ALLEN DAVIAU

Career: Bought his own 16mm Beaulieu camera in 1965 and started ph promotional films for KHJ-TV, Los Angeles, and 'rock 'n' roll' promos [a: The Animals, Jimmy Hendrix, a.o.] for record companies. Ph a 16mm UCLA student film dir by Nicholas Frangakis [July 1965]. 'After "Amblin'", Steven Spielberg tried to bring me along with him and Universal even tried to sign me some sort of deal, but the union at that time said "Forget it", so I said "Don't worry, Steven, I've got this 35mm film to show and I'll get into commercials and I'll be able to do work for you," and I did - it just took 11 years!.' 'Back then the union was nepotistic, and, if you didn't have a close personal contact, you just did not get in, unlike today. It literally took me, and a handful of other now-prominent DP's - Caleb Deschanel, Tak Fujimoto, Andy Davis and others - a decade to gain entrance into the International Photographer's Guild. And, we finally had to file suit to get in. During that time, I also shot thousands of tv-commercials, as well as documentaries, industrials, and educationals; anything I could to keep myself working and expanding my knowledge of film.' [From interview with David Geffner in 'MovieMaker', Issue #29.]

Ph commercials dir by Jeremiah Chechik, Michael Bay, Bob Giraldi, Matthew Robbins, Jesse Dylan, a.o. Ph music videos, e.g. 'L.A. Woman' [199?, d: Ray Manzarek; a: The Doors], 'Objects in the Rear View Mirror' [1996, d: Michael Bay; a: Meatloaf], 'Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)' [1997, d: Michael Bay; a: Aerosmith] & 'Judith' [2000, d: David Fincher; a: A Perfect Circle].

Appearances: 'Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography' [1991], 'Video Essentials' [1993-94, Joseph J. Kane Jr.; instruction program], 'The Making of 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial'' [1996, Laurent Bouzereau], 'Frank Capra’s American Dream' [1997, Kenneth Bowser; ph: Richard Ian Pendleton], 'Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures' [2000, Jan Harlan; ph: Manuel Harlan], 'Allen Daviau, ASC on Psychedelic Film Effects' [2003, Greg Carson; ph: J.B. Letchinger; 8m] & 'Cinematographer Style' [2005, Jon Fauer; ph: J. Fauer, Jeff Laszlo, Brian Heller & David Morgan]. Co-presented the instruction videos 'Shooting for Black and White with Allen Daviau and Denis Lenoir' & 'Shooting for Realism with Allen Daviau and Sacha Vierny' in the 'Kodak Cinematography Masterclass Series' [1994], prod by the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Spoke narration for the doc 'Karl Brown's Adventures with D.W. Griffith' [1990, Anthony Slide].

Awards: 'Oscar' AA nom [1983], BSFC Award [1983] & BAFTA Film Award nom [1983] for 'E.T.'; 'Oscar' AA nom [1986] for 'The Color Purple'; ASC Film Award [1987], 'Oscar' AA nom [1988] & BAFTA Film Award [1989] for 'Empire of the Sun'; 'Oscar' AA nom [1991] & ASC Award nom [1991] for 'Avalon'; ASC Film Award [1991] & 'Oscar' AA nom [1992] for 'Bugsy'; Hawaii IFF 'Excellence in Cinematography Award' [2004]; ASC Lifetime Achievement Award [2006].

Allen Daviau: 'Seeing color television for the first time started my fascination with the technology of light and photography. These studies were enriched by meeting a remarkable guy named Bob Epstein, a Loyola High grad, who was attending the USC. Cinema Department during the late '50s and early '60s. Epstein introduced me to filmmakers like De Sica, Fellini, Bergman, Bresson, Ozu, and Kurosawa. And I soon realized what a phenomenal art form this marvelous technology could be. At about the same time, when I was 16, I was gate-crashing the set of 'One-Eyed Jacks', which Marlon Brando [took over from Stanley Kubrick - AS] was directing and Charlie Lang, ASC, was shooting. Lang was lighting this enormous interior, shooting VistaVision on what was probably ASA 50 color negative. He seemed to be everywhere at once, fine-tuning the frame with the operator, adjusting the positions of the background players, tweaking the light from at least a dozen babies. As he led a beautiful actress to her mark and subtly adjusted the shadow on her forehead, I thought to myself that this man has the very best job in the history of the world.' [From interview with David Geffner in 'MovieMaker', Issue #29.]

1968	Amblin' [Steven Spielberg] c; short/24m; cph: Steven Spielberg
1971	Mooch Goes to Hollywood/Mooch [Richard Erdman] c; short/55m
1972	The Brothers O'Toole [Richard Erdman] c
1973	New Gladiators [Bob Hammer] 16mm/c; doc/94m; cph: John Hora; financed by Elvis Presley; found, restored and released in 2002 on DVD
1974	Mother Tiger Mother Tiger [Rolf Forsberg] c
1974	Names of Sin [Rolf Forsberg] c; short/22m
1975	Everything You Know Is Wrong [Philip Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman & Philip Proctor] c
1980	Close Encounters of the Third Kind - The Special Edition [Steven Spielberg] p/c; Gobi desert seq ph; ph: Vilmos Zsigmond; re-edited and extended version of 1977 release
1980	Harry Tracy, Desperado [William Graham] c; 2uc: Doug Mackay

1981	E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial [Steven Spielberg] 35mm & 70mm/c; 115m; efx ph: Mike McAlister; matte ph: Neil Krepela; see 2002
1982	Twilight Zone - The Movie [seg #2 'Kick the Can' dir by Steven Spielberg & #4 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet' dir by George Miller] c; seg #1 dir by John Landis & ph by Stevan Larner; seg #3 dir by Joe Dante & ph by John Hora; efx ph: Jim Danforth; matte ph: Hoyt Yeatman
1983	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom [Steven Spielberg] c; California ph; ph: Douglas Slocombe
1983	Racing with the Moon [Richard Benjamin] c; uncred addph; ph: John Bailey
1983	Top Secret! [Jim Abrahams, David & Jerry Zucker] c; addph; ph: Christopher Challis
1983	The Falcon and the Snowman [John Schlesinger] c

1985	The Color Purple [Steven Spielberg] c
1986	Harry and the Hendersons/Bigfoot and the Hendersons [William Dear] c; addph: George Koblasa
1987	Empire of the Sun [Steven Spielberg] 35mm & 70bu/c; 2uc: Jimmy Devis
1989	Avalon [Barry Levinson] c; matte ph: Craig Barron
1990	Defending Your Life [Albert Brooks] c
1991	Bugsy [Barry Levinson] c; miniatures ph: Bill Bennett
1992	Fearless [Peter Weir] c; 2uc: Tom Connole; aph: R. Stanton McClain
1994	Congo [Frank Marshall] c; addph: Tom Connole; 2uc: Charles Minsky; Africa unit ph: Simon Trevor
1998	The Astronaut's Wife [Rand Ravich] c
1999	The Tigger Movie [Jun Falkenstein, Takamitsu Kawamura & (live action) Nick Bates] c; anim/77m; live action ph
2000	Sweet [Elyse Couvillion] mdv-to-35mm/c; short/10m
2000	The Translator [Leslie Anne Smith] c; short/17m; 2uc: Christopher Gallo
2000	Hearts in Atlantis [Scott Hicks] s35/c; uncred cph with Emmanuel Lubezki; ph: Piotr Sobocinski
2001	Dreams [seg (5m) 'The Routine' dir by Bob Giraldi] HD/c; 8 seg; prod by agency Young & Rubicam to get commercial dir interested in shooting HD
2002	E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: The 20th Anniversary [Steven Spielberg] re-edited version (120m); see 1981

2003	Van Helsing [Stephen Sommers] c; 2uc: Josh Bleibtreu
2003	Olive or Twist [Peter Moody] c; docudrama/55m; cph: Tchell De Paepe, Joachim Hanwright & Michael Knight
2004	How to Be a Hollywood Player in Less Than Ten Minutes [Joe Hudson] HD/c; short/10m

1970	Say Goodbye [David Vowell] doc special/60m; cph: J. Barry Herron, Stanley Lazan, Stephen Lighthill, a.o.; limited theatrical release
1979	The Streets of L.A. [Jerrold Freedman] tvm
1979	The Boy Who Drank Too Much [Jerrold Freedman] tvm
1980	Rage! [William A. Graham] tvm
1982	Legs [Jerrold Freedman] tvm
1985	Amazing Stories [ep #1 'Ghost Train' dir by Steven Spielberg] 45-part series, 1985-87; 1st season, 1985-86

*1965*	*Slipstream* [Steven Spielberg] c.op 'b' cam; ph: Serge Haginere; unfinished
1967	The Trip [Roger Corman] c.asst; ph: Arch Dalzell
2003	The Polar Express [Robert Zemeckis] digital camera tests; ph: Don Burgess