Bill Fraker To Receive ASC Lifetime Achievement Award

William A. Fraker, ASC will receive the American Society of Cinematographerís Lifetime Achievement Award at the 14th Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards on February 20, 2000, at the Century Plaza Hotel. He has compiled nearly 45 feature film credits as a cinematographer during a career that has spanned some 32 years, and is still going. Fraker recently completed principal photography for New Lineís ""Town and Country"" slated for a February 2000 release, and ""Rules of Engagement"" for Paramount.He has earned five Academy Award nominations for cinematography, including ""Looking for Mr. Goodbar"" (1977), ""Heaven Can Wait"" (1978), ""1941"" (1979),""WarGames"" (1983) and ""Murphyís Romance"" (1986), and another nomination for visual effects for ""1941."" His body of work also includes such classics as ""Bullitt,"" ""Rosemaryís Baby"" and ""Paint Your Wagon."" ""Bill Fraker has created a distinguished and enduring body of work,"" says ASC President Victor J. Kemper. ""He is an innovative artist who has proven that the combination of hard work, perseverance and talent are the path to success. His career is a source of inspiration for current and future generations with unrealized dreams.""Fraker joins an elite group of cinematographers who have received ASC Lifetime Achievement Awards. They include Kemper, Haskell Wexler, ASC, Conrad Hall, ASC, Owen Roizman, ASC, Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, Sven Nykvist, ASC, Gordon Willis, ASC, Phil Lathrop, ASC, Charlie Lang, ASC and Stanley Cortez, ASC. Fraker says that he is flattered that his peers have selected him for this honor based on his body of work. He cites the 19th century English poet, Robert Browning, who wrote, ""A manís reach should exceed his grasp, or what is heaven for?"" He amplifies, ""Youíve got to go for itÖyou have to reach beyond your grasp each time you shootÖ If you sit on your laurels, youíll only have one laurel.""Fraker comes from a lineage of photographers.""My grandmother brought my mother and aunt to Los Angeles riding a mule all the way from Mazatlan, Mexico, in 1910,"" says Fraker. ""She became a photographer for Monroe Studios in downtown Los Angeles and taught my father how to take pictures."" His father, William Fraker, Jr., became a still photographer for Columbia Pictures, where he ran the gallery at the studio from 1927-28 until 1934, when he died at an early age following a bout with pneumonia. His uncle, Bud Fraker, was also a still photographer for Columbia Pictures, and later for Paramount Pictures, where he subsequently ran the studio gallery until it closed during the early 1950s. Fraker was 18 years old during the outbreak of World War II. After completing his military service, the G.I. Bill of Rights enabled him to enroll in the cinema department at the University of Southern California. He planned to write a masters thesis designed to prod the major studios to buy a TV network and produce high-quality films for television, but his interest shifted to cinematography. ""My grandmother always encouraged me and insisted that I would become a cinematographer,"" he recalls. Fraker was also inspired and influenced by Slavko Vorkapich, a former art director who pioneered the use of montages in such films as ""David Copperfield,"" ""The Good Earth"" and ""San Francisco."" Vorkapich was running the cinema department at USC while Fraker was a student.After graduation, Fraker discovered that his education didnít open doors in Hollywood. He did some still work and also shot 16 mm films, inserts for commercials, and grab shots for features.""Producers knew they could call me to shoot stock shots of workers leaving a factory at 3 p.m., and I was happy to get the work,"" he recalls. It took him 13 years to qualify for membership in the International Photographers Guild (now International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600), and even then he was required to re-start his career at the bottom of the crew as a camera loader. But, the timing was right, because the growth of television was creating many new jobs. Fraker worked on ""The Lone Ranger,"" ""The Outer Limits"" and ""The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet""""Ozzie Nelson allowed me to learn from my mistakes and he encouraged me to believe in myself,"" Fraker recalls. ""I advanced from second assistant to camera operator on his show. Thatís when I started working with Connie Hall."" Fraker was a camera operator for Hall for five years, including ""Moritui"" and ""The Professionas,"" which resulted in OscarÆ nominations for the cinematographer. ""I learned a lot by watching Connie work,"" he says. ""He was never afraid to trust his instincts and do something original. Heís still that way.""Fraker finally emerged as an influential cinematographer in 1965, when he was on the cutting edge of a new wave of commercial-makers who were given the freedom to experiment with long lenses, soft light and other new looks that ultimately redefined the way features were shot. He earned his first feature credit for cinematography in 1967 for ""Games."" That was followed by ""The Presidentís Analyst"" and ""The Fox."" His fourth feature, ""Bullitt,"" directed by Peter Yates, defined a genre of chase films. It seems obvious now, but it was a risky new idea when Yates and Fraker shot the chase scenes in San Francisco from the visual perspective of a camera in each car. ""Peter was an exciting director to work with because he was open to new ideas and willing to stretch himself and go out on a limb,"" he says. Fraker also cites his collaboration with Roman Polanski on ""Rosemaryís Baby"" as a formative experience. He remembers staging a scene early in the film where Ruth Gordon meets Rosemary (Mia Farrow) who has been chosen to carry the devilís baby. Gordon leaves the living room and enters a bedroom where she sits on the edge of the bed and begins telephoning other members of the witches coven with the good news. Fraker framed a shot of Gordon seated on the edge of the bed, but Polanski insisted on a different point of view. He only wanted the audience to see Gordonís feet hanging over the edge of the bed. They couldnít see the phone.""I didnít get it until we were in dailies and I saw everyone leaning in their seats, trying to look around the edge of the frame to see what was happening,"" Fraker recalls. In addition to the two OscarÆ nominations he earned, Frakerís eclectic body of work during the 1970s included ""The Day of the Dolphin,"" ""Gator"" and ""Exorcist II: The Heretic."" There were four more OscarÆ nominations during the 1980s along with ""Sharkyís Machine,"" ""The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,"" ""Irreconcilable Differences,"" ""American Hot Wax"" and ""Aloha, Bobby and Rose."" His cinematography credits during the 1990s include ""Memoirs of an Invisible Man,"" ""Tombstone,"" ""The Island of Dr. Moreau"" and ""Street Fighter,"" an innovative experiment in filmmaking that yielded both a motion picture and interactive CD-ROM.Fraker has also assembled more than a half dozen credits as a director for ""Monty Walsh"" (1970), ""The Legend of the Lone Ranger"" (1981), and various TV series, including ""Wiseguy"" and ""Walker, Texas Ranger."" ""Iíve always wanted the broadest possible experience,"" he explains. ""I want to shoot film with the good directors and direct with the good cinematographers."" In 1999, Fraker finished two films ó ""Town and Country"" directed by Peter Chelsom and ""Rules of Engagement"" directed by William Freidkin.When New Line Cinema releases ""Town and County"" next year, it will mark a milestone for Fraker: five consecutive decades with at least one narrative film credit. The film is characterized as a dark comedy by Chelsom. It features an ensemble all-star cast, including Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Andie MacDowell, Jenna Elfman and Garry Shandling. ""Anytime you have a character-driven film, it is important to have a cinematographer like Bill Fraker by your side,"" Chelsom says. ""He is great with the actors. They trust him and rightly so, because his images of them are like portraits. He gets beneath the surface and shows the audience the truth behind their eyes. Simply, Iíve never agreed with a cinematographer more!""ASC traces its roots to 1913, when the Cinema Camera Club was formed in New York and the Static Club in Los Angeles. The two clubs merged and formed the ASC with 15 charter members in January 1919 with the goal to advance the art and craft of cinematography. The ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards began in 1986. Membership has always been by invitation based on the individualís body of narrative film work. Fraker became a member in 1968. He has also served three terms as president of the organization. There are some 210 active members in ASC today, and an addition 110 associate members from allied disciplines that support cinematography.