Director Pollack knew a lot about every aspect of the filmmaking process, and some crew members became frustrated when they felt like their territory was being infringed upon. Director of photography Owen Roizman said he started to joke with Pollack when the director started reading the meter for light, something a director never normally did and usually left to the crew. "He used to read the meter all the time, and he checked the contrasts in his viewing glass the same as the cameraman would do," Roizman said. "I would take the meter out and read the light... I'd tell the assistant cameraman what f/stop I was using and I'd give him an f/stop that was totally unbelievable for the amount of light that was on the set. And Sydney would say, 'How can you see at that f/stop?' And I said: 'Don't worry about it, Syd, I have a special way of doing it, it'll be fine.' And just before we'd go, the assistant cameraman would open up the f/stop we were really gonna use. And we'd go to dailies and, of course, the stuff looked fine."
