Barry Sonnenfeld

I was a film school student, and I realized I was a pretty good cinematographer, so I decided that's what I would be.

When I got out of college, I bought a used 16-millimeter camera so I could call myself a cameraman without feeling like a dilettante.

Six months later, I meet Joel Cohen, 50 percent of the Cohen brothers, at a Christmas party.

Joel tells me,

He and his brother Ethan have written a script called Blood Simple, and they're going to shoot a trailer as if the movie was already made.

And they're going to use this trailer to raise money from investing groups to then make their film.

So I tell Joel I have a camera, he tells me I'm hired.

And a year later, we find ourselves in Austin, Texas, in production.

The first day of filming on Blood Simple was the first day that Joel, Ethan, or I had ever been on a movie set.

Don't work your way up.

OK.

Number five, this one's going to get to the Rob Reiner of it all, which is let it be their decision.

I was the cinematographer on When Harry Met Sally for Rob, and we were shooting a night scene in lower Manhattan with Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan,

Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher.

So they came to the set, which was on West Broadway.

They rehearsed the scene while reading from the script as they walked down West Broadway and then went back into hair and makeup while I lit the scene.

I told Rob we were ready.

The actors came back now knowing their lines, walking much faster, and they walked 50 feet beyond where I'm lit.

I say to Rob, can you slow down their walk so they can stop where they did during rehearsal?

Rob says, you know what, Bear?