While making my picture window photographs, I came to think that every room was like a gigantic camera forever pointed at the same view.
The way I photograph. . . in many ways it's directed by chance and all my mistakes, which are often the best stuff. I found that no matter if it's the same tape, the same TV, and the same camera, I can never duplicate an image. . . your arm jiggles, there's just too much chance. And I never put it on pause, or use any of that fancy equipment.
The camera is the slave to the actor.
I learned quickly at Columbia that the only eye that mattered was the one on the camera.
Someone comes and drags you in front of the camera, and they're already saying, "Okay, we got it. Moving on. " You get one or two takes. So it's a tough job.
I'm an actor. Whether I'm on stage, in front of a camera or a microphone, what I do is the same - although with videogames it requires a lot of imagination.
Hey, I fool the camera. I'm a liar, a magician.
I've done panel shows, which I enjoy, and on those you're recording half-an-hour of TV and sometimes they film for two hours. But with 'Britain's Got Talent,' you're on camera for eight hours, with a large theatre audience watching - and in between you're being filmed for ITV2 as you eat your lunch.
When I was younger, I read a book by Frank Barnaby, this wonderful nuclear physicist - he said that media had a responsibility, that all sectors of society had a responsibility to try and progress things and move things forward. And that fascinated me, because I'd been messing around with a camera most of my life.
If I didn't have a camera, the things I do would be crazy.
The camera basically is a license to explore.
I'm the most experienced cinematographer in this medium, so there's no point in having that extra conversation in the middle of the loop. You're making the film in relation to what's happening now, and you can't really affect what's happening now. It's not like you're in control of anything in front of the camera. If you're calling yourself the director and you're not the cinematographer, I think you're kidding yourself.
When I first asked to take pictures of women at their homes, I was using my formal camera and I struggled to get the shots because I was still very much in the role of the photographer. Then the next time I had this little digital camera and their response to me would be completely different - I was a friend and I got new kinds of pictures. I was always treading a line between photographer and friend.
Various studios are still shooting on film with digital grain and the DI negatives, it's not ideal. We should really be all film or all digital. But that being said, the old way of graining in the camera, now you can make changes like a painter. It's dangerous because you can ruin the film, you can over-fiddle. We've all seen films and gone 'what the hell is that?'
With a camera, one has to love individual cases.
You talk about what a director, he was smart. He said, Turn the camera on!
I still enjoy acting. I love the moment in front of the camera, but it's all the other moments that I don't enjoy. The 'business' aspect of it, the gossip.
No matter how advanced your camera you still need to be responsible for getting it to the right place at the right time and pointing it in the right direction to get the photo you want.
I'm a pundit. I'm, like, paid to be a narcissistic blowhard and be in front of the camera.
From the beginning, the camera and I were great friends. It loves me, and I love it.