American Cinematographer - January 1993 - 66

Over the past 30 years, the globe
has undergone a series of historic

geopolitical and social upheavals
that will provide fascinating fodder
for history students well into the
future.

Wars

and

riots

have

erupted, governments have risen
and fallen, and Communism has
seen its
symbolic collapse with the

destruction of the Berlin Wall.

Through it all, expert news camera¬
man Bill
Purdy recorded images for

world events for so long, and

Purdy

himself is unsure of what drives
him. After vowing to scale back his

globe-trotting ways in 1990, he re¬
turned to the United States and be¬
gan shooting out of NBC's bureau
in Los Angeles. When the L.A. riots
broke out, Purdy was on vacation,
but he found himself compelled to
call the network and offer his assis¬
tance. "I could have very easily

said, 'I'm not going to worry about

told them I didn't know
about motion pictures,

anything
but they
said, 'We don't want you to know
anything. We're going to teach you
everything you'll need to know.'"
True to the promise of
their current "Be All That You Can
Be" TV

slogan, the Army turned
Purdy into a crackerjack camera¬
man.

It turned out that the young

recruit had

an excellent
eye for pic¬
tures, and the instructors loved

NBC's Bill Purdy:
Have Camera, Will Travel
A veteran

recounts

documenting
history from Vietnam to the L.A. riots
news cameraman

by Stephen Pizzello
all three major networks and the
U.S. Army from almost every ma¬

jor hot spot the Earth had to offer.
Purdy's experiences pro¬
vided him with a rare opportunity
to see how the world really works,
from

a

course

ringside seat. Over the
of his three decades

as a

journalistic soldier of fortune, the
49-year-old cameraman has cov¬
ered the Vietnam War, coordinated
the entire photographic setup for
President Richard M. Nixon's sec¬
ond-term inauguration, introduced
the first electronic camera into Asia
for ABC News, and covered break¬

ing stories, often under fire, in for¬
eign locales that include Hong
Kong, London, Tokyo, the
Phillipines and the Middle East.
Purdy's most recent assignments
included filming the 1992 Los An¬
geles riots and President George
Bush's concession speech following

interview at NBC's Burbank head¬

16mm. I also used Mitchell cameras

ments is

even more

impressive con¬

sidering that he never intended to
pick up a camera. He entered the
Army at age 18; after basic training,
Purdy decided to join the Army's
Airborne section, where he could

January 1993

veritable primer

on

takes

Cinematographer

for 35mm and the Filmo for

camera

picked up the phone. It
was
my kind of coverage. As soon
as I
got out there on the streets,
though, I started cursing myself
out. People were beating on each
other, and snipers were firing away
at random. I thought to myself,
'Here I go again. What the hell's
wrong with me that I keep putting
myself in these situations?"'
Purdy's list of accomplish¬

American

are a

"Being assigned to motionpicture school was the best thing in
the world that could have hap¬
pened to me," he now admits. "At
that time, we were using the Eyemo

quarters. "I mean, I was tired of it,

documentary-style shooting. It
a
particular kind of personal¬
ity to explore the maelstrom of

recollections

him.

but I still

extra $50 per month jump¬
ing out of airplanes. When it came
time for his base assignment, the
Army sent him to Fort Mammoth,
New Jersey, one of the military
organization's signal (communica¬
tions) schools. "I couldn't figure out
why they were sending me there. I

his election loss to Arkansas Gov¬
ernor Bill Clinton.
Not surprisingly, Purdy's

64

that,' but my conscience, or some¬
thing, would simply not allow me
to sit home and watch," he reflected
with a rueful laugh during a recent

earn an

and the Wahl camera, and learned
about timing, processing and edit¬

ing. We got a lot of experience."
After graduating in six
months, Purdy continued to learn
by breaking in new equipment that
would later be used in Hollywood,
including Tyler mounts (for use on
helicopters) and Anton-Bauer's
batteries and crystal syncs. His next
step was a big one: heading into
Vietnam for three 90-day tours as
part of the Army's Department of
the Army Special Photographic
Operation (D.A.S.P.O.), which was
charged with documenting nearly
every move the Army made during
the war. "We used to go in with a
lead cameraman, a cut cameraman,

still photographer, grips, and the
whole thing," Purdy recalls. "We
used Arriflex BLs attached to
a

Nagras via
elite

sync

cables. It

photographic unit;

was an

we

docu-
American Cinematographer - January 1993

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