Gilbert Taylor, B.S.C. (12 April 1914 – 23 August 2013), sometimes credited as Gil Taylor, was an English cinematographer. He had notable collaborations with directors Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski, Richard Lester, J. Lee Thompson, and the Boulting brothers, as well as George Lucas on the original Star Wars (1977).
He was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography twice, for Repulsion (1965) and Cul-de-sac (1966), both directed by Polanski. A founding member of the British Society of Cinematographers, Taylor received the Society's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
Early life The son of a Hertfordshire builder, Taylor grew up in Bushey Heath. A paternal uncle was a newsreel cameraman and contact with him from the age of ten gave Taylor early experience of working with cameras and developing film stock. As a teenager, he studied architecture before deciding to pursue a career in film. While his father disapproved of the film industry, populated he thought by "harridans, whores and gypsies", it was his mother who consented to their son's altered career plans.
A neighbour offered Taylor, aged 15, a job as a camera assistant to William Shenton, a cinematographer working for Gainsborough Studios at their Islington base. In 1929, Taylor worked on the studio's final two silent films. Shenton took Taylor to Paris where he worked on two more silent films, before returning to Gainsborough.Ellis, p. 74 He then worked at Elstree for British International Pictures, where he was clapper loader on the Alfred Hitchcock film Number Seventeen (1932). Despite his junior status, formally a second camera assistant, Taylor was entrusted with some of the special effects work, including the use of mattes, to disguise the roofs of poorly maintained buildings.
Military service During six years service in World War II as an officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, he became an operational cameraman flying in Avro Lancaster bombers, documenting the damage after British bombing raids. Taylor recalled: "This was requested by Winston Churchill, and my material was delivered to 10 Downing Street for him to view. He was keen for the public to see what our lads were doing. I did 10 of those operations, including raids on Cologne and Dresden".
Career After demobilisation, he worked for Two Cities Films. In Fame Is the Spur (1947), he worked on a dream sequence using deep focus. The Boulting brothers were the co-producers of the film and they placed Taylor under contract. For the Boultings, Taylor, now promoted to full cinematographer, or director of photography, shot The Guinea Pig (US, The Outsider, 1948), Seven Days to Noon (1950) and High Treason (1951). The text is reprinted from From this point, Taylor began to use bounced and reflected light gaining a more naturalistic look, whereas the use of direct light was still the common practice by his contemporaries. Because it was necessary for London to look unpopulated in Seven Days to Noon, the first of three "end of the world films" Taylor worked on, it was necessary for him to arise at five-o-clock in the morning during a seven-week shoot.
Kubrick, Lester and Polanski Taylor worked on a number of films commended for their black and white photography, such as Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night (both 1964). Taylor, without Kubrick who was unwilling to fly in an aircraft, filmed material in the Arctic to be used as background plates in the flying sequences.
He commented later: "Strangelove was at the time a unique experience because the lighting was to be incorporated in the sets, with little or no other light used". Concerning the war room set designed by Ken Adam: "Lighting that set was sheer magic, and I don’t quite know how I got away with it all". He continued: "Much of it was the same formula based on the overheads as fill and blasting in the key on faces from the side". Although Kubrick and Taylor had a rapport, he found the director to be autocratic. An easier project to work on was the Richard Lester film with The Beatles which was heavily improvised.
With Lester, Chris Pizzello wrote in 2003, Taylor "adopted a roving, multiple-camera technique (aided by new, versatile 10:1 zoom lenses) so that the Beatles could move about freely and not worry about technicalities like hitting marks. This fast, fresh brand of filmmaking was a perfect fit for the film’s tiny budget, tight schedule and simple black-and-white aesthetic". Taylor and five other operators on the film used hand-held Arriflex cameras. "The key is not to hold the camera completely still", he once commented "but to let it 'breathe' with you, to move with it".
His work on Dr Strangelove led Roman Polanski to seek Taylor for Repulsion (1965). In committing to the Polish director's first English-language film, Taylor rejected the opportunity to work on a Bond film (Thunderball) because he thought Polanski "was a very interesting guy". According to Polanski in his 1984 autobiography, Repulsions executive producer Michael Klinger "protested that Gil Taylor was one of the most expensive cameramen in the business, but I held out for Taylor and I got him". Taylor said his "aim was to get a stronger negative and good shadows in the final print. The shadows are what make good movies".
Their collaboration continued with Cul-de-sac (1966) and Macbeth (1971), the third and last film he shot with Polanski. According to Ronald Bergan, "although shot in colour", Macbeth, "is as near to black and white as possible, with its grey, misty landscape". Taylor received BAFTA nominations over two consecutive years for the first two collaborations.
Later work in colour Hitchcock requested Taylor work on his penultimate film Frenzy (1972). Despite a claim in Bergan's obituary of the cinematographer that Hitchcock was unaware the two men had worked together forty years earlier, according to Taylor they had stayed in touch. Hitchcock never looked through the camera, because of his use of storyboards, leaving decisions to Taylor. The tracking shot, up and down a flight of stairs and then into the street, which invisibly merged shots from a studio set and street location took a day to achieve with the switch disguised by the movement of an extra in front of the camera.
Taylor's later films include The Omen (1976), and Star Wars (1977). On Star Wars, he established principles about visual aesthetics which have been maintained in the later films in the series. He told Mark Newbold in 2005: "I wanted to give Star Wars a unique visual style that would distinguish it from other films in the science fiction genre. I wanted Star Wars to have clarity because I think space isn’t out of focus, also I was mindful that there was an enormous amount of process work to be done in America with Dykstra after we had finished shooting in England, and a crisp result would help this process". Taylor found George Lucas an elusive person to consult, leading Taylor to make his own decisions as how to shoot the picture after multiple readings of the script.Ellis, p. 77–8 Differences of opinion between the director and cinematographer led to 20th Century Fox, for whom Taylor had shot The Omen, intervening to retain him on the picture. After the experience of working on Star Wars, Taylor decided he would never work again with Lucas.
His last film credit was Don't Get Me Started released in 1994, but he continued to work on commercials for some time afterwards.
Taylor was a founder member of the British Society of Cinematographers, receiving their lifetime achievement award in 2001. He received an international award from the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) in 2006.
Personal life Taylor met his wife, former script supervisor Dee Vaughan, while both were working on comedian Tony Hancock's film, The Punch and Judy Man (1963), and married in 1967. The couple had a son and daughter. Taylor also had a son and daughter from an earlier marriage.
Death Taylor died on 23 August 2013, aged 99, at his home on the Isle of Wight.
Filmography Film Year Title Director Notes 1948 The Guinea Pig Roy Boulting 1950 Seven Days to Noon John BoultingRoy Boulting 1951 High Treason Roy Boulting 1952 The Yellow Balloon J. Lee Thompson 1953 Single-Handed Roy Boulting1954 Front Page Story Gordon Parry The Weak and the Wicked J. Lee Thompson Seagulls Over Sorrento John BoultingRoy Boulting Trouble in the Glen Herbert Wilcox Uncredited1955 As Long as They're Happy J. Lee Thompson Josephine and Men Roy Boulting1956 Yield to the Night J. Lee Thompson It's Great to Be Young Cyril Frankel The Silken Affair Roy Kellino My Wife's Family Gilbert Gunn1957 The Good CompanionsJ. Lee Thompson Woman in a Dressing Gown No Time for Tears Cyril Frankel1958 Ice Cold in Alex J. Lee Thompson She Didn't Say No!Cyril Frankel Alive and Kicking1959 No Trees in the Street J. Lee Thompson Operation Bullshine Gilbert Gunn Tommy the Toreador John Paddy Carstairs1960 Bottoms Up Mario Zampi Sands of the Desert John Paddy Carstairs1961 The Full Treatment Val Guest The Rebel Robert Day Petticoat Pirates David MacDonald1962 It's Trad, Dad! Richard Lester A Prize of Arms Cliff Owen With Gerald Gibbs 1963 The Punch and Judy Man Jeremy Summers1964 Dr. Strangelove Stanley Kubrick Hide and Seek Cy Endfield A Hard Day's Night Richard Lester1965 Ferry Cross the Mersey Jeremy Summers Repulsion Roman Polanski The Bedford Incident James B. Harris 1966 Cul-de-sac Roman Polanski1967 Theatre of DeathSamuel Gallu The Man Outside1968 Work Is a Four-Letter Word Peter Hall Before Winter Comes J. Lee Thompson 1969 A Nice Girl Like Me Desmond Davis With Manny Wynn1970 A Day at the Beach Simon Hesera Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx Waris Hussein 1971 Macbeth Roman Polanski 1972 Frenzy Alfred Hitchcock 1974 Soft Beds, Hard Battles Roy Boulting 1976 The Omen Richard Donner 1977 Star Wars George Lucas1979 Escape to Athena George P. Cosmatos Meetings with Remarkable Men Peter Brook Dracula John Badham 1980 Flash Gordon Mike Hodges1981 Green Ice Ernest Day Venom Piers Haggard 1982 Losin' It Curtis Hanson1984 Lassiter Roger Young Voyage of the Rock Aliens James Fargo 1987 The Bedroom Window Curtis Hanson 1994 Don't Get Me Started Arthur Ellis
Television Director Year Title Notes 1969 Department S Episode "The Man from X"
Cinematographer Year Title Notes 1965 The Man in a Looking Glass TV movie, combination of episodes of The Baron series 1966-67 The Baron 13 episodes 1966-69 The Avengers 8 episodes 1969 Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) Episode "My Late Lamented Friend and Partner" 1972-73 Pathfinders 4 episodes 1973 The New-Fangled Wandering Minstrel Show TV special 1978 Breaking Up TV movie
Awards and nominations Institution Year Category Work ResultAmerican Society of Cinematographers2006International AwardBAFTA Awards 1965Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) Repulsion 1966 Cul-de-sac British Society of Cinematographers 2001Lifetime Achievement Award Saturn Awards1978Outstanding CinematographerStar Wars
References
External links
Profile and interview by the American Society of Cinematographers, on the occasion of his International Achievement Award