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Bill's Bio |
Director of Photography on four feature films.
Writer/Producer/Director on scores of industrial/commercial videos and
short films.
Writer/Producer/Director/Editor of Award Winning Short Film, "We
Have Your Daughter"
Emmy and Telly Award winning videographer for "Urban Cancer Project: A Family's Story" - Kay Colby, Producer
I started making films while still in High School. "The Big Game", and the "French Newsreel" were big hits amongst my fellow tenth graders and when we got a standing ovation in French class for our film, I knew then that I wanted to be a filmmaker. Well years passed and making a living sometimes seemed to stifle that dream, but still I forged ahead.
My first commercial film was an 18 minute, Super8 sound film called, the Aerie Experience and it documented a rock climbing group's efforts to reach the top of Seneca Rocks in West Virginia. Two years later I was standing on the 14,500' peak of Mount Rainier in Washington State, carrying a 16mm BolexH16EBM Electronic (a heavy camera). They never did much with the footage, but what an amazing experience.
In 1990, Whitely Productions of Mentor began a 35mm feature film which chronicled the life and times of a fictional Rock Star named, Johnny Legend, entitled, "Shooting Star". It was to be a Rock Opera, and the entire story was told through medleys of popular music from the fifties through today, as performed by the various characters. The uniqueness of the concept and the charisma of the film's star, Mike Whitely drew me to the project and I spent the next two years Shooting, Associate Producing, and Editing this massive motion picture.
My next project was for Guerrilla Productions, where I was Director of Photography, Cameraman and Pyrotechnician for their urban tale, "Enemy". It was about a race war that breaks out in this country when a black Presidential Candidate is assassinated. The hook was original, but the script had many problems that I outlined in three pages of notes. None of my suggestions were taken and when the film was completed the audience recognized and agreed with nearly all of the areas I had outlined. This told me I had an eye for seeing beyond the written page to how a movie will be perceived when it's on the screen. I went on to do two more features for Guerrilla, but none have lived up to the kind of quality I desired from my work. Oh, everyone says they 'look' good and being the DP, that's my job, but it's no longer enough to shoot for someone else and make them look good; I'm ready to shoot films for me. In fact I've got two shorts on Trigger Street to see what people think of them (username: cinevid).
My experience in film and video is further enhanced by my work with Cinecraft, the oldest video and film production company in Cleveland, as well as Glazen Creative Group where I wrote, produced and directed many of their corporate projects. I also freelance for Access Video and help with some of their graphics projects.
As far as teaching is concerned, I've led many discussion groups and written articles for video and film magazines like dvformat.com (search for "Bill Johns").