Donald M. Morgan, ASC
Cowboys movies and Klute (1971)
"I was born in Hollywood, so I've been around the movie business my whole life, but for a long time, it didn't dawn on me at all that I would ever really want to be involved in it. My dad was an animation cameraman, and I used to watch him poring over all of these cells, doing one frame at a time, and I would think to myself, 'That doesn't look like anything I want to do.'
"When I was very young, I saw the garbage man go by, and I wanted to be a garbage man. Then I got into a cowboy stage, and I watched cowboy movies endlessly. I always liked a lot of excitement, and rodeos and cowboys and all of that kind of stuff really turned me on. They used to have a theater on Hollywood Boulevard across the street from the Pantages Theater called the Hitching Post. It had a turnstile, and when you went up and bought your ticket as a little kid, you'd see all of these pegs on the wall; you used to have to hang up your cap gun before you went in! Once the show started, you'd see three Westerns. The seats were on metal rockers, and you could hear 100 kids going squeak-squeak, squeak-squeak. I'd just sit there and absolutely melt into the screen and become a cowboy in my mind.
"Movies were really big-time stuff to me. I used to get up in the morning and run around collecting bottles that I could turn in for change so I could go to the show. That was what movies meant to me in the beginning. I don't think I ever once thought about the cinematography; I never thought, 'Gee, I wonder how they lit that?' It was just that I loved watching movies.
"I was determined to have an exciting, adventurous career. I tried and failed at rodeo riding, race-car driving and all kinds of things. Whenever I wasn't chasing one of these dreams, I would work in film labs. I worked at just about every film lab in Hollywood.
"Years later, a friend of mine told me about Nelson Tyler, from Tyler Helicopter Mounts. He said, 'Don as much as you like excitement, maybe you'll like aerial work.' So I went over to the company, and found out that Nelson and I had played together when we were toddlers. I hung around for quite a while with absolutely no money. Every day I'd come home and my wife would say, 'Do you have a job there?' The bills were piling up, and I just kept showing up, and finally one day Nelson gave me some job to do. I loved it. I've been in the movie business ever since.
"Eventually, I started shooting on the ground, and slowly, with the help of a lot of people, I learned the craft. I had some wonderful teachers. I actually had to learn as I earned. Gordon Willis was a big influence on me. I must have watched Klute 20 times, and certainly The Godfather films. I also loved Owen Roizman's work. I did a lot of copying until I could start introducing stuff myself. I was [influenced by] Jordan Cronenweth, Haskell Wexler, Connie Hall and all of those guys — I'd go look at their movies and pick them apart. There's a little bit of all of those guys that I admired in me now, and I think every cameraman ends up that way. Those cameramen are the reason I'm doing what I'm doing. A little bit of what I stole from them goes onto the screen when I work today. And I'm sure that, subconsciously, something from those cowboy movies from the Hitching Post Theater ends up on the screen, too."
—as told to David Heuring
Donald M. Morgan's credits as a director of photography include Elvis, Christine, Starman, Geronimo (1993), Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy, and A Lesson Before Dying.
© 1999 ASC