Peter Hyams
Birthday:
26 July 1943, New York City, New York, USA
Height:
185 cm
Peter Hyams was born in New York on July 26, 1943, and attended Hunter College Elementary School. He studied art and music at the Art Students League and the High School of Music and Art as well as at Syracuse University, where he majored in music and art. Before he became a CBS News news anchor in New York at the age of 21 he had been a drummer wi...
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Peter Hyams was born in New York on July 26, 1943, and attended Hunter College Elementary School. He studied art and music at the Art Students League and the High School of Music and Art as well as at Syracuse University, where he majored in music and art. Before he became a CBS News news anchor in New York at the age of 21 he had been a drummer with such important jazz musicians as Bill Evans and Maynard Ferguson and had played at Birdland, Small's Paradise and the Newport Jazz Festival. His paintings have hung in such prestigious galleries as the Whitney Museum of American Art. Hyams brought to film direction essential elements of music and painting. From music comes a special sensitivity to structure and rhythm; from painting a heightened sense of light and color. These important insights help Hyams to achieve his goal of creating films which "reach people's emotions, not their minds." Peter Hyams is 6'1" and lives in Brentwood, California, with his wife George-Ann. He has three sons: Chris, John and Nick. Show less «
I've never done anything that's totally worked for me. It has always been very painful to watch what I've done. Filmmaking, by definition, i...Show more »
I've never done anything that's totally worked for me. It has always been very painful to watch what I've done. Filmmaking, by definition, is a process of failure and because of that I always seem to be looking for the blemishes in my work. Show less «
There's a really wretched invention called a zoom lens, which is the most abused, single abused, thing in filmmaking. It's more abused by yo...Show more »
There's a really wretched invention called a zoom lens, which is the most abused, single abused, thing in filmmaking. It's more abused by young filmmakers than anybody. It's just a vile piece of equipment. As for tricky scene transitions, I know directors who sit down and literally look for those things as ways to get from scene to scene. I mean, what is the point of starting on a blade of grass with a blur behind you and racking focus then to the lady? I mean, what is so critical about that? I mean, why are you doing that? And then, the zoom lens thing does something that I don't think people understand. When you zoom in to something, you are not bringing the audience to the subject. You are bringing the subject to the audience. Major emotional difference. People do not realize that. You zoom back, you are not moving away from that subject. You are pushing the subject away from the audience. It's a tremendous difference. Show less «
Peter Hyams's Photos
