Masters of Light. Dennis Schaefer
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That’s not to say that the photographic style was diffuse. We didn’t want to get into a heavy fogged or diffused look. We used the sense of movement and surreal lighting for that. There are a lot of low camera angles and a lot of non-realistic lighting. It is expressionistic in the real sense of the word not just in terms of long shadows but in terms of the colors. More than any other film I’ve worked on, I really tried to go for a painterly use of light. In all my other films I’ve tried to use a very realistic basis. In Cat People I tried not to.
How would you advise a student who felt he had talent in this area? Would you recommend the same route you took? Or are there many paths to the goal?
There are many roads. I think that several of them can be pursued at once; it’s not necessarily just a linear progression. It’s very important for everybody to explore the maze of his mind. Shooting, and the actual work of making a film, is very important. Any kind of opportunity to shoot, to learn and to experiment is very important. But I think there also comes a point where, if you’re talking about trying to get into the mainstream of the industry, you’ve got to make that commitment. I was basically very satisfied with the route I took. I don’t necessarily recommend it for other people. But I think there is something to be said for the apprenticeship system. Assuming you’ve reached a point that you understand who you are and that you’ve spent some time working and shooting, you can try to get involved in mainstream film production at the bottom of the scale. You can start as a loader, become an assistant, become an operator and spend whatever it takes—six to ten years—to thoroughly learn all the elements. People are so impatient today. But you only get one chance, especially if you’re a director. If he screws up on his first major film, it’s going to be a long time before he’s heard from again. Even more so for a cameraman. If you jump in before you’re ready, you may get in way over your head and not work again for years. Preparation is really the keynote. You prepare and learn by watching other people. I learned from every cameraman I worked with when I was an assistant and operator. Because once you’re doing it yourself there aren’t too many people you can learn from because you’re on the line all the time. I think a lifetime commitment to learning and studying still photography, painting and all the graphic areas is real important. It’s a constant process. In a sense, you’re a student for your whole career. It’s important to keep that disposition. I think that the same kind of questioning that you do when you’re first starting, where every shot is a new experience, is important to do all the way through. It’s not a skill that you’re learning where, at a certain point, you’ve learned it all.
I think that film schools are well and fine. I find that most of what you get out of film school can be gotten without going to film school. It’s another link along the chain, though. I’m wary of film schools to the extent that they seem to foster a sense of arrogance more and more because of the success of so many people who have come out of film schools and become incredibly successful. There’s a developing arrogance on the part of film students to think that they’re going to come in and teach the industry how it’s done. I think that’s a mistake.
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Bill Butler
"The day-to-day business of making movies is a matter of problem solving. You are constantly problem solving from the time you arrive on the set until you quit shooting in the evening.”
Bill Butler has a habit of jolting people by casually mentioning that he’s working on his third career. His youthful and energetic outlook tends to obscure the fact that he did a stint in radio, moved on to a distinguished career in Chicago television and then finally made the transition to Hollywood filmmaking in 1969. And while many creative people might have burned themselves out along the way, Butler is probably now turning out the most significant work of this three careers.
After receiving a degree in engineering, Butler worked in radio for a short time but quickly moved on to what turned out to be the ground floor in a similar but new medium—television. In fact, he helped to construct the first commercial TV station, WGN in Chicago. After getting the station on the air, he remained in an engineering capacity until one day, by some quirk of fate, he got behind the television camera. Ever since then Butler has been artistically hypnotized by that image in the camera viewfinder.
Working at WGN also laid the groundwork for an important personal and professional relationship that continues to this day. While Butler was a cameraman at the station, WGN hired a new kid in the mailroom, named Billy Friedkin. Friedkin showed some innate talent and was soon directing television shows there. Both men were interested in the dramatic power of film. At Friedkin’s urging, they worked as a team, moonlighting on film projects for church groups and public service organizations. Several of their documentaries won film festival awards. Friedkin moved to Hollywood to test his directing mettle and Butler was to follow later.
Beginning with his first Hollywood feature, Francis Coppola’s The Rain People, the number of directors Butler has worked with has expanded to the point where it reads like a Who’s Who of Directors. Among the more prominent names are William Friedkin, John Boorman, Jack Nicholson, Phil Kaufman, John Korty, Francis Coppola, Irvin Kershner, Milos Forman and Steven Spielberg. Butler has also shot the first features of some younger, talented directors like John Badham and Randall Kleiser. His versatility has been proven in his ability to bring a specific style to “important” pictures like The Conversation and Drive, He Said as well as to lighter fare like Alex and the Gypsy and Grease. Two films photographed by Butler, Jaws and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (co-credit with Haskell Wexler), have between them earned over a quarter of a billion dollars.
The secret to Butler’s success is that he is a consummate professional in anything he does. After little more than a decade of shooting features, he has compiled a track record and a list of credits that any student cinematographer would aspire to and that even a veteran cameraman would envy. It makes one wonder what Butler is planning for his fourth career.
How do you choose your film projects?
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