The Escape Artist

Joseph Caleb Deschanel, A.S.C. (born September 21, 1944) is an American film cinematographer and film/television director.

Deschanel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a French father and an American mother, who raised him in her Quaker religion. He went to Severn School for high school. He attended Johns Hopkins University from 1962 to 1966, where he met Walter Murch, with whom he staged happenings, including a memorable one in which Murch simply sat down and ate an apple for an audience. Murch graduated a year ahead of him and encouraged Deschanel to follow him to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where he graduated in 1968. During this time, he was a member of a band of film students called The Dirty Dozen, a group that attracted the attention of the Hollywood system. Following his graduation, he attended the AFI Conservatory and graduated with an M.F.A degree in 1969.

eschanel’s cinematography credits include A Woman Under the Influence (1974, John Cassavetes directing), Being There (1979, Hal Ashby directing), The Black Stallion (1979), The Right Stuff (1983), The Natural (1984), Fly Away Home (1996), The Patriot (2000), Timeline (2003), and The Passion of the Christ (2004, Mel Gibson directing).

He directed his first film The Escape Artist in 1982, and a second, Crusoe, in 1989. In 1990, Deschanel directed three episodes of the David Lynch series Twin Peaks. In 2007, he directed an episode of Bones, which stars his daughter Emily. He was the cinematographer in the 2009 film My Sister’s Keeper. He was also the cinematographer for the 2011 thriller Dream House.

He was an original member of the American Zoetrope production team, along with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. —Wikipedia