From the July/December 2000 issue of the Operating Cameraman

The SOC lost a major supporter when Bill Hines died January 10, 2000. Bill was one of the founding fathers of the organization in 1978, and was active in it throughout its existence. He held many offices and was always on the Board of Governors. His most constant official position was Corporate Liaison, where he contacted corporations in the industry and convinced them to lend their support--financial and otherwise--to the SOC.

For the SOC's Operating Cameraman magazine he sold ads, delivered copies to vendors, wrote articles, located photos, courted potential writers, and recruited the current graphic designer. He could be counted on for board meetings, awards banquets, crane seminars and a myriad of other responsibilities. In 1995 the SOC honored him with the President's Award for outstanding service to the organization and gave him their prestigious Cammy. It was one of his proudest moments.

Bill was 76 when he died. Most people who met him thought he was 10 or 20 years younger than that. He was nowhere near ready to retire from any of his activities.

FRIEND AND CINEMATOGRAPHER

Bill loved people and made friends everywhere he went. Someone said recently that Bill never met a person he didn't like, and it's true. Bill genuinely liked people and could always find good in them. He was a caring and supportive friend, there to lend an ear or a helping hand or offer advice or give a little push if necessary. He stayed in contact with everyone by telephone, by email and by letter. He could be found shmoozing at gatherings, chatting with chance-met folk or old friends and acquaintances, taking an interest in others' doings, trying to interest them in his own projects.

At his memorial service, people spoke of how Bill had touched their lives. The union was having a convention that weekend, and 75 of the members went to the memorial service. The SOC was strongly represented. Family and friends filled the rest of the Old North Church at Forest Lawn where the non-denominational service--a celebration of Bill's life--was held on Saturday, January 15, 2000, at 4:30 P.M. Lynn Lanning, his editor and friend, organized (in the words of his widow Zee) "a touching and unforgettable memorial service." Many came to the podium to talk about Bill. Others wrote out what they wanted to say and someone read it for them. As happens at many memorial services, people learned a lot about Bill that they hadn't known.

He was first and foremost a cinematographer. It was the avocation and then the vocation that focused his life (pun intended). He took immense--and well deserved--pride in the TV shows he filmed and all the other film projects he engaged in throughout a long and varied career. And this love of cinematography led him into other activities in support of the industry he loved so well.

Bill was an active volunteer in the organizations he belonged to: NABET, IATSE, Local 600, and of course the SOC. He served on their boards and volunteered his time, never concerned with the workload he was taking on, only happy to help, to be involved, to represent the people of the industry he loved. Bill's wife Zee was a familiar face at all the SOC functions and helped at many of the awards banquets.

In 1953, he helped found and became a charter member of the Film Craftsmen's Guild, which affiliated with the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, AFL-CIO, CLC, as the Association of Film Craftsmen. He served twenty years on its executive board, including two terms as president, was chairman of the classification committee and director of training.

Bill loved to teach. He was a guest lecturer and conducted workshops at film schools. In the summer of 1999 alone he was guest lecturer in the film schools at McGill University in Toronto and the North Carolina School of the Arts. As a member of the International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE, and its National Executive Board, he has been an active participant in training seminars and workshops sponsored by the guild.

Bill loved to write. He was founder and president of Ed-Venture Films/Books, publishing and marketing his work himself. His first book was Job Descriptions for Film and Video. As the industry grew and lines of communication expanded, and each edition of the book reflected those changes. The 5th edition, published in 1999, included Computer Graphics and was more than three times the size of the previous edition.

His book Operating Cinematography for Film and Video, published in 1997, was a reorganization and update of the first 10 years of the monthly "Operating Tips" column he wrote for what began as International Photographer magazine, and is now known as ICG, the magazine of the International Cinematographers Guild. He was collecting the next batch of Operating Tips columns to become a second volume of Operating Cinematography.

Both books are in demand in libraries and film schools. More were planned. He had started to outline the 3rd, a book of tips that would help actors work more effectively with the camera. Bill had over 50 years of experience in the film industry, and he wanted to share all the things he had learned, so that the new generation of filmmakers could benefit from them.

Bill left most of his extensive collection of books on filmmaking, scripts, magazines, etc. to the film school at USC, but he leaves another legacy as well. He provided for two "William E. Hines, SOC Scholarship Funds," one to be administered by the SOC and the other by the International Cinematographers Guild. They have been seeded with $5,000 each from his estate. Their "purpose is to recognize and educate talented young people who are dedicated to the art and craft of cinematography" and the funds are to be used "to help defray tuitional expenses of selected and deserving dependent children of members in good standing" in both organizations. Both organizations have provided matching funds for the scholarships and donations have been coming in from people all over the world who knew Bill.

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Bill Hines was of pioneering stock; his mother had homesteaded property in San Bernardino, but by the time Bill and his brother Bob came along, she and her husband were living in a little house in East Los Angeles. Bill's older half-sister Evelyn stayed with them when she attended UCLA. Bill still had the house when he died. He lived in it most of his life and took care of his mother when she became ill (she died in 1982). After his marriage in 1993 he kept it as an office for his Ed-Venture Films/Books business.

Bill was born on April 2, 1923 and attended schools in East LA: Lorena Street Elementary School, Robert Louis Stevenson Junior High School and Garfield High School (of later Stand and Deliver fame) where he was Student Body President. He studied violin in junior high, and his music teacher, Loren Rhoades, became a lifelong friend. Loren died a year to the day that Bill did; Loren's widow was at the memorial service for Bill.

Bill graduated from high school in 1941 and started in pre-med at UCLA. But the war intervened and he served with the Army Air Force 42nd Bomb Group. ONe of his buddies from Army days was at his memorial service.

Bill got his M.A. in cinematic arts from USC in 1951. He filmed documentaries all over the world, including some very out-of-the-way places, and brought home a pet ocelot from one of his South American trips. He didn't fly planes in the Army, but he flew them now in order to get where he needed to film.

He tried to capsulize his career, to fit it ito the limited space on a book jacket. One of his books says: "He has worked on my hundreds of films of all types--features, TV series, commercials, documentaries, industrials, etc.--and during that time has functioned in most key capacities in the image-making process: writer, producer, production manager, director, actor, cinematographer, videographer, camera operator, mixer, gaffer, grip, makeup, wardrobe, props, picture/music/sound effects editor, etc., and has taught seminars and workshops on cinematic procedures and filmmaking.

The other book cover adds: "During his career, he has worked on hundreds of productions of all types--features, specials, sports, episodics, sitcoms, commercials, documentaries, industrials, educationals--both film and video, in the studio and on location. His extensive television program credits as camera operator include: You Asked For It!, McHale's Navy, Combat!, Rhoda, Delta House, T.J. Hooker, Solid Gold, A-Team, The Mary Show, MacGuyver, My Sister Sam, Duet, Cheers, Murphy Brown, Dear John, Roc, Harry & the Hendersons, The Jackie Thomas Show, Tom, Ned & Stacey, Cybill."

A good-looking man, Bill had no trouble attracting women and had a couple of long-term relationships, but he was 70 when he first got married. Bill met Zenia Katz at a tennis group in 1976. They soon became partners and won a lot of mixed doubles tournaments over the 15 years they played together. They got engaged in 1985 and in 1993 they eloped to Las Vegas and tied the knot. Bill had no children of his own, but he melded into the family unit with Zee's children and grandchildren.

His hip replacement surgery and arthritis slowed him only a little, and he continued to play tennis. Besides all the outside organizations he was active in, he also had his own Ed-Venture Films/Books business. He had made a few films that he marketed himself, and he had published and was marketing his own two books. It was while he was mailing some books at the post office a couple blocks from his home in East L.A. on Dec. 17th, 1999 that he collapsed due to cardiac arrest. Postal employees called 911 and paramedics from the nearby fire station ran across the street, resuscitated him and rushed him to East L.A. Doctors Hospital. There he was put in Intensive Care and hooked up to a respirator. When he was deemed stabilized two days later, he was transferred to Kaiser Permanente Sunset's Cardiac Care unit. Eventually they were able to disconnect the respirator. He resumed breathing on his own, but he never regained consciousness. On January 10, he was transferred to a nursing home and died in his sleep that same night.

Only his closest friends and family knew he had been in the hospital through the holiday season, so his passing was a shock for many.

There was no opportunity for farewell. Any farewells any of us can take with Bill have to be on the spiritual plane, as only his spirit remains with us. And what a spirit he had! Always there to help, to lend his support, to say "I'll take care of it." To cajole us into action. To show us how and to help us do.

And perhaps that is the best way of all for us to remember Bill Hines and to show how much he meant to us: to pick up the jobs he left unfinished, to offer a hand in friendship, to provide support as he would have, to show people we appreciate all the hard work they've done. It will take a lot of us to do this, because Bill wore a lot of different hats. We all have busy lives, and none of us can take on all the things Bill did, but if we each take on some additional responsibility that he once had, if we each give a little time and help, we can carry on as Bill would have wanted, and build his most important legacy in what we do because of him.