Nick McLean, Sr., was one of the most acclaimed camera operators in American cinema of the 1970s, during which time he shot many classics of the New Hollywood movement including McCabe & Mrs. Miller , Heaven Can Wait , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , The Deer Hunter , Marathon Man , and Being There . As a cinematographer throughout the 1980s, McLean would film blockbusters such as Cannonball Run II, City Heat, The Goonies , and Short Circuit before being lured into television to photograph some of the biggest shows in town, including Evening Shade, Cybill , and the pop culture phenomenon Friends , for which he was thrice Emmy-nominated. This candid biography takes readers on an entertaining journey through five decades of Hollywood filmmaking, detailing McLean's personal and professional relationships with some of the biggest film stars and directors in Hollywood (such as Robert Altman, Warren Beatty, Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, John Travolta, Paul Newman, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, and Mel Brooks) while delivering a behind-the-scenes look at some revered classics and beloved blockbusters of American film and television.