by Casey Hotchkiss, SOC
Establishing Shot
Shooting THE BOSS. Photo courtesy of Casey Hotchkiss
Ever since I was in high school, I have been interested in filmmaking. I bought an 8mm film camera and started making short movies. I also started a film club in high school and went on to Iowa State University to study film. My uncle, Milas Hinshaw, was a producer, director, and cameraman doing low-budget Disney films, Bill Burrud travel adventures, and he gave me my first job at age 19 as an assistant cameraman. In 1976, after college, I was coming back from Bora Bora after doing a Bill Burrud film called Devil’s Mountain, starring me as an amateur archeologist (of which I was not), and I was the assistant cameraman. It was a summer job, and on the way back home to Philadelphia, I stopped in LA and found a job with Gene McCabe Productions doing industrial Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge films for the dealerships. After 2 years I moved up to director of photography, making $350.00 a week. Russ Alsobrook had been the DP before me and he moved up to directing. Russ is now a member of the ASC, and to this day we still work together!
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I left Gene McCabe Productions in 1978 because when we weren’t shooting, Gene McCabe had me painting his house and planting trees on his property, because I was on payroll. I told myself that I would be working at The Burbank Studios (now Warner Bros.) by August 1, 1978. Local 600 opened up enrollment that year if you could prove you had 30 days experience. Contract Services tried to keep me out, and asked for a plane ticket from Bora Bora to prove I had worked on Devil’s Mountain. It was two years later, but I still had that ticket so they had to let me in. On August 1, 1978, I got my first union job as a 2nd AC on Kaz, a TV show starring Ron Leibman, with DP, Ken Lamkin, ASC, and Allen Easton, SOC as my 1st AC. I worked on my first feature in 1979 with Ken and Allen called, Scavenger Hunt. After a year of working as a 2nd AC, I moved up to 1st AC on Ten Speed and Brown Shoe, a TV show with Ben Vereen, and Jeff Goldblum. Bill Gereghty was the DP. I worked with Bill for 10 years as an assistant, and did Magnum PI in Hawaii for 4 years. He
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