Billy Bitzer

Billy Bitzer (21 April 1872–29 April 1944) was a pioneering American cinematographer notable for his long-standing association with American film director/producer D. W. Griffith, and also with director Wallace McCutcheon.

He served as cinematographer on 735 motion pictures from 1896 to 1933 and director of 3 films in 1902, 1903, and 1908. A few of the noteworthy films he worked on are: Broken Blossoms (1919) with Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess, Orphans of the Storm (1921) with Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish, The Birth of A Nation, Intolerance, Judith of Bethulia, and The Fall of Babylon with Tully Marshall, Seena Owen, and Constance Talmadge.

Billy Bitzer was born as Johann Gottlob Wilhelm Bitzer on April 21, 1872, in Roxbury, Massachusetts, to immigrants from Germany. 

He is the older brother of J. C. Bitzer (1878–1923), also a cinematographer. He is an uncle to Louis Bitzer (1895–1980), who was also a cinematographer.

Bitzer was first and foremost a newsreel photographer, recording such historic events as the 25th President William McKinley's inauguration (March 1897), the Spanish-American War (1898), and the James J. Jeffries-Tom Sharkeychampionship fight (1899, possibly the first film to use artificial lighting).

In the late 1890s, he worked at American Biograph Company in New York City, first located at 841 Broadway and later 11 East 14th Street. Around that time, he devised the Mutoscope machine, using the flipbook technique of creating movement in pictures. He did so in collaboration with William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, a Scottish inventor who designed an early motion picture camera under the employment of Thomas Edison. He also perfected the Biograph camera, adding an air compressor to reduce friction. Until 1903, he was employed by American Biograph Company primarily as a documentary photographer, and from 1903 onward primarily as the photographer of narrative films, as these gained popularity. (Hendricks 1964, pp. 5)

In 1908, Bitzer met David Wark Griffith, a former stage actor who had recently been tasked to direct motion pictures. The first film they worked on was The Fight for Freedom (1908), starring Florence Auer and John G. Adolfi. 

Bitzer and Griffith would then work together for the rest of Bitzer's career. Bitzer left American Biograph Company in 1913 for the Mutual Film Corporation, where he continued to innovate, perfecting existing technologies and inventing new ones. During this time he pioneered the field of matte photography and made use of innovative lighting techniques, closeups, and iris shots.

Bitzer also provided assistance during Griffith's directorial debut in 1908, The Adventures of Dollie, which was shot by Arthur Marvin and had in its leading cast Arthur V. Johnson and Linda Arvidson. He eventually succeeded Marvin as Griffith's regular cinematographer, working with him on some of his most important films and contributing significantly to cinematic innovations attributed to Griffith. 

In 1910, Bitzer photographed Griffith's silent short, In Old California, in the Los Angeles village of "Hollywoodland", qualifying Bitzer as, arguably, Hollywood's first Director of Photography. The peak of Bitzer and Griffith's collaboration came with The Birth of a Nation (1915), a film funded in part by Bitzer's life savings, and the epic Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916), starring Lillian Gish and Mae Marsh.

Bitzer and Griffith's last movie was Lady of the Pavements (1929), starring Lupe Velez and William Boyd.

Innovation

Bitzer was the first to use split-screen photography and backlight, contributing to the development of three-point lighting. He improved in-camera fade and dissolve effects and invented what came to be known as transition tools. Even after the Bell & Howell Model 2709 production camera became the industry standard he continued to use a Pathe. His 1899 documentary film The Jeffries-Sharkey Fight, which captured the twenty-five round fight between boxing legends James J. Jeffries and Tom Sharkey, is the first known use of artificial light. Rip Van Winkle (1903) features the first known close-up. Advances in lenses and filters developed by Bitzer made soft-focus possible.

Later work

For all his innovation, Bitzer, unfortunately, wasn't able to cope up with the industry's transition to sound. In the late 1930s, Bitzer worked at the Museum of Modern Art. He spent his days working quietly, fixing cameras, and restoring vintage films.

Bitzer died of a heart attack on April 29, 1944, in Hollywood, California, at the age of 72.

His autobiography, Billy Bitzer: His Story, was published posthumously in 1973.

In 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild named Bitzer one of the ten most influential cinematographers in history. Bitzer, it is said, "developed camera techniques that set the standard for all future motion pictures." Among Bitzer's innovations were

• the fade out to close a movie scene;
• the iris shot where a circle closes to close a scene;
• soft focus photography with the aid of a light diffusion screen;
• filming entirely under artificial lighting rather than outside;
• lighting, closeups, and long shots to create mood;
• the perfection of matte photography.

Some of his innovations — including "backlighting" — came about purely by chance. While viewing some rushes of Mary Pickford and Owen Moore taken during a lunch break, it was apparent that the two players had been illuminated in an especially appealing manner. This effect was the result of a reflection cast by a white tablecloth in front of them.

• 2 A. M. in the Subway (1905)
• The Kentuckian (1908)
• The Lonely Villa (1909)
• The Sealed Room (1909)
• Edgar Allan Poe (1909)
• A Corner in Wheat (1909)
• In the Border States (1910)
• The Modern Prodigal (1910)
• A Mohawk's Way (1910)
• The Lonedale Operator (1911)
• Enoch Arden (1911)
• The Girl and Her Trust (1912)
• The Female of the Species (1912)
• A Beast at Bay (1912)
• The Root of Evil (1912)
• An Unseen Enemy (1912)
• The Painted Lady (1912)
• The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
• The House of Darkness (1913)
• Death's Marathon (1913)
• The Mothering Heart (1913)
• The Yaqui Cur (1913)
• The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1914)
• Judith of Bethulia (1914)
• The Avenging Conscience (1914)
• The Birth of a Nation (1915)
• Intolerance (1916)
• Hearts of the World (1918)
• The Great Love (1918)
• The Greatest Thing in Life (1918)
• A Romance of Happy Valley (1919)
• The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919)
• True Heart Susie (1919)
• Scarlet Days (1919)
• Broken Blossoms (1919)
• The Greatest Question (1919)
• The Idol Dancer (1920)
• The Love Flower (1920)
• Way Down East (1920)
• The White Rose (1923)
• America (1924)
• Drums of Love (1927)
• The Battle of the Sexes (1928)
• Lady of the Pavements (1929)