Bill Pope [William Homer Pope]

Published 8:18 am Wednesday, August 8, 2012

William Homer Pope was born in Bowling Green. In Jr. High he joined Bennie Beaches band, Livin’ End and continued to play guitar for them until he left town to study architecture at college.  He received his Master’s degree in Fine Arts from New York University, where he earned an Oscar of Best Student Documentary for The Sixth Week.  He received MTV’s Best Cinematography award for his work on Sting’s video “We’ll Be Together.” 

His first major motion picture where he was credited as cinematographer was Sam Raimi’s Darkman in 1990.  He has since worked with Raimi on several occasions as well as served as cinematographer for films such as Clueless, Spiderman 2 and the Matrix series.

Band Affiliations:

• Livin’ End (approx 1962-1973) [Garage band rock covers] Bennie Beach, Jr. (drums), Jamie Ebbert (lead guitar), Bill Pope (rhythm guitar), John Buford (keyboards), and Tommy Holderfield (bass)

Filmography:

• Men in Black II (2012)
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) director of photography
• The Spirit (2008) director of photography
• Spider-Man 3 (2007) director of photography
• Metallica: The Videos 1989-2004 (2006) (V) “One” director
• Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006) director of photography
• Best of Chris Isaak (2006) (V) director of photography “Dancin'”, “Gone Ridin'” & director “Somebody’s Crying”, “Go Walking Down There”
• Peter Gabriel: Play (2004) (V) “Mercy Street”, “Red Rain”
• Team America: World Police (2004) director of photography
• Spider-Man 2 (2004) director of photography
• The Matrix Revolutions (2003) director of photography
• Enter the Matrix (2003) (VG) director of photography
• The Matrix Reloaded (2003) director of photography
• The Matrix Revisited (2001) (V)
• Bedazzled (2000) director of photography
• “Freaks and Geeks”  – Pilot (1999) TV episode director of photography
• The Matrix (1999) director of photography
• “Maximum Bob” (1998) TV series
• Zero Effect (1998) director of photography
• Gridlock’d (1997)
• Bound (1996)
• Janet Jackson: Design of a Decade 1986/1996 (1996) (V) “Nasty”
• Clueless (1995)
• The Best of Sting: Fields of Gold 1984-1994 (1994) (V) “We’ll Be Together”
• Blank Check (1994) director of photography
• Fire in the Sky (1993) director of photography
• Army of Darkness (1992)
• The Addams Family (1991) visual effects director of photography
• Mrs. Cage (1992) (TV)
• Closet Land (1991)
• Darkman (1990) director of photography
• Bangles Greatest Hits (1990) (V) (video “In Your Room”)
• Death Doll (1989) (as William Pope)
• Galaxina (1980) production assistant

Affiliations: 

Awards: 

• ‘Won:
  • Oscar of Best Student Documentary for The Sixth Week. 
  • MTV’s Best Cinematography award for Sting’s video “We’ll Be Together.”
     
• Nominations: 
  
  • 2005 Golden Satellite Award Best Cinematography for Spiderman 2
  • 2000 BAFTA Film Award Best Cinematography for The Matrix
  • 2000 Chlotrudis Award Best Cinematography for The Matrix
  • 1997 Independent Spirit Award Best Cinematography for Bound

Trivia:

•  Class at College High included: Bennie Beach, Jr., Tommy Lee Wallace, John Carpenter
• Sister’s Leslie and Janet are also artistic, with the former involved in the set decoration for films like Seabiscuit and the latter an artist.