“As a young photographer, I was always looking for opportunities, whether it was political events, sporting events, car racing, or musical concerts. So, that’s really why I shot the Beatles, Wally Schirra, car racing, etc… I went to nearly everything in order to shoot film. Photographers are all about doing. They are always looking forward to their next project, or to their next shoot. It’s not about retrospection, which probably explains why I didn’t value what I did. There are images that I made 30-40 years ago that I should take a look at, chiefly because of their significance to others.”
Films and Documentaries
Bill’s projects include his work as Director of Photography on the feature length film Hiding Victoria, starring Anita Gillette (Shall We Dance? Miramax) and Margo Harshman (Even Stevens Disney). Bill was the Director of Photography on the PBS film, America's Lost Landscape: The Tall Grass Prairie, which was narrated by Annabeth Gish. America's Lost Landscape received the prestigious Cine Golden Eagle Award and the International Documentary Association's Pare Lorentz Award in 2005. Among the nine nominees for this award was the Oscar winning documentary, March of the Penguins. His two most recent projects are Pride of Lions, a film shot over a two-year period about the humanitarian crisis in Sierra Leone, and Titantic Syndrome, a French film about the global climate condition. Bill has co-written the script for and will serve as Director of Photography on the feature film The Assassination of Hole in the Day with the Academy Award winning writer, Dave Franzoni (AMISTAD, GLADIATOR).
Bill’s other screen credits as Director of Photography include the HBO feature Sometimes I Wonder, a children's program starring the late Colleen Dewhurst; the Illusion Theater's production of Touch, a regional project featuring Lindsay Wagner, which was aired as part of WCCO Television's Emmy Award-winning Project Abuse; and the short film on breast cancer entitled For our Daughters, again for the Illusion Theater. Bill’s second-unit DP work can be seen on the Paramount release of That Was Then, This Is Now, the CBS Entertainment television film The Comeback, and the feature film Old Explorers with James Whitmore and Jose Ferar. Bill was the underwater lighting director for the CBS Entertainment film, The Stranger Within. A former musician, Bill was the Director of Photography for the 75th anniversary film produced for the Minnesota Orchestra, all shot in 35mm Panavision.
Documentaries:
Bill's film work in documentaries is extensive. He was the surface and underwater director of photography for the French TF-I series Ushuaia, Magazine of the Extreme. Bill was also the Director of Photography on numerous episodes of the Spanish (TVE) documentary/adventure series, Al Filo De Lo Imposible. In addition, he was the DP on the Japanese program, Time 21, for an episode that took him into the underwater caves of Mexico. Bill completed several projects for Canal 6 in Paris -- most notably, a children's science program called E=M6. Bill filmed a 52-minute documentary for Canal Plus and National Geographic on the Florida Manatee and the West Pacific Dugong titled Manatees et Dugongs.
Links
Website: http://billcarlsonfilms.com/
Lumino on YouTube
New project: Expedition Earth
