John Pinto(IV)
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Animation Department
- Additional Crew
John Pinto is crane camera operator at Saturday Night Live. He has been with the show since its inception in 1975.
Before coming SNL, Pinto was a cameraman at ABC. Operating the crane is usually a three-person operation requiring a driver, a boom arm operator and a camera operator. Pinto had been a crane camera crew member with the show since its inception, and became the main crane operator once Al Camoin (the original crane operator) retired in 1987.
He is one of only three original staff members to remain with SNL; the others being executive director Lorne Michaels and set designer Akira Yoshimura. But Michaels was not working at the show between 1980 and 1985, making Pinto and Yoshimura not only the only crew members to work on every season of the show, but the show's longest tenured staffers as well.
Before coming SNL, Pinto was a cameraman at ABC. Operating the crane is usually a three-person operation requiring a driver, a boom arm operator and a camera operator. Pinto had been a crane camera crew member with the show since its inception, and became the main crane operator once Al Camoin (the original crane operator) retired in 1987.
He is one of only three original staff members to remain with SNL; the others being executive director Lorne Michaels and set designer Akira Yoshimura. But Michaels was not working at the show between 1980 and 1985, making Pinto and Yoshimura not only the only crew members to work on every season of the show, but the show's longest tenured staffers as well.
