Cinematographer Bill Butler to Speak in Anchorage

Tonichelle

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:attitude: of course they choose church hour to have him speak this weekend, so I either skip out on church for the second week in a row (last week I was sick) OR I don't go to the Film-maker's Forum and save $7 and then I don't get to hear neato stuff about the making of JAWS and other classic films Butler has worked on...

:mad: WHY do they have to have it at 10-noon on Sunday? OF ALL DAYS *whines*

I'm leaning towards going to it, but no one will go with me and I HATE going to anything alone. Still, I really enjoyed the article in the paper yesterday (I'd give the link, but I'd have to pay 3 bucks just to get the link and then you all would have to pay and while it was good, I wouldn't pay the three bucks to get it out of archives lol) and it caught my interest....

so give me some advice... should I go, or should I be a good little Baptist girl and go to church... any and all views welcome lol (some Christian Comedian is going to be at church, so I might not be missing much) :big_grin:
 

Tonichelle

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The man does not sound or look 84 years old. He was really neat to listen to. The biggest things he emphasized was, "GET SEEN" talking to the film makers out there (he doesn't believe there is just one filmmaker for every movie, because it's a collective effort and yeah directors are not the filmmakers anymore than the DPs [directors of photography] are) and those that are successful have an unwavering drive. You have to be determined and set to make it, or you'll have a hard time. Be flexable, but don't lose who you are. Don't copy someone you admire, do your own thing. Deliver what they want, and you're good to go. He talked about some of his films, one of them being JAWS. It was so cool he first kept saying "Spielberg this, Spielberg that" and then he was all to heck with being formal and then referred to him as "Steve" I thought that was just sooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome. I was all "He call's Steven Spielberg, STEVE! How awesome is that" yes I am a dork.

He talked about the problems they'd had on JAWS, most of the stories I've known for a while. Mainly all the problems they had with Bruce (ie the mechanical shark) and how they worked around it (all of the scenes you just hear the music and see something get pulled off for broken or whatever but you never see the shark, they were not originally planned lol) he said there were many sleepless nights where he and Steve (that is just so cool) and some of the others would sit up and try to figure out whatelse they could do to show the shark. Someone in the audience asked "Was there a time when you wanted to pack up and go home because of all the problems" and he looked at him with this confused look and said "No! That would mean we failed, and none of us thought that was a good idea. We wanted to make the movie!" It was really funny. He then told about how he came up with teh idea for when the shark is attacking the Orca and they were rocking the boat. He put a huge bolt at the bottom of the boat and attached a chain to it and the speed boat and the speed boat would race off camera and when it made it to the end of the line it would jerk the boat. And they shot that a few times and the sound guy came out of the bottom of the boat and said "Hey everything is working great, this is cool, but the boat is taking on water." This was their "picture boat" so it was the only one they had and since they basically built it out of parts they couldn't go out and get another one so they used to speed boat to pull it to shallow water, and they got it into water shallow enough that they could see the top of the boat. It was just so funny hearing him talk about it (yeah I know they all talk about it on the JAWS dvd bonus feature, but still!).

He also talked about how Universal at that time was very anal about directors going over the time budget and he said how they normally would come up to the director when they were a day late and say "Don't do it again" and then if they went over another day they'd come back to the set and see another director, and wouldn't even get a call saying they were being replaced. LOL So he remembered a time during JAWS when Spielberg came up to him and said "Um, Billy... it's been a week and they haven't called. Do you think they've given up on us?" and Bill looked at him and just said "They think they have a movie, so lets keep shooting." LOL

He also talked about how he came up with most of the directorial ideas for GREASE because the original director gave up on the project, and the producers didn't want to lose time while finding another director so they sent him to see the musical and then he came up with the transitions and set and everything... though he didn't get the credit for it as the newbie director did but he said it was much more than he has ever done before or since as a DP. It was really neat. He kept saying he has the best job of the bunch because he just sits back and tells people what to do and he gets all the credit lol.

He also talked about shooting the film Anaconda and how the rainforest isn't bright at all. It's very dark because of the canopy effect so he had to bring in artificial lights.. and they were so sick of green by the end of the film.

It was a really neat talk, he was very personable, and I was bummed that I couldn't talk to him afterwards as I had to leave and get the girls at church and take them home. But it was neat. I kept looking at him thinking "That guy knows Steven Spielberg" it was really neat, and it encouraged me like you wouldn't believe. I am so ready for anything lol
 
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