Bill Carlson Films

Films

Bill’s projects include his work as director of photography on the recently-completed feature documentary Pride of Lions (regarding the humanitarian crisis in Sierra Leone), and the feature film Hiding Victoria, starring Anita Gillette (Shall We Dance? Miramax) and Margo Harshman (Even Stevens Disney). He was recently 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. Another project just released in the U.S. and France is Titantic Syndrome, a full-length feature about the global climate condition. His latest feature is Bahamian Son (currently in post), a dramatic tale about a man searching for his identity.

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. Bill's ability to read music and to anticipate section cues allowed a reasonable shooting ratio for the project.

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; a KTCA Minnesota Artists film series about Wendy Lehr of the Children's Theater Company, and the short film on breast cancer entitled For our Daughters, again for the Illusion Theater.

Documentaries

Bill's film work in documentaries is extensive. He was the surface and underwater director of photography for many installments of 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. That project involved extensive shooting in Japan and the Philippines.

Other documentary film projects include a two-part film on the strategy and technology of peace-keeping for the International Peace Academy, Minnesota Overtures for the Minnesota Department of Tourism (which was awarded a CINE Golden Eagle); and The Mississippi, America's Lifeline, a film sponsored by the Freshwater Biological Institute.