Film Biz Chat: One on One with Director of Photography, Chuck Barbee

Chuck Barbee is a retired Director member of the Director’s Guild of America, and a retired Director of Photography member of the International Photographers Guild and the Society of Operating Cameramen in Hollywood. 

In 1978 Barbee moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Hollywood. By then, his work had come to the attention of Academy Award-winning Visual Effects artists Douglas Trumbull (2001, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner) and John Dykstra (Star Wars) and he was hired by them as a Visual Effects cameraman on Paramount Pictures “Star Trek - The Movie.” Since then Barbee has worked as a Director and/or Director of Photography on scores of notable projects, including feature films, commercials, TV magazine shows, documentaries, large format Vista Vision & 70mm “ride films” and television series such as the highly acclaimed, long-running comedy series “Night Court,” where he won two consecutive Emmy nominations for best lighting in a comedy series.

In 2002, longing to get back to his roots as a documentary filmmaker, Barbee traded the hustle-bustle of Southern California for the serenity of California’s Sierra Nevada, where he could return to his roots in the Kern River Valley, and begin making “passion project” films about its history.  Films include “WILD WEST WILDWATER”, about the Wildwater World Cups, held on the Kern River in 2003; “THE HOUSE WITH THREE LIVES”, about a historic home in Bakersfield, which was preserved and moved to Pioneer Village at the Kern County Museum; “RANKIN RANCH - AN AMERICAN DREAM”, about the 150 year + history of one of Kern County's largest cattle ranches; “WILD WEST COUNTRY”,