John Bailey, ASC
Biography

John Bailey, ASC, studied chemistry and philosophy during his early days in college. In an earlier age, he might have become an alchemist. During his junior year, Bailey traveled to Vienna, intending to study German language and culture. It was pure luck that put him in a place and time where he became an avid fan of European art house cinema, including films by Bergman, Antonioni, Fellini, Truffaut, Bresson and other New Wave directors.

When Bailey returned to the US, he enrolled in the cinema school graduate program at USC. Bailey began with a class in basic photography, taught by Sherwood "Woody" Omens, ASC, who was a student teacher at the time.

Bailey focused on cinematography, deciding that it was important to learn the mechanics of the craft before he could express himself as an artist. Bailey says, in retrospect, he was never caught up in the photochemical part of the process, but instinctively learned how to appreciate and utilize the full palette available to cinematographers interested in evoking emotional responses with images.

He followed what was then the traditional, arduous path for film school graduates choosing careers in cinematography. Bailey joined the camera guild, and spent 11 years apprenticing as a crewmember with such notable cinematographers as Néstor Almendros, ASC, Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, and Don Peterman, ASC.

His first narrative credit was a TV movie called Battered, followed in 1978 by Boulevard Nights, his first long-form feature. Bailey has subsequently compiled an eclectic body of work, including Ordinary People, American Gigolo, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Racing With the Moon, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Silverado, The Big Chill, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Accidental Tourist, In The Line of Fire, As Good as it Gets, Living Out Loud and The-Out-of-Towners. He recently completed principal photography on Forever Mine, his fifth film with director Paul Shrader.