Biographies: Wally Pfister - Cinematographer

Biographies

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Walter C. “Wally” Pfister is an American cinematographer and film director. He was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 8th, 1961. When Pfister was about 11, a film company shot scenes for Shamus (1973), featuring Burt Reynolds, in his neighborhood. The boy was fascinated by the crew setting up lights and cameras. Soon afterwards, he began shooting 8 mm home movies and short films. After high school, Pfister worked as a production assistant at a television station, and within a couple of months, he borrowed a CP16 camera and began shooting little films on weekends. Upon showing one of his films to the station's production manager, he recruited Pfister as a cameraman. After working with Rober Altman as a second cameraman on his HBO show “Tanner '88” (1988), Pfister enrolled in the American Film Institute. During his second year, he collaborated in an Oscar-nominated short film called “Senzeni Na?” In 1991, Pfister shot his first feature film, entitled The Unborn. Following that, he made a series of low-budgeted horror films. In 1998, Pfister shot “The Hi-Line” in difficult conditions and on a budget of only $300,000. The film was shown in Sundance Film Festival, where Pfister met Christopher Nolan for the first time. The meeting led to the first collaboration between both artists, in the neo-noir thriller Memento (2000). Pfister went on to be Nolan's cinematographer on five other films: Insomnia (2002), Batman Begins (2005), The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008) and Inception (2010). Pfister's debut as a feature film director was with the sci-fi thriller Transcendence (2014), starring Johnny Depp. Wally Pfister was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematograph four times, winning one for Inception at the 83rd Academy Awards.

• 2 April 2014
• Tarek Sharkawy