There is an unforgettable line in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, when the army keeps coming at the two anti-heroes.  Butch realizes this is one scrape they might not survive.  He plaintively asks Sundance, “Who are those guys?”  That’s what people were asking with the same tone of incredulity after Don Burgess filmed Forrest Gump.  “Who is that guy?”

Answer: Burgess is living proof that some dreams come true.  He is evidence that you can achieve the heights of success as a cinematographer in Hollywood: an Oscar nomination by your peers.  All it takes is talent, craftsmanship and dogged perseverance, plus an element of luck.  Call it serendipity.  You have to be at the right place at the right time.

Burgess is persistent.  He earned his degree from the Pasadena Art Center some 20 years ago, and came out of school shooting.  He also has talent and skill.  In 1990, Burgess won an ACE award for photographing Breaking Point.  He was also nominated for an ASC Outstanding Achievement Award for a telefilm titled The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson.

Andy Warhol must have had Burgess in mind when he said that everyone is entitled to 15 minutes of fame.  After his time in the limelight, Burgess was still on every second unit director’s A list.  Need someone to handhold a camera while skiing backward down a mountain?  Call Burgess.  He handled second unit action photography in relative obscurity on some 20 major features.  That was in addition to shooting miles of film for documentaries, independent features (e.g., Mo Money and Josh and Sam), telefilms and commercials.

Finally, in 1994, serendipity came knocking at his door.  Forrest Gump was his first mainstream feature.  From the beginning, there was something about the story that made him feel good.  Maybe it was the underlying theme: “life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you are going to get.”  Following are extracts of a conversation with Burgess, tracking his path to Forrest Gump and the aftermath of his first Oscar nomination:

QUESTION: When did you know you wanted to be a cinematographer?

BURGESS: When I was 14.  I grew up in the Pacific Palisades.  My father was a contractor, and I helped him build swimming pools when I was a teenager.  He was an avid 16 mm film hobbyist.  Maybe that rubbed off on me.  A family friend, Johnny Stevens, was a cinematographer, who traveled around the world shooting commercials.  I thought it was a great life.  I was fascinated by the mystique of photography.  I took thousands of still photos, and ran a black and white lab at home while I was in high school.  I enrolled at the Art Center after checking into a lot of other programs.  By the end of my first year there, I was certain I wanted to be a feature film cinematographer.  That was my dream.

QUESTION:  What motivated that decision?

BURGESS: While I was at the Art Center, Conrad Hall, Haskell Wexler, Gordon Willis, Vilmos Zsigmond and Vittorio Storaro were making their marks.  I studied their films.  That was my inspiration.  After a year, I took a break and worked as an assistant cameraman on The Sorcerer.  When I was 23, I photographed a film called Ruckus, starring Dirk Benedict, Linda Blair, Ben Johnson and Richard Farnsworth.  But mainly, after graduating I worked as an operator and cameraman on industrial films, documentaries and commercials. 

QUESTION: How did you get involved with second unit photography?

BURGESS: I was very athletic, so I could rappel off a mountain while holding a camera.  I shot second unit on Runaway Train, and that led to Backdraft and other work.

QUESTION: Were there advantages starting your career doing all of that shooting instead of coming up through the more traditional crew system in Hollywood?

BURGESS: It was a moot point.  I couldn’t get into the Guild at that time.  Looking back, I think shooting all those documentaries made me very comfortable with thinking on my feet, and using the camera to tell a story.  I also spent a lot of time with editors, watching how stories are pieced together from beginning to end, and learning about structure.  I think my approach to photography is much stronger today because of those experiences.

QUESTION: Did you ever lose hope?

BURGESS: There were times when I wondered if I was ever going to get a break.  You hit a lot of stumbling blocks.  You have to keep believing in yourself. 

QUESTION: How has Gump made a difference in your career?

BURGESS: It opened a lot of doors that weren't there before.  I’m seeing more and better scripts.  After Gump, I shot Richie Rich and Forget Paris.  But, if you do this work for a living, you can't wait forever for great scripts and directors.  It helps if you are shooting commercials, because it gives you more time to wait for the right project.

QUESTION: How did you get the opportunity to shoot Forrest Gump?

BURGESS: A few years, ago, I was going to turn down a second unit job, because I didn’t want to get stereotyped.  I heard that Bob Zemeckis was directing, and I thought he was brilliant.  That’s why I agreed to second unit for Back to the Future II.  That led to Back to the Future III and Death Becomes Her.  When Bob directed Tales From The Crypt film for TV, he asked me to shoot it.  Those were the stepping stones leading to Forrest Gump.

QUESTION: What was your first reaction when Bob Zemeckis asked you to shoot Forrest Gump?  Did you know it was something extraordinary?

BURGESS: Everyone who read the script was inspired.  It gave me goosebumps.  That doesn’t mean we knew it was going to be successful.  Absolutely not.  We knew we were making a unique film that had a lot of heart.  The script made you laugh and it made you cry.  But I can’t tell you that everybody felt 100 percent confident when we started shooting.  You don't feel that way when you start a movie.  Nobody really knows what makes the magic work until you start shooting, and seeing it in dailies.

QUESTION: I was wondering why the decision was made to shoot this film in wide-screen anamorphic format, and who made that decision?

BURGESS: Bob (Zemeckis) asked what I thought.  I didn't visualize it as an anamorphic film at first.  But, I thought about Bob’s (Zemeckis) vision, and I started thinking about who Gump was in relationship to the rest of the world.  I realized that you always have to see him in relationship to his environment.  I also realized that the wider frame would give us more freedom to compose images of Gump that were a little odd or off-center.  It was a subtle thing.  With the PRIMO anamorphic lenses, it is also easier to work in the wide-screen format today.  The old anamorphic lenses are much slower and somewhat softer.  We have a much larger palette of tools today.  That gives us a lot more flexibility, but we also have to make more decisions. 

QUESTION: How about the basic look?  How was that designed?

BURGESS: There was a group, including production designer Rick Carter, Steve Starkey, Bob and myself.  I felt that since this character (Gump) weaves through history, we had to be as true to reality as possible.  We visually defined each era, and tried to select locations that fit those models.  We used icons of the periods that registered instantly with the audience.  That told them where they were in time in any scene.  Some of the decisions weren’t obvious.  We looked for locations with Spanish Moss and oak trees for scenes staged in the South.  We also looked at a lot of houses, before we decided what Forrest Gump’s house in Alabama should look like.  I used a satellite navigation system to determine the angle of the sun on various days when we would be shooting.  We selected a spot and built the house at an angle that was exactly right for the position of the sun when we were going to shoot key scenes. 

QUESTION: You better explain that.

BURGESS: With a GPS (geophysical positioning system) you log in exactly where you are on the planet, and than allows you to figure out the angle of the sun for any day o the year in 15 minute increments.  There are certain moments in the film where we wanted the images to be perfect.  We scheduled shooting of those scenes with the light coming from a certain direction at a particular time of day.  You can't do that with every shot, but you pick out certain moments, and try like hell to make it work. 

QUESTION: Can you give us a specific example of how you used the GPS?

BURGESS: There is archival footage in Forrest Gump that we used to establish places and periods.  The live-action film had to match the look, including the position of the sun in the sky.  We built the house set on the USC campus so the sun was going to be in the right places in the sky on the December days when we planned to shoot.  That helped us match the archival footage seamlessly.

QUESTION: Is there an overall look?

BURGESS: There are different looks for the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s.  I chose a film stock, filter pack and color of light for each period.  The 1950s scenes were basically a Norman Rockwell look.  It’s the softest look in the film.  The park bench scenes in present time are the sharpest, cleanest images.  There also were certain visual twists, like the Vietnam scenes.  Bob (Zemeckis) didn’t want a gritty 16 mm look.  That’s become too much of a visual metaphor.  We defined the Vietnam scenes as ultra-realistic.  The quality of the light was harder and more serious than anywhere else in the movie, and there’s no diffusion. 

QUESTION: How do you keep up with all of the advances in imaging technology?

BURGESS: You shoot tests and keep trying new things.  In Gump, I think I used every film Kodak makes because that was useful for differentiating periods.  On Forget Paris, I mainly used (Eastman EXR) 5293 film, because of the colors of sets and costumes.  A lot of the movie takes place in a restaurant, and there is a big ensemble cast.  I wanted a lot of depth of field, and I wanted to capture the ambiance of the setting.  When I shot my tests, the 93 was the film that jumped off the screen.  It was the right film stock for that setting in that movie.

QUESTION: What was the biggest challenge in Forget Paris?

BURGESS: Billy Crystal starred in the film, and he was also the director.  It’s never easy directing scenes that you are in.  We used a video tap during rehearsals with prime lenses on the camera , so the image quality was as sharp as possible.  I shot each rehearsal as though we had film in the camera.  Billy used the video recorded off the tap to judge performances, including his own.  He could also see how the scene played.  It was a great communication tool.  It helped define a storyboard for complex shots with a big ensemble cast.  Billy also used the video tap to figure out the sequence of shots and the direction and angles of photography.

QUESTION: How much of this work is an art and how much is a craft?

BURGESS: I think it’s mostly a craft.  The art surfaces from the craft.  I’ll tell you what I think is an art.  Imagine that you are shooting a daylight exterior scene with the sun setting, and at the last second, the director or an actor has a great idea?   Can you change directions and help make it happen?  I think that’s an art that comes from mastering the craft.

QUESTION: What's the most important rule for a cinematographer?

BURGESS: You have to put the story ahead of everything else.  I never put the photography first.  I’m not trying to win awards for beautiful pictures.  You have to be true to the script.  If you do that, your creativity will come to the surface.  It’s also important for the cinematographer to be empathetic with the actors.  They have to trust you and feel comfortable.  You have got to make them believe that the entire crew is on their side.  You have got to establish rapport and get to know the actors before you start shooting, because when the gun goes off on the first day of shooting, you don't slow down until it's over.  It’s the same with the director.  The more time you spend with them, they better you understand what they are trying to do.  Chances are that you’ll make up for that time during photography because of better communications.  One of the biggest problems today is that you have to fight for prep time.

QUESTION: How do you establish rapport with directors?

BURGESS: I look at their films, and talk to people who have worked with them on the set and in the editing room.  You've got to realize that for some 80 odd days you are going to be working with this person.  This is urgent because the only good films are made by directors who truly have a vision of what the movie is supposed to be about.  Bad films happen when the producer, cinematographer and director are making their own versions of the same movie.  That can happen when you aren’t communicating.

QUESTION: There has been so much said and written about the great visual effects in Forrest Gump.  But I think the bottom line was that the audience liked Tom Hanks and his character.  They believed the situations, and wanted him to succeed.

BURGESS: We worked hard to make the movie seamless, so you believed that he was really shaking hands with Lyndon Johnson, and the fact that the guy doesn't have legs.  The visual effects are superb, but I think it all comes down to story-telling, and you have to credit the actors and Bob (Zemeckis) for that.  You are creating a journey for the audience.  A film like this is like a ride, and the camera is a stand-in for the audience.

QUESTION: How much of your job involves being opportunistic?

BURGESS: No one really knows exactly how Tom Hanks is going to read that line until he actually does it.  When you put two actors together in a scene, a lot of times I'm dazzled by the direction they've taken.  I had no idea they would go that way.  You have to adapt your lighting and everything you've preconceived at that moment.  It doesn’t happen often.  But those are the magic moments that the audience remembers. 

QUESTION: Is there more freedom today to make those kinds of changes?

BURGESS: I try to pre-rig to allow myself to be flexible on the day we shoot.  I plan for what-ifs, and give myself options to react to opportunities.  In Forget Paris, we switched an interior day scene to night and a night scene to day at the moment of photography.  The set was lit to go both ways.  I think it just dawned on Billy (Crystal) that the feelings he wanted to express played better at night.  It is never easy on the director.  They are taking chances.  In Gump, for instance, we had a lot of scenes that started on a TV set with either somebody taking their first step on the moon, or a president being shot.  We would come off that TV image and go to a live-action shot.  We had some scenes where there were probably 15 to 20 minutes where the light was right.  It takes a lot of guts for a director to agree that the light will be fantastic between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m., because if you don’t make the shot, you have to come back tomorrow.  It’s a lot easier if the performers are Tom Hanks and Sally Field, and you can get three or four takes before losing the light. You can count on at least one being perfect.  You can get some amazing shots when you are working with brilliant actors and a strong director.

QUESTION: Is the passion still there after 20 years, or has it become a job?

BURGESS: I only recently met Vilmos Zsigmond and Haskell Wexler.  Haskell came on the set wearing a Bubba Gump Shrimp hat.  It was nice to see that he still has that sparkle in his eyes.  Vilmos was the same.  He still loves what he's doing.  That’s inspiring for someone like me.  To answer your question: I love photography as much as I did when I was shooting my first film in college.  I also still love the process of making films.  There are times when you feel very alone out there.  However, for the most part, I like the idea that when you are making a big crane move or dolly shot with lighting cues, there are 20 or more people in the crew who have to mesh perfectly with the performers to make the scene work.