Multimedia
Blogs
Forum
Affordable HD
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Events
Advertisers
Blogcast
MillimeterBill Butler Will Receive ASC Lifetime Achievement Award
Sep 19, 2002 12:00 PM
Wilmer (Bill) Butler, ASC will receive the coveted American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Lifetime Achievement Award, which is presented annually to an individual who has created a distinguished and enduring body of work. Butler will be feted during the 17th Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards celebration on February 13, 2003 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
Butler has compiled approximately 70 narrative credits, including such milestone features as "Jaws," "Grease," "Rocky II," "Rocky III" and "Rocky IV" and "Capricorn One." He also earned Emmy Awards for the telefilms "Raid on Entebbe" and "A Streetcar Named Desire." Some of his other notable credits include "Demon Seed," "Stripes," "Flipper," "The Execution of Private Slovik" and the classic miniseries "The Thorn Birds." Butler's 2002 credits include the critically praised feature "Frailty" and the telefilm "Joe and Max."
"What are the odds of an engineering student from Iowa becoming one of the most influential cinematographers of contemporary times?" asks Owen Roizman, ASC, chairman of the Outstanding Achievements Awards Committee. "Bill Butler is blessed with extraordinary talent combined with the unrelenting determination that is necessary to succeed in making important films. His story is inspirational for every filmmaker with unrealized dreams. The lesson is that success never comes easy, but it is sweet."
Butler joins a distinguished group of artists who have received ASC Lifetime Achievement Awards. Previous recipients include George Folsey, ASC, Phil Lathrop, ASC, Charles Lang, Jr. ASC, Stanley Cortez, ASC, Joe Biroc, ASC, Haskell Wexler, ASC, Conrad Hall, ASC, Gordon Willis, ASC, Sven Nykvist, ASC, Owen Roizman, ASC, Victor J. Kemper, ASC, Bill Fraker, ASC, Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC, Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC and Laszlo Kovacs, ASC.
Butler says that he is both touched and honored that his peers have selected him for this tribute to his body of work. "As a child in school, my imagination frequently took flights of fantasy," he recalls. "I was often scolded and brought back to reality. I grew up, but I never stopped daydreaming. The only difference is that now I am paid to dream. I believe that the ability to fantasize images and record them on film is an art that enables you to create a special kind of reality that can be shared with other people."
Butler is proud of the fact that he has never made a film that embarrassed him. Eight of his films have broken through the $100 million barrier at the boxoffice.
"Bill Butler is a personal inspiration for me," says ASC President Steven Poster. "In a way, I followed in his footsteps. He helped me become a member of the camera Guild in Chicago when that was a very difficult thing to do. Later, when I came to Los Angeles, Bill sponsored me again with the Hollywood Guild. He is an amazingly talented and generous human being who has made a difference in our world."
Butler was born in Colorado, where he spent the earliest years of his life living in a log cabin built by his father. During the 1930s economic depression forced his family to return to their roots in the Midwest. They settled in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where Butler's mother was a nurse at a mental institution. The cinematographer traces his sensitivity to the human condition and empathy for the underdog to those formative years.
He studied electronics at Iowa State University where "three guys from Mississippi" were building one of the first electronic cameras. Butler was fascinated by the possibilities of the new medium. After graduation, he worked nights as an engineer at a radio station in Chicago. During the days, he helped to design and build the television studio at channel seven in Chicago and later at WGN-TV, where he also worked on the radio side, balancing music for programs featuring the big bands. Butler subsequently operated a live video camera for WGN-TV, beginning with commercials, and later, original programming.
That's when he met Bill Friedkin. "Bill was a brilliant director," Butler recalls. "We did some interesting things, including a music show where we cut from one 'hot set' to another every 10 seconds and discovered that if we occasionally broke that rhythm it affected the audience emotionally."
Butler earned an Emmy for electronic camerawork. On off days, he and Friedkin did volunteer work with a local group that aided forgotten teenagers in hospitals and jails. They made their first documentary for $500. Their second film was about Paul Crump, a prisoner who was scheduled to be executed. They arranged to show the governor of Illinois a rough cut the day before the execution. It saved Crump's life. Butler subsequently shot a number of documentaries in Chicago that won awards at various film festivals. In 1969, Friedkin, who had migrated to Hollywood, introduced Butler to a promising young director named Francis Ford Coppola. They collaborated on "The Rain People." The following year, Butler photographed his first telefilm, "A Clear and Present Danger."
By then, he was in his early 40s. Butler took a big risk by migrating to Hollywood. It was almost impossible for outsiders to get into the camera Guild and find opportunities to work in Hollywood in those days. In 1971, Butler shot "Drive, He Said," directed by Jack Nicholson. He did second-unit work on "Deliverance" and "The Godfather," as well as working with young directors including Steven Spielberg, on telefilms and other projects. That subsequently led to an opportunity to shoot a film about a "big fish" with Spielberg. It was called "Jaws."
"Steven asked me if I knew how to shoot day-for-night," Butler recalls. "It was complicated because he was going to shoot it from a boat on the water. I said, 'sure,' but that wasn't the truth. I studied Conrad Hall's (ASC) work on "Hell in the Pacific," which was marvelous and beautiful. We also had the advantage of using one of the first lightweight Panaflex cameras, which allowed me to shoot handheld on the boat."
Butler also designed an underwater box and several special rafts that enabled Spielberg to heighten the visual tension and sense of reality by putting the camera on the surface of the ocean. "There was a psychological effect," he says, "which made the audience feel like they were in the water wondering if there was a shark. We also dipped the camera below the surface so they could see what the kids were doing."
Butler followed "Jaws" with one hit after another. The "Rocky" films, directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone, had a special meaning for Butler because he identified with the theme that you can overcome impossible odds if you work and fight hard enough.
"All the time he was training and working to be Rocky, Stallone was pushing himself and everyone around him to excel," Butler says. "His energy came across on the screen. He knew exactly what he wanted, and it was my job to give it to him."
Butler worked with Coppola again on "The Conversation," with Mike Nichols on "Biloxi Blues," and with Phillip Kaufman ("Fearless Frank"). He estimates that about 20 of his films have been with first-time directors, including veteran actor Bill Paxton on "Frailty."
Butler also shot many telefilms, because he felt the stories deserved to be told. The cinematographer offers unflinching advice to young filmmakers, "Learn your craft. You need to know how to get the right light through the right lens onto the right film," he says. "Once you have that knowledge you can trust your instincts and take chances. I learned that during my early days on live television. We were breaking rules everyday because we didn't know there were any rules. One of the most satisfying things is to make it so believable that no one knows you did anything."
ASC traces its roots to the dawn of the motion picture industry, during the early 1900s, when the Cinema Camera Club was organized in New York and the Static Club in Los Angeles. The two clubs merged with 15 charter members in January 1919 for the purpose of advancing the art and craft of filmmaking. Membership has always been by invitation based on the individual's body of work. There are some 230 members in many parts of the world today, and another 100 associate members from allied disciplines that support the art and craft of cinematography.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
