Program: Tributes
In 2005 and 2006, Wally Pfister, ASC, earned consecutive Academy Award nominations for his cinematographic work on Batman Begins and The Prestige. The Dark Knight, released to much fanfare earlier this year, marked Pfister’s fifth collaboration with director Christopher Nolan; together, they made innovative use of the IMAX format to heighten the moviegoing experience. As a result, the latest installation in the Batman franchise has become the second-highest grossing motion picture in history, following only in the wake of Titanic. A rock-and-roll guitarist whose passion for music began in his teens, Pfister has followed an unconventional career path. He began his career as a TV news cameraman in Washington, D.C., in the early 1980s; segueing into documentaries, he received an Emmy for his camerawork on the PBS series Frontline. When Robert Altman came to the nation’s capital to direct the HBO miniseries Tanner ’88, Pfister was hired as a B camera operator; the experience whetted his appetite for narrative filmmaking. Accepted into the film studies program at the American Film Institute in 1988, he focused on cinematography, earning his first credit for a feature-length motion picture in 1991: Roger Corman’s The Unborn. At Sundance in 1998, Nolan saw the premiere of The Hi-Line, an independent film shot by Pfister. It made a deep impression. The pair worked together on Memento in 1999, followed by Insomnia in 2002. But for all his memorable credits, which also include Laurel Canyon and The Italian Job, Pfister is still at the dawn of his career. He has recently emerged as an in-demand TV commercial director, creating thirty-second spots for Toyota, Verizon, General Electric, Subaru, Anheuser-Busch, and other household name brands. His experience at the helm has only reinforced his appreciation of the partnerships forged among directors, cinematographers, and the rest of their creative teams. Meanwhile, Pfister has performed as a guitarist in nightclubs and bars from Los Angeles to London, Chicago, and Hong Kong. He offers this insight into the connection between music and cinematography: “When I look at a shot through a lens, I hear music in my mind. Films, like music, need a sense of rhythm…I use the same part of my brain to play a melody that I use to make decisions about how I pan or tilt the camera…It’s all about creating a beat or a rhythm.”