Behind the Scenes at the Oscars, a Lot of New Faces in Cinematography

Originally published in FILM & VIDEO Magazine in 1996

The 1996 Academy Awards was a landmark event for cinematographers. For starters, there were a lot of new faces. Get used to them. Chances are you will see them again. It was the first Oscar nomination for Emmanuel Lubezki, AMC, Lu Yue and Michael Coulter, BSC, and the second for Stephen Goldblatt, ASC and John Toll, ASC. Toll was the only nominee born in the United States. He won his second consecutive Oscar for Braveheart. That's nearly a singular accomplishment. Toll won last year for Legends of The Fall. Only the legendary Leon Shamroy, ASC, had previously earned consecutive Oscars for cinematography (in 1944 for Wilson, and in 1945 for Leave Her to Heaven).

Toll was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Braveheart was only his third feature film, though he has earned accolades for several television movies and many commercials. "I was around 10 years old when I took a class in black and white photography at a YMCA," says Toll. "We processed and printed our own pictures. There was something fascinating about photography. I think it was the idea of using a camera to tell stories. I remember trying to write a story when I was nine. I had the idea, but I couldn't find the words. It wasn't a natural process for me. The first time I picked up a camera, it felt like it belonged in my hands. I also loved the movies. I was the kid in the front row with a box of popcorn at Saturday matinees. I loved the images and the stories."

Toll enrolled in college in Los Angeles, and majored in political science. While he was still a student, he got a part-time job at David Wolper's company as a production assistant working on documentaries.

"Because of my background, I gravitated to the camera department," he says. "Within a couple of months, people were handing me a camera and sending me out to shoot simple assignments, mostly inserts. I was teaching myself and making very little money, but it gave me access to the process of filmmaking. You had to think about what you shot and how it fit into the overall film. I would also spend a lot of time watching editors piece together documentaries that told stories by choosing segments from miles and miles of film. "

Credit fate with what happened next. Metromedia bought the company, and they started producing movies of the week. That got Toll into the International Photographers Guild as an assistant cameraman working on narrative film while he was still a student.

After graduation, Toll worked as an assistant, mostly on documentaries and commercials. His break came when Archie Dalzell, ASC, took Toll onto his crew as an assistant cameraman for a TV series called The Rookies.

His first mainline feature as an assistant was Black Sunday, photographed by John Alonzo, ASC. During subsequent years, Toll worked his way up through the crew system with some of Hollywood's top cinematographers, including Jordan Croneneweth, ASC, Allen Daviau, ASC, Robby Greenberg, ASC and Conrad Hall, ASC. In between narrative film projects, he worked on TV commercial crews, and photographed occasional documentaries and no budget independent features.

Toll's first narrative credit was the TV pilot for The Young Riders, which earned a nomination for an ASC Outstanding Achievement Award. His first mainline feature as a cinematographer was Wind, directed by Carroll Ballard.