William McDonald

• Head of Cinematography, Vice Chair of Undergraduate Studies, Professor.
• Office: 1345 Macgowan
• E-mail:
• Phone: 310-825-6609

Biography

Professor McDonald is a cinematographer whose numerous credits include both documentary and dramatic films. The short dramatic films Bill has shot have won numerous film festival awards. Over the last few years, Bill has devoted a considerable amount of time to producing and shooting documentary films. With his wife, filmmaker Pamela Beere Briggs, he has produced and photographed two independent documentaries. Funny Ladies: A Portrait of Female Cartoonists, a series of profiles of leading female newspaper cartoonists, has won multiple film festival awards, aired on PBS and The Learning Channel, and had a successful theatrical run through the Landmark Chain. Recently Bill and Pamela finishing making Women of Mystery: Three Writers Who Forever Changed Detective Fiction, a film profiling the top female writers of contemporary fiction, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton and Marcia Muller. Stylistically, Women of Mystery blends traditional documentary form with a strong narrative structure. Seven years in the making, Women of Mystery is enjoying success with screenings throughout the country. Their newest film, Mysterious California: Four Authors, invites readers on a rich visual journey through the distinctive California landscapes of four crime novels and on an intimate exploration of universal themes: the love of land, the importance of knowing personal and social history, the desire for truth and justice, and the power of place to inspire story. The four mysteries chosen for this program represent a cross-section of crime fiction spawned by California’s locales: Southland 
by Nina Revoyr, The Art of Detection by Laurie R. King, Shell Games by Kirk Russell, and Sharpshooter by Nadia Gordon.

These films have become the centerpieces for innovative film screening/book discussion programs with the California Center for the Book, a regional arm of the Library of Congress. More about these successful programs can be found at calbook.org.

Bill received his Master of Fine Arts in Cinematography in 1986 from UCLA, the first cinematography degree awarded by the university, and then joined the faculty for three years as Head of the First Year Graduate Production Program. Thereafter, Bill served on the faculties of various film schools, including American University, Loyola Marymount University, and from 1992-1997, USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cinematography. Bill returned to the UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media in 1995 as a Visiting Assistant Professor, and was tenured in 1998 as Head of Cinematography.

Now in his twenty-second year of teaching, Bill has committed himself to a life of blending his work as a filmmaker with his work in academia. He was pleasantly surprised to discover that each area complemented the other in unexpected ways. He learned, as so many do, that his professional work made him a better teacher, and teaching brought a deeper level of understanding and experimentation to his professional work. As a result, Bill brings to students an enthusiasm and passion for teaching. In 1997 the UCLA Academic Senate Committee on Teaching honored Bill with the Luckman Distinguished Teaching Award for his success in the classroom, the first member of the film production faculty to receive this award.

As Department Vice Chair for Production from 1998-2003, one of Bill’s major accomplishments was leading the effort, with help from a strategic alliance with Apple Computer, to convert UCLA’s post-production facilities from analog to digital technology building, at that time, the largest Final Cut Pro fiber-connected network in the country — only to be surpassed by CNN. (See Apple.com for more details.) Additionally, Bill worked with numerous companies, including JVC, Panavision, DTS Sound Systems, Technicolor/VidFilm International Digital, Deluxe Laboratories and FotoKem Industries, in the creation of student product and service awards that allowed UCLA students to complete their projects at a lower cost.

In academic year 2004-2005, Bill was appointed Chair of the UCLA Graduate Council, the Academic Senate body that oversees graduate education policy on the UCLA campus.

In academic year 2008-2009, Bill will begin serving as Department Vice Chair of Undergraduate Studies, overseeing both the film major and the newly established film minor.