Why did Peter Suschitzky not return as DP for RotJ

Could it be because of GL's union dispute? I'm not an expert on the rules, but Suschitzky is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers and Hume doesn't appear to have been a member.

I just looked it up, and the cinematographer of the PT is also not ASC, while the cinematographers of TFA and TLJ are indeed ASC. So this would fit the hypothesis that Guild Directors only work with ASC cinematographers and vice versa.

 

Apparently, one of the things that soured Lucas and Gary Kurtz's relationship was the producer's failure to curb Suschitzky's style and the time taken to achieve the ESB look which drove the budget higher. It's also documented that Lucas was at the same time telling Kershner there was no pressure to hurry up though.

Either way, there are shots in ROTJ which are great and worthy of what went before. But there is also material shot for the Sail barge sequence and forest battle that is to my eyes well below that standard. In both of those instances, George was very hands on in the production of those scenes.

I think it's safe to say that George Lucas is genuinely appreciative of the work of people like Suschitzky, but left to his own devices, he prefers to shoot movies with minimum hassle and deal with it in editing. He once said that filming is like chopping or collecting lumber. And that it's actually only in the editing that you can produce things that affect the audience.

Haskel Wexler had to convince George that it was necessary to use some creative lighting on American Grafitti, if only to provide a consistent standard of photographic quality while still maintaining a verite look.

 

Did anyone else read this because they too thought they missed Darth Plagueis in ROTJ?