Caleb Deschanel Quotes

United States, Cinematographer
September 21, 1944

Joseph Caleb Deschanel, ASC (born September 21, 1944) is an American cinematographer. He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography five times. He is a member of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, representing the American Society of Cinematographers. The actresses Emily and Zooey Deschanel are his daughters by his wife, the former Mary Jo Weir, whom he married in 1972.

Also known as Film Director

The Chinese are brought up to believe that you should be silent in class. The teacher speaks, and you just listen and absorb what they say.

Caleb Deschanel
- Up
- Believe
- Teacher
The great photographers of life - like Diane Arbus and Walker Evans and Robert Frank - all must have had some special quality: a personality of nurturing and non-judgment that frees the subjects to reveal their most intimate reality. It really is what makes a great photographer, every bit as much as understanding composition and lighting.

Caleb Deschanel
- Life
- Great
- Reality

Most people think of cinematographers as choosing subjects of an epic nature to show off what they do - big, sweeping images of war or pageantry.

Caleb Deschanel
- People
- War
- Nature
Even great actors shine brighter in the right atmosphere.

Caleb Deschanel
- Great
- Right
- Shine
Reality in movies is the reality of the story you're telling, so it may not match the reality as we know it, but the reason there's art is that it tries to bring some kind of understanding of all the suffering and joys and pain that we go through. Storytelling brings some value to it.

Caleb Deschanel
- Art
- May
- Reality
In 'Tree of Life,' the cinematography records a small story, a celebration of the courage of everyday life. But it does it so up close and so effortlessly that it has the effect of elevating the intimacy of the story to a grand scale.

Caleb Deschanel
- Life
- Up
- Small
You tend to compose things more in the middle of frame in 3-D than you would in a conventional frame. You can really see composition in 2-D but in 3-D your composition is much more complex. Everything has to be artificially enhanced. But you do gain something else with 3-D: you have a sense of space and heightened reality.

Caleb Deschanel
- Reality
- Space
- Frame