Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Not many people have gone from working with Grade-Z hacks like Al Adamson to A-list directors like Steven Spielberg. In fact, I can only think of one…cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, who passed away New Years Day at age 85. “Ziggy” was born in Hungary, and emigrated to America with his friend and fellow cameraman Laszlo Kovacs after the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. The pair travelled to Hollywood, and Zsigmond found work as a cinematographer and camera operator in the world of low-budget moviemaking. He lensed epics for independent auteurs such as Arch Hall (WILD GUITAR, THE NASTY RABBIT, DEADWOOD ’76), Ray Dennis Steckler (THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES), and the aforementioned Adamson (BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR, SATAN’S SADISTS, HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS).

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964)

His big break…