Film Biz Chat: One on One with Camera Operator, Dan Gold

Daniel C. Gold has been fascinated by photography his whole life. The power of the visual image as it magically appears in the developing tray or leaps onto the screen in a darkened movie theater always gets him. When he was a kid in New Jersey he and his dad built a darkroom in the basement. Dan spent countless hours shooting photos and enlarging images. He and his twin brother Michael made 8mm movies and charged the neighborhood kids to watch them. Their most successful production, a science fiction thriller entitled "The Atomic Burp", grossed over $15 the first week in their basement. When his folks to him to see 2001 A Space Odyssey at Radio City in New York, he was hooked on movies.

When he found myself as the trainee on the set of Pennies From Heaven he couldn't believe he was working with the likes of first assistant Alan Disler, camera operator Craig Denault and director of photography Gordon Willis. After a year Dan joined the union, Local 659 of the IATSE as a second assistant cameraman.

Dan spent 3 years as a second during which time he was lucky enough to work with some of the best people in Hollywood including Laszlo Kovacs, Sven Nykvist, Tag Fujimoto, Owen Roizman and their crews. Moving up to become a first assistant his good fortune continued as he had the pleasure of pulling focus for Caleb Deschanel, Robbie Greenberg and Don Thorin, Sr., among others. After 10 years as a first assistant cameraman, Don Thorin, Sr. moved him up to camera operator. Now he's got the best job on the set. He gets to see the movie before anyone else, right through the viewfinder on the camera.

As a camera operator Dan has been fortunate enough to be able to operate the "A" camera for Directors of Photography Michael Ballhaus, John Seale, Fred Elmes, Michael Chapman, Jeffrey Kimball, Larry Sher and Barry Peterson.