Larry Fong is a cinematographer who launched his career with music videos for bands like REM, Van Halen, and the Goo Goo Dolls. From there, he shot the pilot for Lost before moving on to work on Zack Snyder’s film, 300. Other movie credits include Watchmen, Batman v Superman, Kong: Skull Island, The Tomorrow War, and Death of a Unicorn. His comments were from a conversation with Vanessa Armstrong.
Catching the magic bug: Like so many others, I got a magic set when I was very little for Christmas, and it was from Japan, because my uncle was stationed there. And it was just the usual stuff… those sets always have the plastic cups, the rabbits, some finger things, some coin sliding things, the thumb tip, metal wire puzzles. But for this one, the instructions were in Japanese, so I didn’t know how any of these worked or what the effect was, because it was all new for me. But I didn't give up. And from the drawings, I tried to figure it out. Who knows if I did them correctly. But I think that that helped me work harder.
I didn’t have uncles that showed me magic, and I don't really think I saw too much on TV. So it was a hobby. I had lots of hobbies. But it grew, it would come and go. I lived in LA growing up, and Hollywood Magic wasn't far, about an hour. So my dad sometimes, when I begged him, would take me there, and I'd hang out all day at the magic store. But then, after I graduated from college, I lived pretty much in Hollywood, so I would hang out there in my spare time, and I made friends with some of the people behind the counter. And of course, I would buy books and buy things, and so it was a hobby, but as I met more and more magicians, it became more of a hobby.