Karl Freund

Karl W. Freund (16 January 1890 – 3 May 1969) was a German cinematographer and film director who immigrated to the United States in 1929.

Filming The Lucy Show (December 1953)
Filming The Lucy Show (December 1953)


 * Despite the 43 years I've devoted to cinematography, I must admit that I was scarcely prepared for the many problems which were to confront me upon my initial excursion into the realm of television with the I Love Lucy show. Fortunately, this motion picture experience helped to cushion many of the serious problems and aided me in adapting myself to this new medium.


 * Retakes, a standard procedure on the Hollywood scene, are not desirable in making TV films with audience participation. Dubbed-in laughs are artificial and, consequently, used only in emergencies. Close-ups, another routine step in standard film-making, were discarded since such glamour treatment stood out like a sore thumb.


 * The public acceptance of I Love Lucy and Our Miss Brooks has been a source of great inspiration for me. The challenge has been a real one — one I have found both stimulating and exciting.


 * As I watch television films on my own set I am continually aware that I do not have a complete control of the end results. For there is an engineer in every television station control booth who can change the screen image according to his instructions and depending upon the condition of his equipment. And there are the TV viewers who are their own "engineers." I believe that the time is not too distant when the only engineers will be the technicians who actually create the film that is transmitted. Only when that day arrives will we really have film quality comparable to motion picture standards as we know them today.