that's dramatically appropriate
for the scene."--Dwight Campbell
What do you love most
about your job?
"What I love most is the flexibility of the job,
to be constantly changing and to have cre-
ative input in many, many different layers
and ways."--Dwight Campbell
VOICES OF
EXPERIENCE
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