Posted 20th October, 2002

Bill Butler, ASC, to Host Live Online Chat

Bill Butler, ASC will engage in an online Internet chat on the International Cinematographers Guild's (ICG) website at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 26. The Internet chat will be held in front of a live audience at the Society of Motion Picture and Television and Engineers (SMPTE) 144th Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Butler was recently named recipient of the 2003 American Society of Cinematographers recognizing his extraordinary body of work, which includes such classic narrative films as Jaws and Grease.

The chat is a continuation of a monthly series of Internet conversations with prominent cinematographers who talk about their experiences, current projects, and share ideas about the future.

"This is an opportunity for our 6,000 members to engage in a dialogue with one of the most talented and innovative cinematographers of contemporary times," says National Guild President George Spiro Dibie, ASC. "Many young filmmakers, students and journalists from around the world also participate in these discussions."

Butler studied engineering at the University of Iowa and began his career at a radio station in Iowa. After several years, he moved to Chicago, where he continued his work in radio and also helped to design and build television stations at the ABC affiliate and later at WGN. When WGN-TV went on the air, Butler began a new phase of his career in television as a live video camera operator for commercials and locally produced programs. Butler won an Emmy award for his electronic camera work.

He transitioned into shooting award-winning documentaries with a young director named Bill Friedkin initially at WGN-TV and later at the ABC-TV affiliate. Butler earned his first narrative credit in Chicago in 1967 for Fearless Frank, a low budget feature directed by Phil Kaufman. Two year later, Butler shot The Rain People, for Francis Ford Coppola. He migrated to Los Angeles in 1970 after shooting a low budget feature in Australia.

Butler has subsequently compiled some 70 narrative films. Eight of his feature films have earned more $100 million at the box office. His telefilms credits include The Execution of Private Slovak and the landmark miniseries The Thorn Birds. Butler also earned Emmy Awards for Raid on Entebbe and A Streetcar Named Desire.

A background interview and articles about Butler are posted on cameraguild.com along with previous interviews and chats with Dibie, Bill Roe, Jamie Anderson, Vilmos Zsgimond, ASC, Stephen Lighthill, ASC, Stephen Burum, ASC, Brian Reynolds, Rogers Deakins, ASC, BSC, Bill Fraker, ASC, BSC, John Toll, ASC, Ellen Kuras, ASC, Nancy Schreiber, ASC, Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC, James Chressanthis, Russ Carpenter, ASC, Steven Poster, ASC, Allen Daviau, ASC, Dean Cundey, ASC, John Bailey, ASC, Richard Crudo, ASC, Bill Bennett and Laszlo Kovacs, ASC.
 
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