Steven Spielberg
Receives SOC 1994 Governors Award

From the Spring 1995 issue of the Operating Cameraman

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Steven Spielberg:

Thank you. Wow. Thank you very much. Thank you Vilmos and everyone else over the years.

When I think about what it feels like to stand leaning on a camera in blasting polar wind waiting for the setup or waiting for the actors to come out of their heated motor homes, I cannot think of a better person to suffer alongside than the overworked and always underpaid operating cameraman.

I think in the foxhole of production, the faces I have looked into that have given me the most consolation are Serge Haignere's, Michael Chapman's, Nick McLean's, Dick Colean's, Chick Waterson's, John Fleckenstein's, John Connor's, John Toll's, Barry Brown's, David Worrel's, Nomm Langley's, Mike Phaft's, Bill Engler's, Mike Roberts', Paul Babin's, Joe August's, and Ray Stella's.

It is an honor to be recognized by the Society of CameraOperators, but this Govemors Award is truly shared in equal partnership with the group of artists whose names I've just read. These men have been over the last 22 years, my second eyes. They saw my movies before I did and before anyone did. They have felt the same pressures I feel, with the pressure placed on them by that ubiquitous video assist machine, immediately making anyone standing in its environs an instant film critic.

They especially feel the pressure from the actors, who don't always reach a consistent level of excellence on each and every take. The good operator knows at the same moment the good director knows, when the actor is in the groove, and doing that one take that is going to be what we call the keeper. And the camera operator starts at that moment to pray: "Dear God, don't let my sweaty fingers slip on the wheels. Don't let an allergy form. Don't let the sun get between my eye and the eyepiece. Don't let a flying insect, at this very moment, enter my ear. Don't let any of this happen, because I can't stand it when Spielberg screams."

Being on the set with me, as some of you in this room know, is an artform in itself. I pretended not to hear you guys murmur under your breath,'They brought me here all this way to make his picture, I wish he'd get off the damn camera." So this is my forum and opportunity to explain myself to all of you. The highest compliment I can pay you, the proof of my admiration for what you do, is that I want to do what you do.

Working a camera while unexposed film is clicking past the shutter is truly an endomorphic high. This is why I occasionally like to sit where you sit and try to do what you do best of all. Ray Stella, who is here tonight, cured me of some of that on Jurassic Park. After Ray had shot four takes, I asked him if I could shoot the fifth. And he shrugged and said, "Sure." And he hopped off the camera, walked into the set and began to direct all my actors.

I think the relationship between the director and the camera operator goes beyond familiarity, I mean aside from the fact that we sit around smelling that Motel Seven bathtub soap all day long. You know, the hot desert scenes. I think that there are those moments where the director and the cameraman have many, many moments and hours to wait and we are always leaning against the same camera. We often don't talk. But we're always wondering about what the other person is thinking.

I've always cared for and loved the camera operator. I feel like I'm one of you. I feel like I belong to you as much as you belong to my life and my work. So, thank you to each of the camera operators who have made me and my cinematographers look so good over the years. And thanks to all of you for this special recognition of my contribution to the use of the camera in motion pictures. Thank you very much.

Randall Robinson:

Mr Spielberg, we share the same love of the camera and the same magic that we find though the viewfinder. You've come a long way since that 12-year-old looked through your father's Bolex. On behalf of the Board of Governors of the Society of CameraOperators, we would like to give you an Honorary Membership in our organization.

Steven Spielberg:

Thank you very much. I have to tell you one more quick story and then I know everybody wants to go. When I first got started, and this is why this is so significant to me, I began directing television, and the second TV show I ever directed was a series nobody in this room will remember called The Psychiatrist, starring Roy Thinnes. It was on for six episodes on NBC in 1971. And there was a scene in one episode where Roy Thinnes was driving a Porsche, and he had six pages of dialogue. And I wanted the shot to be lower. I didn't want it just mounted on the side or on the front and tow the car. I warned the camera to be inside the Porsche and the only way you can get a camera inside a little Porsche is to hold it in your hand. And a Porsche has two seats, and so I said I'd like to hold the camera and run it while I'm directing Roy. And, of course I got fined that day, $400 for operating the camera.

From that moment on, and for the next three or four years, I did a lot of illicit operating, and I got fined a lot. And its so wonderful that because of this (Well, Honorary Membership in the SOC has no effect concerning union regulations, but congratulations just the same!), I will hold this up and never pay another fine again. "It's great".

Thank you.