Days of Heaven was beautiful and I always felt inspired after seeing good work. I realized that in spite of budgets, I could be creative. Nestor shot films using available light, which is key in lower budget work-using what is available, using your eyes and your senses. Even midday sun and shadows can be used creatively. Budgets don't make movies, passion does.
Budgets help though.
I draw a lot of inspiration from any work that is not pretentious and where there is some thinking behind the cinematographer's images. Darius Khondji and John Toll come to mind. I traveled the Amazon while shooting a documentary in Brazil many years ago so the look and texture of our show was very much set in my mind before I started pre-production. I loved The Mission and admire the photography of Chris Menges. I have to watch the darkness on Peter Benchley's Amazon .